Accrington Web - Charging for messenger?

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accymel

13-10-2005 11:21

Charging for messenger?

I've had a few people have had problems with msn lately due to maintenance but interestingly a lot of them said that MSN & YAHOO are going to be soon charging for use of messenger services, like simular to what MSN have done to their chatrooms in the uk was to surcharge for use. Does any techy know if this rumour is true:confused:

harwood red

13-10-2005 11:23

Re: Charging for messenger?

I hope not as they will alienate alot of members if they do. And people will also move away from the hotmail accounts too so links to the microsoft websites will see a massive decline too which will hit their advertising revenue. They could just end up shooting themselves in the foot!

accymel

13-10-2005 11:28

Re: Charging for messenger?

Well this is it H Red people will move onto something else, although cant understand why MSN would need to do it other than it oviously thinks its better than it is & Bill Gates ain't short of a few bob. Least if they do my ISP has a messenger service which aint as good but will use that as alternative unless they charge too.

SPUGGIE J

13-10-2005 12:26

Re: Charging for messenger?

Well there goes the threat of less free speach and all because they see the number of people using MSN and start to see $ signs. Not a good idea but then there are other free mesenger style services.

harwood red

13-10-2005 12:35

Re: Charging for messenger?

I don't see how they can start charging for windows messanger when that is standard on all pcs with windows xp and that uses the same contacts as msn. There is also msn web messanger when you want to go on but from a computer that doesn't have msn downloaded. They planning on charging for them all????

accymel

13-10-2005 12:40

Re: Charging for messenger?

Very good point H red, i find windows messenger blaming annoying it conficts with msn & cant get shut unless i ****** me windows prog. I think this would cause a storm & at the mo its only a rumour till someone puts me straight LOL

Tinkerbelle

13-10-2005 12:57

Re: Charging for messenger?

I can't see it happening were they charge a fee for using messenger, it's a handy way of communicating sometimes but it's not something I'd pay for!

I know initially MSNs excuse for charging a fee for using their chatrooms was the fact that, this way, they could monitor users more effectively, thus attempting to protect children.

accymel

13-10-2005 13:01

Re: Charging for messenger?

But because people find it handy MSN find it handy cash flow specially as people have become dependant on it now gawd knows what excuse they'd find for it but surprises me that yahoo who dont charge for chat certainly not extensively as msn & who gained more chatroom interest when msn shut down - even worse twas specially for UK.

harwood red

13-10-2005 13:01

Re: Charging for messenger?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinkerbelle

I can't see it happening were they charge a fee for using messenger, it's a handy way of communicating sometimes but it's not something I'd pay for!

I know initially MSN's excuse for charging for a fee for using their chatrooms was the fact that, this way, they could monitor users more effectively, thus attempting to protect children.

I can understand the point of monitoring the chat rooms but as you have to add a contact to msn i don't think that would be the reason to start charging. Maybe its got bigger than they imagined and as spuggie said the £ signs started flashing before their eyes. If it turns out to be true then thats a lot of kids alienated also as my two teenagers use msn regularly and they are certainly not in a position to pay and I wouldn't even pay for my own never mind theirs!! I have also recently discovered skype and that is pretty good and I'm sure will only improve

Tinkerbelle

13-10-2005 13:04

Re: Charging for messenger?

That's the thing Red if MSN and Yahoo do decide to be greedy and start charging another company will bring out a free messenger service and everyone will start using that .... it will just be MSN and Yahoo's loss IMO!

accymel

13-10-2005 13:04

Re: Charging for messenger?

I think personally it was for only the purpose of charging & they thought muppets in the UK would fall for it though no real mention of at that time stopping & charging it for US though

accymel

13-10-2005 13:07

Re: Charging for messenger?

I wouldn't bother sometimes MSN is a pain the butt either going down or i get harranged to death on there pmsl tho i have yahoo & i like their little ad on toys on it aka audibles but if it went all pound£ signs then i'd use wanadoo's one

entwisi

13-10-2005 14:09

Re: Charging for messenger?

There is already free services out there. It is called Jabber. I use it at work to allow us to chat to our colleagues in Manilla. I run the server on my work desktop and use a java client to chat. It only needs one more config item that would allow us to annex our small internal network to the whole of the Jabber Internet.

If you want an alternative client that will connect to MSN, Yahoo, Jabber + others have a look at GAIM. It runs on multiple platforms(Windows, Linux, MAc)

I haven't heard that they are specifically going to charge only that they are looking to collaborate more closely. If you want to keep up with what is happening in teh arena of IT keep an eye on www.theregister.co.uk

Tinkerbelle

13-10-2005 14:14

Re: Charging for messenger?

Quote:

Originally Posted by entwisi

WOW! NOW THAT HURT MY HEAD :eek: I understood every bit ..... no honest I did :o

<Tinks whispers> what did all that mean?

accymel

13-10-2005 14:18

Re: Charging for messenger?

LOL tinks!!!!!

Yeh i understood it i actually have the register mail newsletters & it hasnt mentioned it as far as charging but there are occaisions i dont check it so could of missed it, but i ponder where other people have got this info from.

entwisi

13-10-2005 19:52

Re: Charging for messenger?

OK Tinks, in english :)

You currently use MSN Messenger. The program on your PC connects to a server program out on the big bad internet. You friends also connect to this server(or another one that is also connected to the one you use). When you send a message it travels to the server and is passed up to your friend. MSN is a set of servers owned and run by Microsoft. The program you use talks in a certain 'language' . Other people also have written a similar systems, AOL do one so do Yahoo. These are the big names on the internet. There is also a smaller system called Jabber. If MSN YAhoo and AOL start charging you just need to move to using Jabber instead. It will always be free. The only issue is that each system has its own 'language' hence MSN cannot talk directly to AOL or Jabber. You need to be on the same system to talk to your friends. GAIM is a program that understands all these languages so you don't need lots of programs to talk to all your friends on all these different systems.

The bit about my work is that I run a setup just like MSN only on a very small scale. It isn't available to people outside my team at work(albeit 4 of them are in the philipines, 4 are in Knutsford, 1 is in Poole). If I wanted to(and work allowed) I could tell it where to look for an Internet based Jabber system and I would then be able to talk to anyone in the world who uses Jabber.

The last bit is a website that gives out all the latest gossip to do with computers and large companies computer systems.

Hope that helps!

SPUGGIE J

13-10-2005 20:59

Re: Charging for messenger?

GAIM looks the most popular of the 2 so might give it a go.

entwisi

13-10-2005 21:15

Re: Charging for messenger?

I think you may still misunderstand,

Gaim is what we call a client program. Its the bit that you as a user uses to interact.

Jabber is what is called a protocol. Its the 'language' that the client programs use to talk to each other. GAIM is a client program that unlike MSN's offering that can only talk its own language is capable of talking in any of the languages.

You can switch to using GAIM now and continue talking to your MSN friends, You can also add AOL, Yahoo and any other IM 'protocols' . e.g. I have 2 seperate MSN accounts, a AOL account, a Yahoo account and a Jabber account. If I was to try and use all these at once using their own client programs I'd have 4 programs open, plus MSN don't like you connecting to two accounts simulatneously. With Gaim, I can have all the systems up an d running in a single program(that includes both MSN accounts).

Pauline01UK

13-10-2005 21:40

Re: Charging for messenger?

This is what I have found out about hoax emails pertaining to paying for MSN messenger... I copied and pasted for all to read. You can check the page out for yourself if you wish..

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/msn-petition.html

FW: Please Read THIS. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT

MSN is planning to take away MSN Messenger by September 14th, 2005. If you want to keep our MSN Messenger free of charge, send this email to everyone you know. It will be used as a petition. Each person you send this to counts as one signature. If this petition gets 500,000 signatures they will keep MSN Messenger. If they do not receive 500,000 votes you will have to pay £5.00 to have Messenger (per month). If you don't care about this then please for everyone's sake help out a little. Thank you for your time and consideration and please help MSN beat their vote PLEASE - Copy and paste this onto a new letter add you name below and send it to EVERYONE you know. I don't want to have to pay for it. Do you?

Commentary:
The message shown above is just the latest version of an aging hoax. Some person (read moron) has been kind enough to plug in a current date. Otherwise, the hoax is virtually identical to versions that have been circulating since 1998. MSN has not announced plans to start charging for its free MSN Messenger service. Even if the company did consider charging for the service, it certainly would not base its decision on how many times a particular email was forwarded.

The hoax message claims that the message "will be used as a petition" and that every person who receives the message "counts as one signature". However, the message does not say how these "signatures" will be counted. No central collection point for all the "votes" is specified. The implication is that the messages will be somehow reliably tracked over the course of many thousands of successive forwards. Such claims are pure nonsense and not even Microsoft could manage such a feat.

Tinkerbelle

13-10-2005 21:47

Re: Charging for messenger?

Quote:

Originally Posted by entwisi

OK Tinks, in english :)

Hope that helps!

Thanks entwisi it did help :)

accymel

14-10-2005 10:27

Re: Charging for messenger?

Thanks for clarifying that for us Entwisi - phew :)

Mick	17-10-2005 12:56

Re: Charging for messenger?

Right i have just put SKYPE on so if you fancy a natter get in touch hehe

accymel

17-10-2005 12:58

Re: Charging for messenger?

PMSL Mick ive heard of Skype though not sure what it is:confused: Are u bored by the way??? lol :)

Mick	17-10-2005 13:01

Re: Charging for messenger?

nope plenty to do on here and other sites hehe
http://www.skype.com

accymel

17-10-2005 13:06

Re: Charging for messenger?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mick

nope plenty to do on here and other sites hehe
http://www.skype.com

Ahhh multi tasking then lol:D

Thanks for link will nosey at it:cool:

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