Thousands of ICQ Numbers Deleted

BondGamer writes "Many ICQ users woke up and found their ICQ numbers were no longer working. There is a topic on the ICQ support with more than 1,500 replies. There are pages upon pages of other topics asking what happened. As of yet, there has been no official response from AOL about what has happened."

Obli...

[BlueParrot]

DMCA takedown notices because they were found in the decimal representation of some movies?

I am not an ICQ number !! I am a human being !!

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not an ICQ number !! I am a human being !!

But call me, #6 !!!

Who is #2 ??? Eric Cartman ?!

Re:

[badspyro]

so, fairly good then?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Assuming your ICQ number is up to 9 digits, it's chances of being contained in a 9 GB movie are almost 1 [google.com].

Re:

[Vireo]

Ok, for the interested readers, here is the explanation of the AC's computation.

The expression:

(9 * (10^9) * 8 * (log(2) / log(10)))

is the number of decimal digits in 9 GB. 9*(10^9)*8 is the number of bits in 9 GB, and log(2)/log(10) is the factor to convert into the number of decimal digits (look up how to perform base changes when using logarithms). This is about Nd = 21.7 billion decimal digits.

Now, there is about the same number of sequences of 9 digits in the stream of decimal digits as the number of d

Re:

[75th Trombone]

The odds of those bits coming together by chance in a movie file, in that exact order, are the same as your odds of guessing another of the MPAA's hex keys completely by chance, out of thin air.

Not correct. Let's think this through.

The infamous hex key you refer to is a collection of sixteen hex bytes. That's 128 bits, for a grand total of 2^128 = ~3.4 x 10^38 possible values. Your odds of guessing one of their keys is one out of 3.4 x10^38.

Now let's look at what GP said:

they were found in the dec

Re:

[POWRSURG]

So what you're saying is that those bits were intelligently designed?

irc.icq.com

[iamacat]

You don't have to bother with registration or obnoxious UI. And if you use a fairly unique nickname, you can still keep in touch with friends.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

wow... that's just like... IRC! :O

They misunderstand

[empaler]

Their ICQ accounts have not been baleeted, they've simply been reassigned to a new number.

If they can guess the number within 96 hours they can keep their account. Everything is the same eccept the number. A minor problem is that it does not update your friends' ICQ numbers if they're in the same lottery.

I don't see the problem.

Backups?

[Soruk]

Probably a server drive crash, and this is where we discover AOL have been reliably backing up their ICQ server to /dev/null all these years.

(and it seems mine is gone too, but I haven't used it in 4 years.)

Re:Backups?

[Viraptor]

Seems it's not server problem (not for all at least):
Citing board post [icq.com]

"[...]This is a nasty ICQ6 bug, but it is fixed with a complete uninstall of all user data and reinstall.[...]"

Some other users also say that it helped. Maybe it's an organized hoax, but whatever. You may want to backup your data and try.

according to their status page

[rucs_hack]

No network problems.
If something goes wrong, we'll let you know here.

Hmm, looks like this is definatelly a case of the stupids.

Re:Backups?

[suv4x4]

this is where we discover AOL have been reliably backing up their ICQ server to /dev/null all these years.

There's this wormhole theory that says all data you send in /dev/null will not be lost, but actually show up on a server in an alternate universe. So no all hope is lost!

Now all we need is to get to the other universe.

But beware: they might all be evil.

Re:Backups?

[AbRASiON]

Don't tell me, they all have goatee's?

Re:

[rts008]

Yes, it sounds like we need a goatse> goatse wormhole. Now all we need is a brave soul to traverse the hole and set up a transverse goatse hole gate at the deep end.

Any takers? Oww, come on! What's the matter...No sense of adventure?....Ya wanna live forever?

Re:Backups?

[MrNemesis]

There's this wormhole theory that says all data you send in /dev/null will not be lost, but actually show up on a server in an alternate universe.

Ah, so *that's* where all the stuff in /dev/random comes from!

Re:Backups?

[Debug0x2a]

Probably a server drive crash, and this is where we discover AOL have been reliably backing up their ICQ server to /dev/null all these years.

Well...servers went down, lets go get those backups....

mount -t ext3 /dev/null /mnt/null

Um... sir... I think we have a small problem...

This is NOT new!

[sugapablo]

This is NOT new! My number got f*cked back in December of last year:
http://www.sugapablo.net/story.php?id=478 [sugapablo.net]

Still Around

[bsharitt]

People still use ICQ? I wonder if it's really seeing any significant numbers of new users, or if it's just the old people sticking around.

Re:

[franksands]

That's exactly what I thought. Oh, the good years of my first experiences with IM. The joy when they merged the chat with the messages. I wonder if my account still works.

Re:Still Around

[thegamerformelyknown]

I wonder if my account still works.

*looks at title of post*
Not anymore :)

Re:Still Around

[Virtual_Raider]

Apparently everyone and their dog use it in Russia. Right before they turned GAIM into Pidgin I installed GAIM 1.5 and logged on to my neglected yahoo and ICQ accounts. My 6 digit ICQ was still working up until this morning, and every single day I get at least 3 Russian girls (or so they claim) wanting to chat, and at least 2 spam messages in Cyrillic trying to get me to click in some shady URL that I wouldn't touch with Firefox barricaded behind the Proxomitron and a Firewall on an unpluged computer powered-off =P

At least one of the alleged Russkys I actually started chatting with is cute. They sure know how to make them in the Ukraine ;)

Re:Still Around

[Soruk]

At least one of the alleged Russkys I actually started chatting with is cute.

Congratulations. You've been speaking to the goatse guy.

Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out

[Anonymous Coward]

At least one of the alleged Russkys I actually started chatting with is cute. They sure know how to make them in the Ukraine ;)

Are there many three-breasted Total-Recall-type Ukrainian girls? All that Chernobyl radiation has got to have had some effect...

ICQ Spam - ICQ6- being force added = crapware

[gadlaw]

I hardly ever turn icq on any longer on account of the Russian/Czech/Ukranian spam. Very annoying and last time I turned it on some damn spammer who kept on spamming on me 'added me' - annoyed I checked and yep, my preferences were to not allow anyone to add me but for some reason spambot boy was able to. I don't even know what the purpose of doing that is but I definitely don't like it and don't turn the icq on for just that reason.

Re:Still Around

[Rufus211]

I don't know if anyone still uses it, but I sure as hell remember my UIN even though I haven't touched ICQ since something like 2000. It's great how I can remember the now-usless 8-digit number for so long and not remember my parents birthdays.

Re:

[ggeens]

I still remember my number, and it still seems to exist on the server.

However, I have no idea what the password for the account might be or the email address I used back then. (Not that it would help: I no longer have access to those emails.)

Re:

[aywwts4]

I haven't checked in with it since... 99 or so, But my 8 digit username has been so ingrained in me i use mathematical mashes of it as strings for passwords. (I checked in to make sure it wasn't deleted, (I wasn't honestly concerned if it was) and I had to laugh, my password was three lowercase letters "bnm" now I use that parts 8 digit number in 16 character passwords. Times have changed.

Re:

[kraada]

Pshhh 8 digit number? n00b.

I'm totally rockin the 7 digit UIN.

My cell phone number? That's a bitch to remember though . . .

Re:

[laffer1]

It seems like a generational thing. I'd be curious what services get the most sign-ups.

I just tried my ICQ account and it seems to work. Its a 6 digit and I almost never use it. Once or twice a year I might get on to talk to my old boss or people I worked with 7 years ago. I guess that means the delete operation was not for rarely used accounts. I wonder if there is another pattern like international users or something.

I gave up on ICQ after the windows client got so bloated. When I use it now, its an

Re:

[eggstasy]

I'm an international user, and thanks to the magic of gaim i am always on icq.
Nothing wrong with my account, so far.

Re:

[comp.sci]

It actually is fairly popular in some parts of Europe, at least a lot of people are _still_ using it.
Does anyone have any more accurate statistics on this?

Re:Still Around

[zwei2stein]

Number of people i _personally_ know who use ICQ: pretty much everyone.
Number of people i _personally_ know who use something else than ICQ: pretty much noone.

Here in Czechia, ICQ is simply THE im to use.

IT just makes no sense to register on something else when you know you wont be able to talk to anyone. And it makes no sense to switch if majority does no switch with you.

---

In the end stuff like aim or messenger have exaclty same type of bloat (sometimes even more anoying than icq bloat) and zero killer features.

Re:

[gDoDig]

IT just makes no sense to register on something else when you know you wont be able to talk to anyone. And it makes no sense to switch if majority does no switch with you.

That's why we use Trillian or stuff like that with which you can be online on JABBER, ICQ, MSN, AIM, SIP, IRC, YAHOO and localy with RANDEVOUS all at the same time, that way you are available to anyone and everyone all the time without the hassle of running multiple clients.

Re:

[Herve5]

in case it helps, the equivalent of Trillian for macintosh is Adium -and I fully agree with the previous post :-)

Re:

[castlec]

Czechia.... Don't do it man. There is no Czechia, only Czech Republic. Such a nasty name that is. ICQ is very popular here. Skype is catching on well though.

Re:

[hclyff]

People still use ICQ? I wonder if it's really seeing any significant numbers of new users, or if it's just the old people sticking around.

ICQ is still doing pretty good in Europe, I think. At least in my country. It is quite surprising when you consider that the official client is obnoxious piece of shit loaded with ads and crapware. Unofficial clients sometimes stop working, because someone decided it is good idea to do some changes in protocol and not tell anyone.

It shows that you don't have to be good at something, as long as you have critical mass of users locked in.

Re:

[StarfishOne]

In the beginning the client was quite nice and simple. Later on it became soo bloated I decided to follow my friends and to start using the MSN Messenger which was sooo nice and simple. Now the latter is also filled with useless features. :(

Don't these companies understand that there are many people who just want a simple, graphical chat window?

And yes, I also use IRC in a screen session every day.. but unfortunately just 5-10 other _technical_ friends are there. My experience is that it's nearly impossible

Re:

[metlin]

People still use ICQ? I wonder if it's really seeing any significant numbers of new users, or if it's just the old people sticking around.

What? Even if people don't, do you think AOL would want to give up all those eyes that you could target ads at?

Who cares about increasing the number of users when you still have a target population to serve ads to right now (especially given the way AOL's been going lately).

Re:

[am 2k]

I'm from central Europe, and here everybody is using ICQ. It's gone so far that ICQ is synonymous with IM, and people exchange ICQ UINs instead of phone numbers...

Re:

[riflemann]

Um, where in central europe? ICQ isn't the predominant IM protocol for all central europe. In the Netherlands, MSN is all the rage, with 'msn' having entered the standard dutch vocabulary as meaning 'to im someone'.

Re:Still Around

[Altrag]

It seems that certain IMs just gained popularity in certain parts of the world for whatever reason. I was in the Philippines a few months ago and yahoo is the "IM synonym" there. ICQ used to be the big thing in my circle of friends back in the late 90s (it was pretty much the ONLY thing back then). Then moved to yahoo for a while (does ICQ even have webcam support in 2007?) and its sort of settled on MSN as my non-geek friends started to pile up. Don't really know why that came to be -- whether its just because its packaged with Windows or because they had far superior webcam support for a while there, or perhaps some other factor -- as I was one of the last people I know to switch up to MSN (back in my "lets hate on M$ cause its cool" party-lining days:P).

Re:

[Dogtanian]

Um, where in central europe? ICQ isn't the predominant IM protocol for all central europe. In the Netherlands

It depends how you define "Central Europe"; I always thought that the Netherlands was a Western European country, but not Central European. (Then again, Western Europe seems to include every country that used to be on the free side of the Iron Curtain).

According to this definition [wikipedia.org], the Netherlands isn't part of Central Europe. Meeehhhh.... the definitions aren't precise anyway, nothing worth arguing about I guess. I think the GP probably meant more like the Czech Republic (AKA Czechia) - which is what I

Re:

[am 2k]

To answer the three replies here, I'm from Austria, which fits right into the definition Wikipedia is using. However, there are many people switching to Skype for voice chat here, which is a shame, since the official client sucks and nobody has hacked their protocol yet to integrate it into some better client.

btw, in Poland, gadugadu is the most popular one as far as I know.

I personally use XMPP exclusively, gatewaying the other protocols for people that are still on those networks using legacy protocols

Re:

[Angostura]

The Netherlands is central? You're on the coast.

Re:Still Around

[suv4x4]

I'm from central Europe, and here everybody is using ICQ. It's gone so far that ICQ is synonymous with IM, and people exchange ICQ UINs instead of phone numbers...

Same in Eastern Europe, although Skype appears to be catching up as a replacement.

Just few days ago I was talking to friends about the new ICQ6, and the conversation went along the lines of:

ME: you gotta check the new ICQ, they dumped the silly flash voice/cam, the terrible horn and oh-oh sounds. It's a lot better.

THEM: great! so are you switching back to ICQ (note: they are all on ICQ)

ME: no, but .. I at least won't start it with disgust anymore.

And just as I gave them this compliment (it is a compliment! i hated the damn thing), now this story runs. They're out of luck, for sure.

Re:

[Tom]

Whatever "central europe" you're from, must be different than mine (Germany). ICQ is still around, I think I know a few people who are using it. But ICQ UINs instead of phone numbers? Can't be girls you're exchanging numbers with...

Re:

[dunkelfalke]

still a lot of icq here in germany.

Re:

[Danniler]

At least among my frineds/colleagues there is no substitution for ICQ. Anyone with MS Messenger or other IM clients seems to be like a white crow. For example in Russia ICQ for sure has 90%+ IM share (if not 99.9%). I worked in central Europe - almost same situation. Everyone uses ICQ. And one more remark - official client sucks. That's true, so noone really bothers using it. There are so many nice substitutions. Like "qip".

Re:

[TheRaven64]

I used ICQ a lot back in '98, and for a couple of years after. I then switched to Jabber, and kept my ICQ account in use via a transport so I didn't lose my existing contacts. Since then, AOL bought ICQ and integrated the AIM and ICQ systems, so I can now use my ICQ account to talk to AIM users. I know a couple of people on AIM, and keeping my ICQ account stopped me needing to register a new account for AIM. I can't remember the last time I saw anyone online using an ICQ account number rather than an AI

Official response?

[Rahga]

Official response? Expect something along the lines of "We are trying to determine if we do indeed host this 'ICQ' service and who would be in charge, but chances are, we either fired them or that quit years ago."

SQL Statement Gone Awry?

[ticklish2day]

Sounds like they let a sql n00b [slashdot.org] into the production database...

"Jimmy, could you get me a report for user #12345678?"
"Sure boss, I'll use my awesome SQL skillz"

clacketty clack... osql.exe... clacketty clack clack
select * from IcqUsers

wait wait wait

"Hmmm, that user is very far down the list. I'll get rid of these earlier records so that record will show up faster."
clacketty clack... delete from IcqUsers where UserID
wait wait wait

"JIMMY WTF ARE YOU DOING???? CANCEL THAT QUERY NOW. YOU'RE RUNNING IT AGAINST THE PRODUCTION DB"
"Yessirsirright now sir!!!!!!!!!"

and you can complete the story.

Re:SQL Statement Gone Awry?

[asninn]

So what? Just rollback the transaction.

Re:SQL Statement Gone Awry?

[kestasjk]

autocommit

Re:

[asninn]

Anyone who uses autocommit in a production environment DESERVES stuff like this.

Re:

[leuk_he]

Classic one. He panicked and logged out and during the log out the commit took place (oracle sql defaults)

Re:

[Dogtanian]

So what? Just rollback the transaction.

Does Access 97 support rollback?

That takes me back.

[Misanthrope]

ICQ was my first instant messaging client, modern clients owe a lot in terms of features to Mirabilis' innovations. Buddy pounces, file sharing, ability to send messages to people while they were signed off. It also had a generally fun feel to it's gui and sound design. I'm still peeved that it was also my introduction to account theft, somebody with a Czech email address is happily the new owner of my six digit number.

I met my fiancee on ICQ

[syousef]

Haven't logged on in some time. Wonder if we're both still there...

Re:

[toetagger]

That's almost as big of an accomplishment as meeting your fiance on Slashdot!

Re:

[dunkelfalke]

actually i also have met my fiancee on icq but i told her to fuck off two months before marriage.

Re:I met my fiancee on ICQ

[ZX3 Junglist]

and with the two of you about to be happily married, BAM! AOL deletes her!

Re:

[bheer]

Your friends flirted with your girlfriend on ICQ too? What's her number again? :-)

User Purge

[DuEyNZ]

delete from Users where clue = 0;

Re:

[bitflusher]

i have no idea what you are talking about, but i cant get my icq fired up

thousands screams and ..

[freaker_TuC]

thousands of people screaming in total darkness, but alas they could not be heard; HAL-9000 deleted their account to let them in...

Re:thousands screams and ..

[Hal9000_sn3]

Wasn't me. I swear.

ICQ still exists?

[ddoctor]

Is this just a publicity stunt to remind people that ICQ still exists? :)

Bad publicity is still publicity. :)

Re:

[Tribbin]

Funny; I completely forgot about ICQ. But when I saw this article, I recalled my ICQ# instantaneously.

Re:

[Soul-Burn666]

I guess it is just a regional thing, but in Israel, ICQ is king.
Pretty much everyone who uses IMs, uses ICQ.

This is probably due to the fact ICQ originated from Israel, allowing for early adoption and the creation of a critical mass.
Few use MSN or AIM and usually in addition to ICQ rather than exclusively.

It's all about AIM in the end... AIM and spyware.

[sycomonkey]

I was under the impression that AOL has been trying to kill ICQ for years now. How are these people so (un)blissfully unaware of the situation?

Re:It's all about AIM in the end... AIM and spywar

[Scarblac]

Well, I always just enter my ICQ number into Gaim, together with my MSN address, and it all just works (still does). All my old friends on the list are in it by their ICQ. I had no idea AOL owned it, though...

Re:It's all about AIM in the end... AIM and spywar

[rucs_hack]

Not possible. AOL have been haemorrhaging customers for years, which has limited their advertising revenue somewhat. No company wants to lose customers, even of free services, because it makes their portfolio look good if they want to sell.

This is more likely just a screw up.

Re:It's all about AIM in the end... AIM and spywar

[Dogtanian]

I was under the impression that AOL has been trying to kill ICQ for years now.

Wouldn't it make more sense for them to simply merge the services and brands, possibly retaining two distinct interfaces/protocols (to avoid losing users of one or other set of legacy clients) but effectively just having one service?

Want to check, but don't have ICQ installed?

[Raven737]

I didn't use or even installed ICQ for at least 5 years
but wanted to check if my really old account with a nice 7 digit account number was still active.
Used: http://go.icq.com/ [icq.com] (no installation needed) to check.. and it is still working, guess i got lucky.
Now for another 5 years of not using it (but of course wanting to keep it :)

be realistic

[petermgreen]

ICQ is still pretty big and afaict it runs on the same servers as AIM which is also rather big. I rather doubt they will even notice /.

for all the jokes on /. the only sites that tend get /.ed are those that come into the following categories
1: those with big downloads
2: those on home connections
3: those with dynamic content that doesn't have caching mechanisms in place to deal with lots of hits on the same page.

A victim of FUD

[Jugalator]

They're probably just yet another victim in the FUD spread by AACS, and is now trying to clean up their act with all their numbers in use. ;-)

ICQ said it best...

[Spittles]

*uh-oh* :-P

My guesses

[Dragon Rojo]

My 7 digit uin it's still active, I remember it like my phone number. Ahh those were the days. I left icq after all my contacts went to yahoo or msn.

My guesses:

1.- Someone broke in and messed up the db
2.- A random clean up?
3.- Publicity? (As stated in comments above)
4.- Server failure

That's insane

[dtfinch]

Almost everyone complaining has a 6 digit or shorter account number. They just f*cked their million oldest, most faithful users.

Thankfully, my number is 7 digits.

Re:

[WatcherXP]

IIRC the numbers started at 6 digits. UIN's with fewer digits were internal staff use only. 127XXX = me

Re:

[paganizer]

I could have sworn that my first one was something like 19xxx, back in '96.

Computers that forget.

[n1hilist]

I guess someone at AOL must've read a certain article about computers needing to forget...

Possible Fix?!?

[jkwscurvy]

It appears to just be a bug, and your numbers are safe. Backup, remove, reinstall as described here: http://boards.icq.com/boards/view_messages.php?tid =4555&topic_id=2216365 [icq.com]. YMMV

AOL happened

[hxnwix]

23192319 disconnected by peer
23192319 gets a worm in his ear
23192319, disconnected for a year!

23192319, there's no such thing as luck in hell.

-Celine

I DIDN'T DO IT

[Debug0x2a]

Oddly enough it was working perfectly until I went to create an account. BTW, my name is ";Drop Table;"

You can have mine!

[Mr2001]

I've got a number in the 105xxx range for the right bidder, if you don't mind fielding the occasional obscure question about an IRC client. ;)

Centralized

[Eivind]

In an ideal world, this would teach people something about the disadvantages of relying on a centralized server controlled by a corporation over which you have no influence for your communication-infrastructure.

Msn, and Aim have similar problems.

Meanwhile, Jabber is the way of the future. Open protocol. Multiple interoperable implementations. Gateways to these "legacy"-protocols anyway, so you can still talk to your icq/msn-using friends. Multiple simultaneous logins. Server-side storage of buddy-lists (so log on from a different location/new computer and everything is there)

Oh, and for added bonus, jabber-ids on the format of email-adresses are a lot easier to remember than ICQ-uins.

oblig

[Andrei D]

Fix here [google.com]

Obligatory comment

[ButcherCH]

I felt a great disturbance in the Net...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

Guess my deal with Satan is off then

[infonography]

I tried his ICQ number this morning 666 and it's gone. The bothers me as we really had a good deal in play. He was going to make me Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was all most done. Blair announced his resignation and I was to step in as planned. He even had a way figured out to get around the fact that I am a US Citizen and everything. Seeing how the US was already taken.....

I wonder if I can sue them for interference with a contract?

They didn't forward the message.

[InvisiBill]

Obviously they didn't forward that message that all their friends sent them, so their accounts got flagged as inactive and deleted.

ICQ statement in German media

[bjoeg]

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pag econtent?lp=de_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pressetext. de%2Fpte.mc%3Fpte%3D070511018 [altavista.com]

Publicity

[FuzzyDaddy]

From one of the link, someone posted:

I HATE AOL. I HATE AOL. I HATE AOL. Its the worst company on the planet

You can't buy publicity like that.

Did they not read the email...

[aj50]

Did they not read the e-mail that was sent round last week saying that ICQ was running out of numbers and that some would be re-allocated unless they proved they were active users by sending the e-mail on to all their ICQ using friends?

Too late to complain now, you should have read the e-mail and sent it on like me. It's not hard, sheesh.

Syntax Highlighting

[nbritton]

It would be cool if the English language had colorized syntax highlighting.

Re:

[Jugalator]

And MSN isn't bloated? Wow! I recommend something like Miranda... Then you'll have unbloated ICQ too!

Re:

[PMBjornerud]

Considering the the ICQ serves as a personal identification number, I think you actually got some truth in that joke.

Re:

[Jugalator]

I hope my 610XXX one is still there. :-( I haven't got over to my home computer to check yet.

I'm not using their crappy client, but ICQ still comes with decent features if using Miranda and Trillian, and all off-line features are of course graat. If that UIN broke and they won't repair it (any statement from AOL?), that means a lot of forums I'm signed up with has an invalid UIN. :-((