I was thinking the same thing a while back, like a let's get a beer app where you'd set a flag when you're free and instantly you'd see if friends in your circles are up for a beer. If not, you can receive a notification when they do become available (aka, one of them sets the flag).
Nice idea. However there are definitely times when i'm not actively thinking about the pub (and therefore wouldn't set a pub status to available) but would stop the current activity for the pub
Ano Nym I prefer to look at it as he has started on time, like myself, and the rest of you are just lazy slackers who haven't caught up with reality yet... But I haven't had my coffee yet this morning.
This is exactly the reason why I am terrible at messaging anyone : the constant latent fear of intruding. But most other people live in the same haze of fear so, yay for widespread social awkwardness? And yes, you two are totally Statler and Waldorf. Mattler and Tomdorf?
Sorry, but I disagree. Matt and Tom are definitely not Statler and Waldorf. Those two muppets were hecklers, not critics.They were mostly there to heckle Kermit and Fozzy the Bear. (And were the meanest to Fozzy.) Matt and Tom are just two adults reminiscing about "the old times" and bemoaning how times have changed. I don't think the Muppets had that. Closest would be Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street.
I mean, yeah, Matt and Tom aren't hecklers but I think the in-common trait is their lovable not-overly-gloomy curmudgeonliness which Statler and Waldorf had in spades.
There definitely needs to be that hierarchy of messaging options. If it's 2 am you send an email. At an appropriate time, a quick text to see if people want to hang out or talk. Call when they are expecting it or it's really important... or something like that. Snail mail when you have to send them a present... heck, you don't even need it to send money now...
Maybe we need something like a weather app, where it can keep an updating notification going, but it never actually pings/vibes. If you want to meet up with people, check the notification and see if it has a number greater than 0. Set your status in the app, but if you haven't set it in like, an hour, it assumes you're busy now and switches you to not-bored. Because it doesn't ping, it doesn't intrude, but it's always just kind of there. If it could have a setting to quietly track how many social media apps you've been switching between and set your status to bored if you're clearly out of internet, that might be interesting too.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the "Skype Me" status on Skype, this meant you're bored and anybody can call you, not just people in your contacts. In hindsight it's clear why that was a terrible idea :D
I would say that Discord is the nearest to MSN now in terms of the online indicator. You have to open the program for it to say that you are online and it shows what game you are on at the time, or if you are like me on don't play games much, you can customize what it says you are doing :)
I use Discord for my (fan-based) translation group. (We used to use Skype, but some members had difficulties accessing it) We use the main chatroom almost every day, and I keep it unmuted. If I'm busy with school or don't want to hear notification sounds all the time, I will set my status to 'do not disturb', which mutes all chats. We have another chatroom that we use for small talk/non-translation-related stuff, and I always have that on mute. If I feel like talking about stuff or contributing to a conversation, I will have that chatroom open. I'm not savvy about social media, and only have a small group of friends who also don't use a lot of social media, and none of them expect everybody to respond instantly. But when it comes to instant messaging, Discord isn't perfect, but I agree it's the closest I have experienced to keeping track of social availability like MSN.
One of the things I miss about uni is sending a message to the flat group chat saying "Tea?" at pretty much any time of day or night and wondering to the kitchen to hang out with at least one of my mates
Not everyone enjoys having an uninvited, smelly and possibly dangerous quadruped come up. I particularly despise the ones who like to jump on me, smearing my trousers, and most are like that. If you own a dog and don't make sure they don't invade other people's personal space, you are being seriously disrespectful.
An app where you set the level of boredom. Then if people in your lists that have the same or similar level and in some smilier area of boredom are messaged. That way you do not message people that are not identifying as bored, or are to far away to join in.
When talking about the IM wars, you forgot a very important player who is still around. Skype. The reason MSN no longer exists is because Skype took over MSN. Microsoft bought Skype and merged the two networks, so TECHNICALLY you can still use your MSN sign in, just in Skype now.
Pretty much always have skype open. Also use discord. And Steam. All 3 frequently gets used. IRC I have stopped using. Never touch Facebook. Ick... Facebook seems so dirty!
I used Trillian in the US and it was pretty much an even tie with AIM and MSN. Nowadays, I think the equivalent is Discord (which has status indicators) or Telegram (which only shows when you were last active.)
They came out with Trillian Astra with later versions, which is their own messenger, but it can also be set up as a private company server as well. Sort of like Skype for Business.
Zzyzx Wolfe Discord has a little button so at any time you can put yourself into 'busy', 'do not disturb', or 'invisible' (Appear as offline) mode, which is nice.
On Android phones, you get the notification and when you chose reply, it will give you a small window in which you can read the message, you will have the keyboard on the bottom of the screen, and you can reply. After you hit send, you're back in your original app. Quite neat!
The story Tom mentions is giving me strong Jeeves & Wooster vibes, like the butlers (or the electronic equivalent of them) are actually handling problems and finding discreet and elegant solutions rather than the actual person they work for dealing with stuff.
The best way to fix that problem of notifications is just do it muted. As in the receiver gets a notification on there phone but it doesn't vibrate or make a noise or anything. That way the only people that see it are people who are already looking on their phones and are probably bored also.
I dunno about Trillian, but I used eBuddy. Also, in my social circle, MSN was a thing that was always open when you were on your computer, because it launched at login. Honestly, phone notifications are far less intrusive than MSN's "nudges".
Regarding status indicators, I really like that Slack will warn you when someone is in “do not disturb” mode (and give you the option to override it if your message is actually urgent). I wish more IM programs did that.
Toms Pub Flare app problem solved App sends a notification to a dedicated server that friends can log into and sees your availability and makes the choice - will send you a notification saying "are you still at the pub?" netflix style after a period of time.
I think Android has actually coming around to handling this pretty well. Silent notifications mean I don't see Messenger, et al until I'm on my phone anyway. If I'm already on my phone, I can respond within the Android notification shade.
MSN Messenger was the one and only IM client here in Denmark as well. As time went on, others came along, and I did what Tom did and used Adium to connect all the messaging services into one little app
I just came across the performance of The Procrastinator by Jay Foreman at DougSoc which is the funniest thing I've seen for a while. I loved Tom's solo and the random crashing into poor Jay as he's trying to play, not to mention Matt's dancing along at the edge! True surreal comedy!
Matt and Tom when a dog approaches them: Oh that's a dog. Noope go away. Me when a dog approaches me: high pitched voice, dying of cuteness and cuddling it.
The pub flare concept gives me so many ideas that I can't even put them down into a single comment. I might just work up an outline, so thanks for the idea.
yeah the glittery text (or any stylistic font) that work by replacing letters with emoticon images, I hated them because they took time to load on dialup and if you're internet is slow right now (or you're downloading something), you basically can't read any of the messages :D
that pub thingy is basically a tinder clone for drinking that would auto-swipe right on a group of pre-selected friends. if two people who have eachother in their auto-accept list click the PUB-button in an interval of an hour, they both get notified.
Pub flare equivalent for my close group is a WhatsApp group where the etiquette is you're allowed to just not reply if you're not interested, no having to say 'no thanks' let alone feeling like you need to explain why. What WhatsApp *really* needs though is mute intervals like 20mins or an hour. Seems a very 'engagement metric' driven choice on their part.
What *everything* needs is mute intervals, 10mins to 24hours. All the really old Nokias had this. Anyone know of an android app (or even variant system) that has this?
I don't know. My experience - both in the past and the present - is that I am connected to networks 24x7 through an IRC bouncer. Almost everyone I know uses them. So my experience is quite the opposite; people on IRC are almost always idling.
Fugoux I keep trying to get into irc but I never manage to stay. I don't like the ways I don't get the messages I wasn't online for (because it's not what my young brain is used to). I guess it's kind of the point of "if you're online, you're bored" but I've mostly tried it for tech support.
A group of friends (old friends from uni and other people who have condensed around that core) have a Slack for keeping in touch, and one of the channels is essentially for "anyone for the pub/coffee/pizza right now?"; it's the only one I have notifications turned on for.
This is exactly WHY I have a group chat with all my close friends that I keep muted. I check it semi-regularly, and we regularly do just go "who wants to go to x" and start a thing.
ICQ was the best! It had features that no one else had/has. You could connect with a friend and then “drag” him through the Internet. Basically whatever website you went to your friends computer would automatically go to the same website. It was fantastic!
My nostalgia kick from MSN came when I set up my Windows 10 computer after using Mac for ages, and the computer account is linked to your Microsoft account. So now I see my old MSN profile pic when I start my computer.
I remember everyone leaving MSN Messenger for Facebook Messenger. MSN got emptier and emptier and then I just had to get FB. This would have been circa 2009.
steam chat is a bit like that. I only start up steam when I'm bored... but most instant messengers I treat like regular messengers; If I don't answer you can keep talking. I will read it eventually. that also means if you someone want to physically meet up with me; they better ask about it long in advance...
Today, everyone is always available, yet never at the same time. You write to a person and expect that sometimes in the near future they will answer. (Thus, the end of the "brb". --- Felt quite old recently, a younger friend of mine didn't know the meaning of that expression. 😱)
I think I still say BRB at least once a day. Doesn't matter if you've got a phone on you at all times; you can't wash the dishes or hang clothes out to dry and use your phone at the same time. Unless you use some sort of speech to text type thing, but then I'd say that's more of an IM addiction
It's videos and comments like these that make me both go "what is wrong with my generation?" and feel like I was raised in a late 90s time capsule. I mean, how does someone younger than 40 not know what brb means?
You have no idea how much I wish pub flares were a thing. In unrelated news, you have no idea how much I wish this type of night-park-bench type videos were still a thing.
This makes me wonder when was texting invented? Also Yahoo had an IM service? Now that I got to that point, Pub Flair(e) that sounds kind of like Google+. Like you have a social network with multiple circles, one of which is a pub circle, where your group of friends who you want to go the pub with, you send a message within that group.
Matt/Tom is there a reason neither of you seem to be too... "thrilled" with dogs? Not judging, just curious as a Canadian that lives in a relatively rural area. (Random dogs are VERY common here)
As an American who played an online MMO-type text game in 2005 to 2009 that was mainly European players, I had to download MSN Messenger for them. AIM was what all of my friends used, but MSN was for holding court with my vassals and negotiating non-aggression pacts with rival kings.
The main reason however for MSN Messenger going away was simply due to Microsoft having acquired Skype, and it was pointless to run two separate IM services instead of just merging MSN accounts into Skype which had more features available.
the basic idea sounds great. Could be something like you sent out at status to your network that last for about an hour that you are bored, and if someone in your network within that hour sends out a similar requestm you match up and connect to each other, sounds quite simple to make but the privacy around it is be more than I have time to deal with at this point but the idea is great. of course no notifications on phones etc. unless your status have been set to being accessable within the last hour or so.
Wouldn't that be a bit like those dating apps.... like, say, tinder? Aaaand now I have a name for the pub meetup app: Bartinder. (You're free to use that one)
A couple of years ago me and my friends had a Teamspeak server. If you were bored you could just join a channel and wait for someone else to go online and talk to you. Now with discord that would probably work even better, because that has an app, and you don't have to rent your own server.
Snapchat does have a thing now where you can separate out your _Story_ into different groups of people. And people do periodically use it to send out messages saying "I'm bored. Anyone free?" It doesn't send a push notification. And you can reasonably assume people won't see it if they're busy.
American here who used MSN. Eventually also got Trillian (little silent cheer when Tom called out there), had an AOL account for the couple people too stubborn to get MSN (DO WHAT I DO DAMMIT), and an ICQ room or two. This is Good Video right here.
App-wise, it is possible to post a silent notification, so it just sits in your notification list, but doesn't vibrate or make a sound. Not sure if that would help anyone get started...
Silent push notifications are perfect for this honestly. GCM lets you do that, at the very least. GCM wakes up app, app checks for any recent flares, and if not show a pub flare
I miss the old IM days too. I started using ICQ when I was 15 in 1999 and then eventually landed on AIM and MSN. Things were just so much better then. Your right about knowing people were available, because you likely wouldn't use them unless you weren't doing anything, and you had to be sitting at a computer, where as now you can be sitting on a bus or in a meeting or wherever. We've lost that today and I agree it feels like your bothering people anymore. Awesome that you used Trillian Tom, that was like my favorite IM for so many years.
Re: pub flares. At uni (before smartphones) we had a few newsgroups for various student societies etc, and if anyone was bored and wanted to go to the pub they would post on the newsgroup, and then head for the union bar. Worked well enough back then.
I was hoping to get some recommendations for good desktop messaging apps that work on both computer and mobile. Nothing has been the same since MSN merged with Skype. No one uses ICQ anymore and Google discontinued their desktop version on Hangouts. Everything sucks now.
You just let the person choose who they want the message to go to, and then send it without a notification. If they get bored and check the app, then they'll see your "If you're bored" invite. You, being bored decides "Hey, that sounds like something to do since I'm bored"
Also just remembered there was a plugin that connected to your Winamp and updated with the song you were listening to. Every so often, someone would watch an adult movie in Winamp before going to sleep, which meant the status stayed there until next day. Whoopsie...
The platform that to me seems like it would be (been?) most conducive to something like a 'pub flare' would be google plus, with the way you could set up contacts in circles, to let you let certain people see personal stuff, other see work stuff, and so on.
Tom wants to physically alter our brains and interface them with artificial intelligence, just to make social interactions less of a bother when you go to the pub. One of the most British science fiction ideas I've ever seen!
There are at least two apps for desktop. Franz and Rambox. That can be used to open multiple IM things. They're essentially stripped down web browsers that open the web clients.
I'm a US Citizen living in the US. I used MSN Messenger... mostly to not to talk to anyone, because I was a boring loser...Still am, but at least I can live vicariously through my daughter's activities...
Another plug for Discord. The bot API is also super easy for derping around with automation. Leave notifications off and just check in on the group channel later.
Funny thing, I’m American and primarily used MSN. Reason being; It was all my friends playing runescape that got me to use it. Runescape being a British made game of course. I also used AIM to talk to all my “normal” friends ;)
I got ICQ for people in Slovakia and Czechia, I've got a bunch of AIM from I think Romania? MSN for the Brits and I think the Russians were also on ICQ... all ties into Miranda, which, worryingly, still ran when I found it on one of my backup harddrives as a portable about the time of this video!
1. "If you're too young to remember" or if you just weren't paying attention. 2. Pub-flair: You and your friends download Pub-flair and you specify which friends get notified with which flairs. You can have up to three as well as having to specify friend by friend for a one-time only flair. People who are not on Pub-flair, will not be notified. People can turn off Flair-watch if they don't want to be bothered right now, but a record of your friends flairs will remain so if they get curious, they can see if you've flaired. 3 You two are SO British. It's cool.
I miss MSN messenger. I'm American and I used it from ages 8 to... 11 I think? Right about the time AIM came about to my peers. But it's because they closed the messenger down, i'd still not have deleted it. Man I loved it.
Tom - there is an app I found that fits your 'pub flare' idea perfectly. Can't remember the name, but it was exactly that - you sent a notification saying what you were up to and your friends replied/came if they wanted. I couldn't use it, but it would be worth checking out and recommending to your friends!
When Microsoft merged MSN and Skype, I already had accounts with each and couldn't figure out how to combine them, and forgot about both services. They had a good thing with both and now Skype just fell into irrelevance.
Regarding interoperability, not only were there apps that would aggregate your different IM accounts, but there were also multiple IM services that could talk to each other over XMPP, not entirely unlike the way a Gmail user can exchange email with a Hotmail user. Do you think there is any chance for some sort of new IM protocol to come about that would enable that sort of interoperability, or are all the companies big enough to pull it off too happy inside their walled gardens?
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](/img/tr.png)
The app could be tinder style, where it will only send a notification if two users have mutual interest in going to the pub
Ryan Lynch immediately where my head went. And you could set folks to different circles, so when you ping for the pub you set the appropriate group
open source github project anyone? :D
I was thinking the same thing a while back, like a let's get a beer app where you'd set a flag when you're free and instantly you'd see if friends in your circles are up for a beer. If not, you can receive a notification when they do become available (aka, one of them sets the flag).
Nice idea. However there are definitely times when i'm not actively thinking about the pub (and therefore wouldn't set a pub status to available) but would stop the current activity for the pub
This could also sync with google or apple calendars.
"This is gonna be rambly as hell" Always a good start.
Prey love me a good ramble
“Yeah I know I know” was the perfect response
"The world is worse now!" Tomscott 2018
Tom you started the "Grumpy old man" phase a bit early.
nah, right on schedule with his hair.
Ano Nym I prefer to look at it as he has started on time, like myself, and the rest of you are just lazy slackers who haven't caught up with reality yet... But I haven't had my coffee yet this morning.
Can I complain with you, guys?
Nadius89 No!
(Definitely, didn't just give you something to complain about:)
This comment aged well
Perhaps what we need is an "I'm bored; notify me if any of these friends say they're bored in the next X hours" sort of app.
The Parkbench, in a nutshell: they're mostly never sitting in a parkbench.
they are sometimes, maybe we should call those the parkbench parkbench edition ;)
Parkerbench, ala Parker Square?
The park bench *after hours*
Mature audiences only: lots of paperwork, house cleaning, and sensible bedtimes.
... and dirty dishes and forgotten laundry.
Troy and Abed in the Moooorning, /nights/
Matt and Tom *After Dark*
This is exactly the reason why I am terrible at messaging anyone : the constant latent fear of intruding. But most other people live in the same haze of fear so, yay for widespread social awkwardness? And yes, you two are totally Statler and Waldorf. Mattler and Tomdorf?
The fear of intruding, and the fear that people will say no, and then you'll feel a little worse about it than if you hadn't asked at all.
Sorry, but I disagree. Matt and Tom are definitely not Statler and Waldorf. Those two muppets were hecklers, not critics.They were mostly there to heckle Kermit and Fozzy the Bear. (And were the meanest to Fozzy.) Matt and Tom are just two adults reminiscing about "the old times" and bemoaning how times have changed. I don't think the Muppets had that. Closest would be Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street.
I mean, yeah, Matt and Tom aren't hecklers but I think the in-common trait is their lovable not-overly-gloomy curmudgeonliness which Statler and Waldorf had in spades.
There definitely needs to be that hierarchy of messaging options. If it's 2 am you send an email. At an appropriate time, a quick text to see if people want to hang out or talk. Call when they are expecting it or it's really important... or something like that. Snail mail when you have to send them a present... heck, you don't even need it to send money now...
Maybe we need something like a weather app, where it can keep an updating notification going, but it never actually pings/vibes. If you want to meet up with people, check the notification and see if it has a number greater than 0. Set your status in the app, but if you haven't set it in like, an hour, it assumes you're busy now and switches you to not-bored. Because it doesn't ping, it doesn't intrude, but it's always just kind of there.
If it could have a setting to quietly track how many social media apps you've been switching between and set your status to bored if you're clearly out of internet, that might be interesting too.
Blog on a log with a dog?
Vlog* on a log with a dog
At least there's no fog.
Or a bog
But they are breathing smog.
No drinking eggnog.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the "Skype Me" status on Skype, this meant you're bored and anybody can call you, not just people in your contacts. In hindsight it's clear why that was a terrible idea :D
“I have Slack because I’m a grown-up” that is horrifyingly accurate
"running out of internet" yesss this is the phrase I needed! Also, I know this feeling when you don't feel like doing any non-internety things.
yes!!!
and your brain is too lazy to watch anything on Netflix that requires any kind of attention/focus.
I would say that Discord is the nearest to MSN now in terms of the online indicator. You have to open the program for it to say that you are online and it shows what game you are on at the time, or if you are like me on don't play games much, you can customize what it says you are doing :)
I use Discord for my (fan-based) translation group. (We used to use Skype, but some members had difficulties accessing it)
We use the main chatroom almost every day, and I keep it unmuted. If I'm busy with school or don't want to hear notification sounds all the time, I will set my status to 'do not disturb', which mutes all chats. We have another chatroom that we use for small talk/non-translation-related stuff, and I always have that on mute. If I feel like talking about stuff or contributing to a conversation, I will have that chatroom open.
I'm not savvy about social media, and only have a small group of friends who also don't use a lot of social media, and none of them expect everybody to respond instantly.
But when it comes to instant messaging, Discord isn't perfect, but I agree it's the closest I have experienced to keeping track of social availability like MSN.
Steam chat.
Exactly
GaduGadu here if it's still even online? Discord mostly tho.
One of the things I miss about uni is sending a message to the flat group chat saying "Tea?" at pretty much any time of day or night and wondering to the kitchen to hang out with at least one of my mates
Nostalgialog? Nah it's more like a Backlog.
Surprise dogs are the best dogs. It's like, wow, I didn't expect a dog to be here, but now that there is, this is a good thing.
Tyler Joseph Schommer Except that Matt is some kind of monster who doesn't like them... But in general, yes! 🐶
They should make an episode about how they overcome their fear of dogs…
Not everyone enjoys having an uninvited, smelly and possibly dangerous quadruped come up. I particularly despise the ones who like to jump on me, smearing my trousers, and most are like that. If you own a dog and don't make sure they don't invade other people's personal space, you are being seriously disrespectful.
If you know anything about dogs then you'd know how to keep them from jumping up and smearing your trousers.
Why did I just read this in toms Voice
An app where you set the level of boredom. Then if people in your lists that have the same or similar level and in some smilier area of boredom are messaged. That way you do not message people that are not identifying as bored, or are to far away to join in.
You don't set the status,but the more often you check peoples bored status the higher your status rises
When talking about the IM wars, you forgot a very important player who is still around. Skype. The reason MSN no longer exists is because Skype took over MSN. Microsoft bought Skype and merged the two networks, so TECHNICALLY you can still use your MSN sign in, just in Skype now.
knightshousegames AND it has the same status features as MSN. I personally like the ‘busy’ and ‘invisible’ ones so people at work won’t disturb me. :)
And isn't there the status message too, so you can write "going to pub now 7-10pm" and everyone bored can check out others status and go join them.
And then Discord showed up.
i still have an MSN email, and i use that for skype.
Pretty much always have skype open. Also use discord. And Steam. All 3 frequently gets used. IRC I have stopped using. Never touch Facebook. Ick... Facebook seems so dirty!
Discord is the new MSN
Nah its more like a big groupchat.
I actually only use it for one on one conversations
_Smartflone_
Smartphlone
SVNBob yes
...and the always hateful phlablet.
I used Trillian in the US and it was pretty much an even tie with AIM and MSN. Nowadays, I think the equivalent is Discord (which has status indicators) or Telegram (which only shows when you were last active.)
Yep! Was named in honor of Trillian. These days, they market it more as an in-house business messenger, though.
Zzyzx Wolfe i didn't know trillian ever had its own service. Just thought it bridged aim, msn, irc and so forth into one prog.
They came out with Trillian Astra with later versions, which is their own messenger, but it can also be set up as a private company server as well. Sort of like Skype for Business.
Zzyzx Wolfe Discord has a little button so at any time you can put yourself into 'busy', 'do not disturb', or 'invisible' (Appear as offline) mode, which is nice.
So what if Pub Flare DOES give notifications but only to people that have also set off the flare? That would solve it right?
Yes, I believe it would. You've had 3 years, any chance there is a link yet?
On Android phones, you get the notification and when you chose reply, it will give you a small window in which you can read the message, you will have the keyboard on the bottom of the screen, and you can reply. After you hit send, you're back in your original app. Quite neat!
The story Tom mentions is giving me strong Jeeves & Wooster vibes, like the butlers (or the electronic equivalent of them) are actually handling problems and finding discreet and elegant solutions rather than the actual person they work for dealing with stuff.
The best way to fix that problem of notifications is just do it muted. As in the receiver gets a notification on there phone but it doesn't vibrate or make a noise or anything. That way the only people that see it are people who are already looking on their phones and are probably bored also.
If you go into the notification settings you can get close to the idea and only have “show as banners” on.
I dunno about Trillian, but I used eBuddy. Also, in my social circle, MSN was a thing that was always open when you were on your computer, because it launched at login. Honestly, phone notifications are far less intrusive than MSN's "nudges".
Pidgin for me, though I did use Trillian back in the day. Good throw backs.
Regarding status indicators, I really like that Slack will warn you when someone is in “do not disturb” mode (and give you the option to override it if your message is actually urgent). I wish more IM programs did that.
This time on park bench: Tom fails terribly at falling off a log.
Toms Pub Flare app problem solved
App sends a notification to a dedicated server that friends can log into and sees your availability and makes the choice - will send you a notification saying "are you still at the pub?" netflix style after a period of time.
“Did you hit record?” I’ll be honest, I don’t think you did.
We have still have that i'm bored button now, it's the online notification for Discord.
Matt and Tom's reaction to strange dogs is the same as my reaction to "friends of my friends" :')
I think Android has actually coming around to handling this pretty well. Silent notifications mean I don't see Messenger, et al until I'm on my phone anyway. If I'm already on my phone, I can respond within the Android notification shade.
I'll never be able to unsee how Tom's thumbs looked two different lengths.
MSN Messenger was the one and only IM client here in Denmark as well. As time went on, others came along, and I did what Tom did and used Adium to connect all the messaging services into one little app
"I'm bored, I want to go to the pub": The app
Me, in 2020: Well that app is dead if it ever existed.
I just came across the performance of The Procrastinator by Jay Foreman at DougSoc which is the funniest thing I've seen for a while. I loved Tom's solo and the random crashing into poor Jay as he's trying to play, not to mention Matt's dancing along at the edge! True surreal comedy!
Matt and Tom when a dog approaches them: Oh that's a dog. Noope go away.
Me when a dog approaches me: high pitched voice, dying of cuteness and cuddling it.
So my in depth feeling on messenger notifications and pub flares is.
Why such a negative reaction to surprise dog?
the dog was intruding
The pub flare concept gives me so many ideas that I can't even put them down into a single comment. I might just work up an outline, so thanks for the idea.
Discord is the closest you can get to a 'classic' instant messenger right now, but even it's not perfect.
is msn messenger prime nostalgia yet? im 17 and even i remember using msn for a while.
Canada used MSN messenger!!!! i specifically remember the glittery text gifs, song lyrics in the description...
yeah the glittery text (or any stylistic font) that work by replacing letters with emoticon images, I hated them because they took time to load on dialup and if you're internet is slow right now (or you're downloading something), you basically can't read any of the messages :D
Loved how simple msn was to put in your own emojis in, and key them. Sooo fun. Skype and discord has a good online indicator
that pub thingy is basically a tinder clone for drinking that would auto-swipe right on a group of pre-selected friends.
if two people who have eachother in their auto-accept list click the PUB-button in an interval of an hour, they both get notified.
Pub flare equivalent for my close group is a WhatsApp group where the etiquette is you're allowed to just not reply if you're not interested, no having to say 'no thanks' let alone feeling like you need to explain why.
What WhatsApp *really* needs though is mute intervals like 20mins or an hour. Seems a very 'engagement metric' driven choice on their part.
What *everything* needs is mute intervals, 10mins to 24hours.
All the really old Nokias had this. Anyone know of an android app (or even variant system) that has this?
I literally just thought of Jay Foremans MSN song when Tom mentioned it 😁
IRC will never die.
Fugoux I was thinking this the whole time. If anyone who's not the host connects to irc or ts, they are very bored and want to talk.
I don't know. My experience - both in the past and the present - is that I am connected to networks 24x7 through an IRC bouncer. Almost everyone I know uses them. So my experience is quite the opposite; people on IRC are almost always idling.
Fugoux I keep trying to get into irc but I never manage to stay. I don't like the ways I don't get the messages I wasn't online for (because it's not what my young brain is used to). I guess it's kind of the point of "if you're online, you're bored" but I've mostly tried it for tech support.
I like the model of everyone being online with their bouncer, and then when you’re actually online you become voiced so everyone knows
7 months later - Discord, Slack, MS Teams, FB for Work. IRC might seem pretty much dead now, but the concept certainly lives on.
Msn feel like eons ago. It was also very popular here in the Netherlands.
A group of friends (old friends from uni and other people who have condensed around that core) have a Slack for keeping in touch, and one of the channels is essentially for "anyone for the pub/coffee/pizza right now?"; it's the only one I have notifications turned on for.
This is exactly WHY I have a group chat with all my close friends that I keep muted. I check it semi-regularly, and we regularly do just go "who wants to go to x" and start a thing.
ICQ was the best! It had features that no one else had/has. You could connect with a friend and then “drag” him through the Internet. Basically whatever website you went to your friends computer would automatically go to the same website. It was fantastic!
My nostalgia kick from MSN came when I set up my Windows 10 computer after using Mac for ages, and the computer account is linked to your Microsoft account. So now I see my old MSN profile pic when I start my computer.
I remember everyone leaving MSN Messenger for Facebook Messenger. MSN got emptier and emptier and then I just had to get FB. This would have been circa 2009.
Miss this series, on my second run thru
steam chat is a bit like that. I only start up steam when I'm bored...
but most instant messengers I treat like regular messengers; If I don't answer you can keep talking. I will read it eventually.
that also means if you someone want to physically meet up with me; they better ask about it long in advance...
Today, everyone is always available, yet never at the same time. You write to a person and expect that sometimes in the near future they will answer.
(Thus, the end of the "brb". --- Felt quite old recently, a younger friend of mine didn't know the meaning of that expression. 😱)
Ha that's a good point. One doesn't walk away from the computer these days, it comes with you! --Matt
I think I still say BRB at least once a day. Doesn't matter if you've got a phone on you at all times; you can't wash the dishes or hang clothes out to dry and use your phone at the same time. Unless you use some sort of speech to text type thing, but then I'd say that's more of an IM addiction
It's videos and comments like these that make me both go "what is wrong with my generation?" and feel like I was raised in a late 90s time capsule. I mean, how does someone younger than 40 not know what brb means?
Some restaurants wait staff would do well to respond to patrons for fear of customers shooting a Flare up into and beyond the dropped ceiling.
You have no idea how much I wish pub flares were a thing. In unrelated news, you have no idea how much I wish this type of night-park-bench type videos were still a thing.
This makes me wonder when was texting invented? Also Yahoo had an IM service? Now that I got to that point, Pub Flair(e) that sounds kind of like Google+. Like you have a social network with multiple circles, one of which is a pub circle, where your group of friends who you want to go the pub with, you send a message within that group.
Matt/Tom is there a reason neither of you seem to be too... "thrilled" with dogs? Not judging, just curious as a Canadian that lives in a relatively rural area. (Random dogs are VERY common here)
Dogs can be unpredictable.
@@inkfarer so can people
As an American who played an online MMO-type text game in 2005 to 2009 that was mainly European players, I had to download MSN Messenger for them. AIM was what all of my friends used, but MSN was for holding court with my vassals and negotiating non-aggression pacts with rival kings.
The main reason however for MSN Messenger going away was simply due to Microsoft having acquired Skype, and it was pointless to run two separate IM services instead of just merging MSN accounts into Skype which had more features available.
I'm not sure about timing exactly, but I think by that time people were switching to FB anyway and using Messenger. And Skype was _slow_
the basic idea sounds great.
Could be something like you sent out at status to your network that last for about an hour that you are bored, and if someone in your network within that hour sends out a similar requestm you match up and connect to each other, sounds quite simple to make but the privacy around it is be more than I have time to deal with at this point but the idea is great.
of course no notifications on phones etc. unless your status have been set to being accessable within the last hour or so.
Wouldn't that be a bit like those dating apps.... like, say, tinder? Aaaand now I have a name for the pub meetup app: Bartinder. (You're free to use that one)
yup that is the basic idea, but you are in a network with who ever your friends are and they are the only ones you can match with.
A couple of years ago me and my friends had a Teamspeak server. If you were bored you could just join a channel and wait for someone else to go online and talk to you.
Now with discord that would probably work even better, because that has an app, and you don't have to rent your own server.
Snapchat does have a thing now where you can separate out your _Story_ into different groups of people. And people do periodically use it to send out messages saying "I'm bored. Anyone free?" It doesn't send a push notification. And you can reasonably assume people won't see it if they're busy.
I am with you. We used MSN here in my part of Canada and it just worked for the reasons you laid out.
American here who used MSN. Eventually also got Trillian (little silent cheer when Tom called out there), had an AOL account for the couple people too stubborn to get MSN (DO WHAT I DO DAMMIT), and an ICQ room or two. This is Good Video right here.
App-wise, it is possible to post a silent notification, so it just sits in your notification list, but doesn't vibrate or make a sound. Not sure if that would help anyone get started...
Silent push notifications are perfect for this honestly. GCM lets you do that, at the very least. GCM wakes up app, app checks for any recent flares, and if not show a pub flare
I miss the old IM days too. I started using ICQ when I was 15 in 1999 and then eventually landed on AIM and MSN. Things were just so much better then. Your right about knowing people were available, because you likely wouldn't use them unless you weren't doing anything, and you had to be sitting at a computer, where as now you can be sitting on a bus or in a meeting or wherever. We've lost that today and I agree it feels like your bothering people anymore. Awesome that you used Trillian Tom, that was like my favorite IM for so many years.
Re: pub flares. At uni (before smartphones) we had a few newsgroups for various student societies etc, and if anyone was bored and wanted to go to the pub they would post on the newsgroup, and then head for the union bar. Worked well enough back then.
I was hoping to get some recommendations for good desktop messaging apps that work on both computer and mobile. Nothing has been the same since MSN merged with Skype. No one uses ICQ anymore and Google discontinued their desktop version on Hangouts. Everything sucks now.
Discord?
Yes, Discord.
I use hangouts in the desktop browser all the time on the gmail site.
I live for your uploads every week
You just let the person choose who they want the message to go to, and then send it without a notification. If they get bored and check the app, then they'll see your "If you're bored" invite.
You, being bored decides "Hey, that sounds like something to do since I'm bored"
Also just remembered there was a plugin that connected to your Winamp and updated with the song you were listening to.
Every so often, someone would watch an adult movie in Winamp before going to sleep, which meant the status stayed there until next day. Whoopsie...
Doggy! I miss MSN, surprise dog would totally have been an MSN worthy status update.
The platform that to me seems like it would be (been?) most conducive to something like a 'pub flare' would be google plus, with the way you could set up contacts in circles, to let you let certain people see personal stuff, other see work stuff, and so on.
I know I'm a year late, but there are many apps that will join all of your chat networks while still being secure (pidgin for example)
Hearing someone say MSN Messanger is really weird... Everyone I knew just called it msn
Tom wants to physically alter our brains and interface them with artificial intelligence, just to make social interactions less of a bother when you go to the pub.
One of the most British science fiction ideas I've ever seen!
There are at least two apps for desktop. Franz and Rambox. That can be used to open multiple IM things. They're essentially stripped down web browsers that open the web clients.
I'm assuming you were referring to "The Procrastinator". It is definitely still online in a few places, just maybe not on Jay's channel.
Before the internet, we went to the pub, and then there were other people and we met them and said "hey, you here too, were you bored too?
I miss days when I could go to the pub and there would always be someone there.
Oh wait, it's 2020. I miss days when I could go to the pub.
I'm a US Citizen living in the US. I used MSN Messenger... mostly to not to talk to anyone, because I was a boring loser...Still am, but at least I can live vicariously through my daughter's activities...
The dog just wanted to be the mascot for the app! You could call it Availabark!
Another plug for Discord. The bot API is also super easy for derping around with automation. Leave notifications off and just check in on the group channel later.
Funny thing, I’m American and primarily used MSN. Reason being; It was all my friends playing runescape that got me to use it. Runescape being a British made game of course.
I also used AIM to talk to all my “normal” friends ;)
I got ICQ for people in Slovakia and Czechia, I've got a bunch of AIM from I think Romania? MSN for the Brits and I think the Russians were also on ICQ... all ties into Miranda, which, worryingly, still ran when I found it on one of my backup harddrives as a portable about the time of this video!
A messenger group chat bubble popped up and obscured Tom's face, just after matt had finished talking about group chat notifications
Weird, just a few days ago I was thinking about how I missed Messenger, for all the same reasons as you. Do like the idea of a pub flare.
MSN, Flares.... okay I'm 10 minutes in now it's time to wait for SURPRISE DOG
I loved Trillian and used so many different messengers back then.
1. "If you're too young to remember" or if you just weren't paying attention.
2. Pub-flair: You and your friends download Pub-flair and you specify which friends get notified with which flairs. You can have up to three as well as having to specify friend by friend for a one-time only flair. People who are not on Pub-flair, will not be notified. People can turn off Flair-watch if they don't want to be bothered right now, but a record of your friends flairs will remain so if they get curious, they can see if you've flaired.
3 You two are SO British. It's cool.
I miss MSN messenger. I'm American and I used it from ages 8 to... 11 I think? Right about the time AIM came about to my peers. But it's because they closed the messenger down, i'd still not have deleted it.
Man I loved it.
They're doing a vlog on a log, after dark in a park, ... (Hint: You guys continue this on...)
With a dog in the vlog,
Tom - there is an app I found that fits your 'pub flare' idea perfectly. Can't remember the name, but it was exactly that - you sent a notification saying what you were up to and your friends replied/came if they wanted. I couldn't use it, but it would be worth checking out and recommending to your friends!
When Microsoft merged MSN and Skype, I already had accounts with each and couldn't figure out how to combine them, and forgot about both services. They had a good thing with both and now Skype just fell into irrelevance.
I now miss something I had forgotten. Everyone one on one network with statuses that meant something .. good times.
Regarding interoperability, not only were there apps that would aggregate your different IM accounts, but there were also multiple IM services that could talk to each other over XMPP, not entirely unlike the way a Gmail user can exchange email with a Hotmail user. Do you think there is any chance for some sort of new IM protocol to come about that would enable that sort of interoperability, or are all the companies big enough to pull it off too happy inside their walled gardens?