That Slashdot post about AOL's AIM policy got me a little worried about privacy and the fact that I use AIM for most of my conversations online, and there are some things that I have said that I don't want being saved on AOL's servers. I think since that post AOL has tweaked the policy a bit, but still I'm having trouble giving so much trust to any single large corporate entity. The best things become standardized: http, e-mail, FTP, etc. That's the way I think it should be with instant messaging. There's an obstacle though. Most people use the major IM services, and most of the people that they know also use the major IM services. That is the reason why even I can't just stop using them. However, I can start using a standard alongside AIM, and try and get other people to join me, to the point where eventually everyone who is using the bigtime IM services will also be using a standardized IM service, and will be able to drop whatever else they were using. I realize that's a rather idealistic, and broad goal, and I'm not going to change the minds of everyone. But if I can turn a few then I know I've done good.

The IM standard that I speak of is called Jabber, and it works much the same way as the clients you all are probably familiar with. You can have IM conversations with people, join and create chat rooms, make contact lists, log conversations, and most other things you associate with instant messaging. The difference is that there are no centralized servers that you must sign up with; and there is no single client that you must use. There are multiple clients, and a multitude of servers. You can compare the concept with e-mail. You can sign up to many different e-mail accounts, and send messages to people who are signed up elsewhere. For example on Jabber, Draxamus@jabber.org could start an IM conversation with JesseSmith@VGChat.com. So you're not trusting everything you say with some big company like AOL, or Microsoft.

The main Jabber site is http://www.jabber.org and you should probably read the User Quickstart and Guide which are at http://www.jabber.org/user/ on the site. Also the Windows client that I use is Exodus, which can be downlaoded at http://jabberstudio.org/projects/exodus/releases/view.php?id=433

Also I want to explain something that may confuse people familiar with other IM programs. This explanation is for using Exodus, and I'm not sure how much different the procedure is in other clients. When you're on Exodus, you pull down the Exodus menu and three of the options are Send Instant Message, Start Chat, Join a Chat Room. Sending an instant message is more like sending a single message for a person to receive, kind of like a single e-mail message. If you want to start an IM conversation with someone, use Start Chat to do so.

Also if anyone actually gets involved with this, my Jabber ID is Draxamus@jabber.org

Time Warner ninjas raped my mother




grahf@jabber.org

This is The White Testament, and I approve this message.


PerfectTelomerase@jabber.org

I have always wondered what Jabber is, and I didn't think anyone actually used it. I guess this proves me wrong. Is there a huge member base for this thing, or is it something new that just started out?

^ I think it's been around for a few years, but hasn't really taken off. So the member base right now is small, which is why I'm making an effort to get more people into it.

I'd just like to add that the jabber.org server seems to be experiencing some problems, so you might try signing up with jabber.com or one of the other servers available.

My other Jabber ID is Draxamus@jabber.com

What is the difference with the clients? If I sign up with one will I be able to see others who are using different clients?

What is the difference with the clients? If I sign up with one will I be able to see others who are using different clients?

I'm not sure if you're using the correct terminology for your question. A client is the program used to connect to the jabber server. There are any number of jabebr clients and it makes no difference which one you use. Exodus is a popualr choice for windows. If you mean which server you sign up with, such as jabber.org or jabber.com, it also makes no difference, as jabber is designed as a protocol, sort of like e-mail. People from one server, such as jabber.com, can communicate with people of another server, such as jabber.org. This applies to any of the jabber servers. I'll also note that people can join chat rooms hosted on different servers, as well.

It seems like a pretty good service, to me. It'd take a bit of getting used to, but it mostly seems to be quite solid... and, best of all, no shat.

Sabredog@jabber.org

Good thing I know some people who use Jabber since AIM is dead at the moment!

AH! I thought it was only me I guess AIM isnt working for anyone.

That's another good thing about Jabber. If one server goes down, you can get onto another one. It's like if hotmail wasn't working for you, you could get on gmail. But with something like AIM or MSN, once those servers go down, all communication is dead until they are fixed.

Bleh, that AIM thing is incredibly old. It is just one of those "if the FBI wants your logs, we won't hesitate" sort of deals. No need to worry unless you are trying to sell bombs omg.

AIM just got back btw.

loony636@jabber.com

Hey loony I got your contact request while I was asleep, but accepted it when I woke up.

lol, I thought loony wanted you banned

Well, Draxamus is Draxamus. I don't know why I want to get him banned. I don't actually think he's that bad...

Sabredog still hasn't accepted my invitation. Maybe its because he doesn't like me...

Of course he doesnt. :mad:

Of course he doesnt.

Doesn't what? Like me or hate me? I hate those type of answers where you ask something like: Do you want a cheese sandwich or a tuna sandwich? And they say 'yes'.

By the way, loony636, to see who a person is, click on their name in the top left corner of their post.

And I was joking, duh. And you said: "its because he doesn't like me..."

And I said Of course he doesn't (like you)

well, now I'm on jabber.com.

perfecttelomerase@jabber.com