Fsck Yahoo!
This is the n-th time they change the instant messaging protocol, just to lock out users having other clients than their own. I know, you may think that Yahoo! Messenger 6 is great, with all those useless features that don't belong in an instant messaging program. Well then, enjoy your periodic Windows worms and viruses and other "goodies", because Yahoo Messenger 6 only works under Windows. Other operating systems, open standards, and all that "crap" are irrelevant, or so it seems.
Each time Yahoo changes the protocol, there's a week or so (until the open source hackers figure out the new protocol) when I can't login from my instant messaging client. Then all my friends think I'm anti-social, or something, since I "stay invisible".
This time I've had it, so, from now on, whoever wants to reach me can use:
- Plain old email: always works, you're sure to find me this way. See the contact section for my address.
- Jabber: my JID is
david_bv@jabber.org. - ICQ: my ICQ# is
292073653. - Yahoo Messenger [if you're lucky]: my YahooID is
david_bv.
If you're using anything else, please consider switching to Jabber, since it is an open protocol (standardized by the IETF), it will never lock you or your friends out of the system, it will never show you a single ad/banner/commercial/whatever and you can choose whatever client you want, on any operating system you want. Heck, you can run your own server if you care to.
You don't have to lose all your existing contacts while switching: there are multi-protocol clients, that allow you to stay connected to multiple networks at the same time: have a look at Gaim (works on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, etc.) Trillian (Windows only, very user friendly) or centericq (Windows, Linux, etc., for the console fanatics out there).
Try this, and maybe some day, corporations like Yahoo will open their eyes and they'll see that we're not a bunch of faceless "consumers", we're human beings, and maybe they'll start listening to what we say.
