please empty your brain below

Despite never having got into Messenger (not enough friends, perhaps) I really do get the preferring text to phone thing. The phone was really just a wierd blip in centuries of written and face-to-face communucation. Close enough to fool people into thinking they're having a real conversation (unlike writing, which has always been recognised as something different) but in truth nothing like one. And now, with mobiles and their frequently dreadful reception, more frustrating and inadequate even than before. I began my career at around the time that email became widely used, and that's no coincidence. I simply would not have been able to manage the necessary communication with people without it.
Gmail has a text chat facility.

dg writes: Indeed it does. But if none of my friends are on there, or want to be, then it's no use.
I very infrequently use on line chatting, and when I have done so preferred Yahoo's service over MS. I am surprised that Windows messenger is closing, but if it means more people use Skype that may be advantageous to Microsoft. One thing that always irritated me about windows messenger was the way it would install to run automatically in the background upon start of computer, and it had to be removed from "start up" manually. I try to keep as few programs running in the background as possible.
Facebook has a text chat facility.

dg writes: I'm not on Facebook, whereas I bet everybody I used to chat to is. I suspect that's my problem.
Skype can be used for text chat.

I hope you're not going to lose sight of some of your acquaintances only because you don't feel like asking them which id they use on whatever alternative platform.
I swore I would never get sucked into the Facebook whirlpool but in the end I had to join just to be able to keep in touch with people.
That makes me sad! Some 5 years ago, when I met my now husband we used to spend HOURS talking to each other on MSN. 12-14 hour conversations on weekends were nothing unusual. We lived on 2 different continents and MSN was a huge part of our communication, so even though we are now married, live together and haven't logged on to MSN in probably 2 or 3 years, I still have a soft spot for it and I am sad to see it go.
I too find facebook invaluable as a way of keeping in touch with friends (genuine ones) who have moved away, in the bad old days that would have meant resolutions about writing regularly and eventually losing contact.
Time to get with the times! fb has IM and it works better than you think.
Skype does everything that MSN Messenger does.
You can text-chat, or webcam chat if that is your thing. The reason Microsoft are closing-down MSN Messenger is just because Skype has better branding.
PS - I am not on facebook either, so you are not the only one who feels a bit left out sometimes DG...!
How about new e-mail notification popup? Does anyone know what will happen to that feature? It's what I will miss most about Messenger.
I'm not on Facebook either - there are too many horror stories about it and I have no desire to let Mr Zuckerberg's company know every last detail of my unimportant life. I haven't used Messenger but do understand DG's preference for text over phone.

Usenet is also slowly dying as Facebook slowly takes over conversation between like minded people.
i am not on facebook either, or linkedin, or twitter.

i like being under the radar.

i find everyones willingness to share all this data with everyone rather bemusing
It is not required to share any *real* information with Facebook, Twitter or even LinkedIn (though since that's supposed to be work contacts, it might defeat the point), barring what friends your new, made-up persona has.

I'm not a huge fan, but the vast majority of my friends, some thousands of miles and half a dozen time zones away use it quite a bit. For that, it's invaluable.
The 'Trillian' application allows signing in to multiple services (msn, aol, skype, google, FB, ICQ, IRC, linkedin and many others including it's own one, Astra) using just one interface which presents them all in the same manner. It's free too.
I *was* on Facebook. But I left 11 months ago tomorrow because it was so depressing. That was the day after my birthday, and it was mainly the greetings from people I hadn't spoken to in years that annoyed me the most.
We got shunted from Communicator to another Microsoft product called Microsoft Lync quite some time ago.

It seems to do roughly the same thing and somehow transferred all my contacts (including some that I'd even forgotten about).

I think the iPhone versions have only been available for about a year.

I don't know if that is also destined for the chopping block?










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