Choosing an Alternative to ICQ - POLL
 

So I've been pondering this alot lately, since ICQ is arguably the shittiest of messaging platforms.

I already use Skype for most things relating to hosting, content producers and staff related since I can easily skype out to anyone in my Mac Addy book or skype.

However, ICQ on adium is the only platform that ever has hickups and it definately isn't just isolated to adium as I had problems with Pidgin and Trillian in the past.

If I chose to list my contact on the programs to another messaging platform, which would have the biggest userbase. ( I'm not opposed to only email, but I know thats not 100% convenient )

Curious to see what others have to say :thumbsup

*bump I voted thurbs. AIM all the way

MirandaIM *

i use an old version of trillian 3.1 I think (?) and have never had one single problem with it. there are probably 800+ contacts in there over multiple messenger platforms and this thing just keeps on going. never crashes, always stable

just my 2 cents

true, but do I really need to use ICQ :)

I use Skype more and more lately, also the amount of people using MSN increased, it is nice that you can do offline messaging now. Unfortunately they are lost to people using Trillian and such (or could be fixed already, anyone know??)
Best part with skype is easy multi user chat mode and warnings about non delivery of messages.
Negative things is example if you are more people in an office (on the same IP) you will likely not be able to see others as being online

Pidgin

http://www.pidgin.im/

I swapped over to Miranda IM this year as an alternative icq client. Works a treat and makes using buggy icq a breeze.

-N

I generally stick to AIM. It's easy as fuck to use, stable, and I have tons of contacts on there.

i recently started using skype more than ICQ...
so far Skype seems to be the winner....

just my 2cents but I use Adium over here and my favorite chat medium has been aim .. specifically because of file transfer rates... they have been much faster than the others for probably no other reason than NO one use aim anymore .. lol

I like yahoo.

ICQ is awesome and has always worked perfectly for me. Besides everyone in the biz uses it. I use an old version and the only time I have issues are when people use those newfangled multi-im apps they sometimes have a hard time adding me in icq if they do it through the app rather than through icq itself.

miranda and smokeychat

This shit goes on for years now, everybody has probs with ICQ but nobody want's to live without it... Skype is by far the best message client but old habits....
Skype is the only on that encrypts if i'am well informed...

Out of all of them I'd prefer Skype. The last time I checked out Yahoo it gave me the feeling it came straight out of 1945. MSN is good but too kiddy.

Not to mention you can also manage your ICQ contacts and IM them as well.

no one tried GTalk? it actually rocks, so light and no need to worry about backing up logs. Built-in email, and voice chat is better quality than skype.

try it.

I use ICQ mainly for business contacts, msn for friends (girls just loves msn ;-)) and now I give Trillian a try.

I use miranda pack with icq and yahoo installed.

skype rocks, love the skypein numbers in particular :2 cents:

Ever think it isn't ICQ but rather your mac?

Actually No...

The problem would be with the software and how it was coded for the MAC....

yahoo and gtalk :)

icq = tradition :)

I love gtalk..

Skype is the only secure IM.

Check out http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-99...?tag=nefd.lede

+1 for Skype

This question comes back to the forum every couple of months or so... but most of the people are not willing to change from ICQ to another platform.

i use msn. Install msn plus and you will be happy

Even with all the bugs ICQ has it is still be far the most popular client. If i had to choose an alternative though it would be skype or msn.

AIM :thumbsup

Man if you do like I did and delete all of ICQ and just install QIP 2005 the damn thing will never crash again or hog system resources. This russian program is so good at handling ICQ that my notebook battery ran out by accident before I got to 5 waiting messages that were flashing in the taskbar and after a reboot of the computer and restart of the program the messages were still there.

Brad

v2.013 Pro

That was my point. Get rid of the Mac, get rid of the trouble.

Skype seems to be the winner and becoming more popular

i use email only, lets me stay organized.

I'd say Skype

i myself outside of direct staff stuff, prefer email over everything, its the easiest way to keep organized and delegate tasks efficiently.

I use both skype and ICQ

I use Trillian and haven't had any problems with it or ICQ. I like Skype as well but it's a matter of 70% of the people that I need to contact being on ICQ so it makes it hard to move away from it :2 cents:

trillian is for ppl on winblows shey ... im a mac, notice how much cooler ive been lately :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

skype is the winner hands down.

http://m.news.com/2166-12_3-9962106-38.html

my sig says it all...

skype messed up my firefox when I installed it

if you have icq you basically already have aol/aim. aol/aim/icq members can interact with each other.

the adult industry = the only people still using icq.

make an aim account, merge your icq/aim contacts into the buddylist, and then install skype as a backup.

skype 4 shoooooooo!

Skype or MSN :thumbsup

http://www.miranda-im.org/

best tool for messenger systems

low systen usage of your pc fast and good

I always have MSN running, aswell as ICQ.

Used to only use it for friends, but now use it more for work contacts...

I use Version 2003b build 3916 of ICQ. To me that is the last stable version there is. I tried all of the others as they'd come out and they eat too many resources for me. I installed the newest version of icq last week and it lasted all of an hour on my system before I deleted it and went back to 2003b. lol

The only other 2 I use that don't mess with other areas of my computer too much are Yahoo and MSN. they seem to hiccup alot less for me.