iChat Not Dead.....

[Dronecatcher]

Wow, this should be viable also for older iOS devices, very interesting as there is no official way to use Facebook messenger’s services on anything older than iOS 10 or so now.

I'm sure any jabber client on any platform will be capable.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I've just had to change the login details of my Facebook account - overnight it had over 70 unusual logins (or attempts) from the garden server - I don't know if there's an explanation for that or was it just plain compromised - waiting to hear back but in the meantime I wouldn't recommend anyone to use this.

 

[lepidotós]

Sounds like it'd be safer to just ssh into the computer of whoever you're trying to talk to and leaving a text file and/or multimedia, and vice versa.​

 

[Dronecatcher]

Sounds like it'd be safer to just ssh into the computer of whoever you're trying to talk to and leaving a text file and/or multimedia, and vice versa.​

I'll just go back to using standard encrypted messaging on my phone - the price of the macintoshgarden server working with old apps/operating systems is that it isn't secure but I never expected someone to make a concerted effort to crack my password!

 

[Dronecatcher]

Sounds like it'd be safer to just ssh into the computer of whoever you're trying to talk to and leaving a text file and/or multimedia, and vice versa.​

The developer at macintoshgarden says this behaviour is normal as the server checks/updates your contacts list and as such logs into your account autonomously - I'll forego this service as I don't want hundreds of warnings from Facebook every day!

 

[skinniezinho]

Surprised to see such service appear.
Right now for facebook chat I still use the "boxed" app present on this forum.
Regarding skype does it allow you to make video call or audio call or just the chat?
As far as I am aware there is no video call service that works on powerpc, right?
Also I've been trying to get whatsapp web to work and no go.
Thank your for posting

 

[eyoungren]

There are a mess of reasons, both personal (very estranged family of origin) and paradigmatic (surveillance capitalism), why I didn‘t set up a FB account, and of course, this means I also miss out on the few positive aspects which have emerged from the ubiquity of a worldwide private community situated within the internet. It also means I enjoy never reading the conspiratorial screeds of distant family members or rowing against the swift current of FB’s content delivery algorithms.

I never had one until 2009. But a friend of mine contacted me to inquire about what another friend was writing on FB. So, I joined. I was there until February 2017.

From the start of the presidential campaigns in 2015-2016 to Feb. 2017 things changed. People formed up into camps and it became an echo chamber where no one was listening except to their own echo. I began to discover that family and friends held beliefs I did not agree with. Rather than cutoff all my family members and most of my friends, I just left.

The result was not unexpected. Only one or two people noticed I was gone. But I've never had lots of real friends and my extended family on both sides has never been close. I wasn't missed. And I didn't miss the no-win arguments and conversations that a lot of things devolved in to on FB.

I don't miss it at all.

PS. When I left, I used an addon in TenFourFox that systematically went out and removed every photo, post, note and thing I'd ever put on my wall. It deleted all my albums, everything. I removed all info. The only things I could not do was stuff where people tagged me in their photos and such. Then I closed the account. The idea was that if anyone ever hacked my closed account, it'd have nothing in it.

But in Feb. 2017 I found a link to actually DELETE the account. FB doesn't advertise it, and it's been five years now so I don't know if it still exists. But they make you wait a month (in case you change your mind). I didn't and never logged back in, so as far as I know it's been deleted since March 2017.

Considering that things have only gotten worse over time, I do not ever intend to return. Anyone that knew me there would know my email address or have a way to get it, so it's not like I cut anybody off permanently.

Finally, for purposes of the subject of this thread, I have friends in the UK, Sweden and Australia. Communication is either via iMessage or email. I also get a regular yearly calendar sent to me on Christmas from a friend I've known since 2001 in the Quark forums.

dave walsh creative | design print other

If anyone cares to look him up.

 

[B S Magnet]

I never had one until 2009. But a friend of mine contacted me to inquire about what another friend was writing on FB. So, I joined. I was there until February 2017.

From the start of the presidential campaigns in 2015-2016 to Feb. 2017 things changed. People formed up into camps and it became an echo chamber where no one was listening except to their own echo. I began to discover that family and friends held beliefs I did not agree with. Rather than cutoff all my family members and most of my friends, I just left.

The result was not unexpected. Only one or two people noticed I was gone. But I've never had lots of real friends and my extended family on both sides has never been close. I wasn't missed. And I didn't miss the no-win arguments and conversations that a lot of things devolved in to on FB.

I don't miss it at all.

PS. When I left, I used an addon in TenFourFox that systematically went out and removed every photo, post, note and thing I'd ever put on my wall. It deleted all my albums, everything. I removed all info. The only things I could not do was stuff where people tagged me in their photos and such. Then I closed the account. The idea was that if anyone ever hacked my closed account, it'd have noting in it.

But in Feb. 2017 I found a link to actually DELETE the account. FB doesn't advertise it, and it's been five years now so I don't know if it still exists. But they make you wait a month (in case you change your mind). I didn't and never logged back in, so as far as I know it's been deleted since March 2017.

Considering that things have only gotten worse over time, I do not ever intend to return. Anyone that knew me there would know my email address or have a way to get it, so it's not like I cut anybody off permanently.

Finally, for purposes of the subject of this thread, I have friends in the UK, Sweden and Australia. Communication is either via iMessage or email. I also get a regular yearly calendar sent to me on Christmas from a friend I've known since 2001 in the Quark forums.

dave walsh creative | design print other

If anyone cares to look him up.

In hindsight, it was the brief existence of Friendster in 2002–04 which revealed to me both the incredible power and the potential peril of a heavily-connected private community whereby anyone could, in theory, contact anybody else within the community. Friendster was probably the first “Web 2.0” platform I ever used. (LiveJournal, which I began using before Friendster, wasn’t exactly Web 2.0… maybe “Web 1.5”).

(This was long before the Googles and the FBs began to apply the fuzzy logic introduced by Amazon’s then-called “Recommendation Engine Technology” — basically, one of the first algorithms designed to tailor the content one saw on their browser — to other uses such as a social platform.)

Of course, Friendster imploded right about the time “The Facebook” was cobbled together in some dorm room (for arguably angry, nefarious motivations of a certain, dead-eyed undergrad). Very quickly, I took note of how aggressively FB strove to get university students signed up (I was in undergrad at the time) — which also didn’t sit well with me. My thinking, even then: like, why was this new commercial service so driven to get everyone signed up ASAP?

This was around when the concept of “the end-user is the product” (with data collected on users being the sought-after asset) came to be more widely known from the early success of Google applying precisely that approach with its search engine. This was when I concluded I would not be joining for the above-mentioned reasons (as FB were readying for a wider membership scope no longer confined to folks in school). I distinctly recall making this decision by no later than mid-2006, when fellow (albeit younger) colleagues on a student board on which I served were insistent I “join FB” — even though we all lived in the same part of town, saw each other several times a week, and we already used email for board-related business. None had used Friendster, and they looked at me side-eyed when I explained why I would not be joining.

In more recent years, a few of those colleagues with whom I’ve maintained lasting friendships have confided how they came to realize the devil’s bargain they made by joining and how they’re trying, however difficult, to untangle themselves from relying on FB nearly as much, even if they’re unable to delete their profile entirely.

I don’t envy that task of disentanglement.

 

[eyoungren]

In hindsight, it was the brief existence of Friendster in 2002–04 which revealed to me both the incredible power and the potential peril of a heavily-connected private community whereby anyone could, in theory, contact anybody else within the community. Friendster was probably the first “Web 2.0” platform I ever used. (LiveJournal, which I began using before Friendster, wasn’t exactly Web 2.0… maybe “Web 1.5”).

(This was long before the Googles and the FBs began to apply the fuzzy logic introduced by Amazon’s then-called “Recommendation Engine Technology” — basically, one of the first algorithms designed to tailor the content one saw on their browser — to other uses such as a social platform.)

Of course, Friendster imploded right about the time “The Facebook” was cobbled together in some dorm room (for arguably angry, nefarious motivations of a certain, dead-eyed undergrad). Very quickly, I took note of how aggressively FB strove to get university students signed up (I was in undergrad at the time) — which also didn’t sit well with me. My thinking, even then: like, why was this new commercial service so driven to get everyone signed up ASAP?

This was around when the concept of “the end-user is the product” (with data collected on users being the sought-after asset) came to be more widely known from the early success of Google applying precisely that approach with its search engine. This was when I concluded I would not be joining for the above-mentioned reasons (as FB were readying for a wider membership scope no longer confined to folks in school). I distinctly recall making this decision by no later than mid-2006, when fellow (albeit younger) colleagues on a student board on which I served were insistent I “join FB” — even though we all lived in the same part of town, saw each other several times a week, and we already used email for board-related business. None had used Friendster, and they looked at me side-eyed when I explained why I would not be joining.

In more recent years, a few of those colleagues with whom I’ve maintained lasting friendships have confided how they came to realize the devil’s bargain they made by joining and how they’re trying, however difficult, to untangle themselves from relying on FB nearly as much, even if they’re unable to delete their profile entirely.

I don’t envy that task of disentanglement.

One of the precursors to my leaving FB was a discussion I had with the friend of a friend on her wall. In my pointing out facts I was explicitly told that unless I agreed with her opinion and her point of view I was not to post on her wall.

Never mind that I was right, she wanted to see things her way, even if that meant she was dead wrong. It is this viewpoint that began to accelerate later and largely was the primary reason I left. People believe what they want to believe, ignore the facts that challenge their beliefs and get angry when proven wrong. Rather than being educated and moving forward with having learned something they are furious with you for taking away something they firmly want to believe in.

I was done with all that.

 

[Amethyst1]

People believe what they want to believe, ignore the facts that challenge their beliefs and get angry when proven wrong.

This behaviour is so childish and stupid... You'd think most people would be above that.

 

[eyoungren]

This behaviour is so childish and stupid... You'd think most people would be above that.

You'd think. But it's actually (IMO) lazy cowardice.

People don't want to think, it's easier to just accept something as fact. You don't have to expend energy for reasoning. That's the lazy part. The cowardice comes in because becoming a drone to your beliefs means safety with those who believe the same way. It's much easier to stand up for your beliefs (even if they are wrong) when you're not the only one believing the same way. Guilt or concern doesn't come in to play because you know you're right and therefore any action you take is righteous and justifiable. You never have to consider your actions or choices because of that.

Again, just my opinion. But Facebook is awash in all that garbage I believe.

 

[B S Magnet]

One of the precursors to my leaving FB was a discussion I had with the friend of a friend on her wall. In my pointing out facts I was explicitly told that unless I agreed with her opinion and her point of view I was not to post on her wall.

Never mind that I was right, she wanted to see things her way, even if that meant she was dead wrong. It is this viewpoint that began to accelerate later and largely was the primary reason I left. People believe what they want to believe, ignore the facts that challenge their beliefs and get angry when proven wrong. Rather than being educated and moving forward with having learned something they are furious with you for taking away something they firmly want to believe in.

I was done with all that.

That exchange summarizes the heart of how FB makes bank: drive a feedback loop of serving much more of the same vein of content, amplifying the frequency and intensity of that content and, for many, making it their silo of comfort and sole outlet for more that intimately familiar content. This also makes bespoke advertising so much easier to execute.

This is not the internet I signed on for during the early/mid ’90s (or the BBSes in the mid ’80s), but it’s the internet we’ve all, wrongly or rightly, come to deserve.

tl;dr: “Monetization” was a fatal mistake.

 

[eyoungren]

This is not the internet I signed on for during the early/mid ’90s (or the BBSes in the mid ’80s), but it’s become the internet we’ve all come to deserve.

Yes, I agree. The internet is great, but the vast amount of info out there allows you to choose what you wish to hear and tune out what contradicts what you want to know or believe. People who agree with you are easier to find and you carve out your own version of reality where you are right and everyone else that disagrees is wrong.

 

[B S Magnet]

Yes, I agree. The internet is great, but the vast amount of info out there allows you to choose what you wish to hear and tune out what contradicts what you want to know or believe. People who agree with you are easier to find and you carve out your own version of reality where you are right and everyone else that disagrees is wrong.

Gosh, I can’t figure out why I’m so tired.

 

[Riku7]

We should try fixing it for PPC.

Adium still works. I have it on my Intel and PPC. I just never launch it because I don't have any friends there, thanks to the death of MSN from which chat culture never really recovered. Tried to get some friends to make XMPP accounts at point but to no avail really.

But they haven't been maintaining Adium for a long time now; It used to have (it still might) have that Facebook messenger option on it, but I remember the time when it (a very very long time ago) stopped working because FB changed something. Which is why it might be useful if someone could explain how setting it up now as a normal XMPP account works (I probably won't add it to Adium as I've been gradually getting rid of Facebook rather than deeper into it, for example by getting all my friends to move from WhatsApp to the more secure and less commercial Signal which I can similarly use from my Mac while also letting it handle video calls. But still!)

 

[skinniezinho]

Adium still works. I have it on my Intel and PPC. I just never launch it because I don't have any friends there, thanks to the death of MSN from which chat culture never really recovered. Tried to get some friends to make XMPP accounts at point but to no avail really.

But they haven't been maintaining Adium for a long time now; It used to have (it still might) have that Facebook messenger option on it, but I remember the time when it (a very very long time ago) stopped working because FB changed something. Which is why it might be useful if someone could explain how setting it up now as a normal XMPP account works (I probably won't add it to Adium as I've been gradually getting rid of Facebook rather than deeper into it, for example by getting all my friends to move from WhatsApp to the more secure and less commercial Signal which I can similarly use from my Mac while also letting it handle video calls. But still!)

I also tried to add facebook messenger on it, it opens a windows to make login on your facebook account but as soon as I start writting my login email it crashes.

 

[Foxyz]

C

Those wonderful folk at macintoshgarden have had their bespoke messaging server in place for a few years now but I recently tried it with iChat on my G3 iBook - it works great with a number of chat services and here it is using Facebook Messenger:

View attachment 1984132


EDIT: I've just had to change the login details of my Facebook account - overnight it had over 70 unusual logins (or attempts) from the garden server - I don't know if there's an explanation for that or was it just plain compromised - waiting to hear back but in the meantime I wouldn't recommend anyone to use this.

EDIT: The developer at macintoshgarden says this behaviour is normal as the server checks/updates your contacts list and as such logs into your account autonomously - I'll forego this service as I don't want hundreds of warnings from Facebook every day!

Can you explain how to configure it on iChat? I have everything working in Psi but I can't get iChat to connect, it says "connecting" and immediately afterwards disconnecting. do I have to add the Facebook part of the jabber separately or does iChat also support logging in with the macintoshgarden account and then logging in with facebook or something else afterwards? I don't know how to configure it in iChat and there isn't a single explanation on the internet. Thanks!

 

[Dronecatcher]

C

Can you explain how to configure it on iChat? I have everything working in Psi but I can't get iChat to connect, it says "connecting" and immediately afterwards disconnecting. do I have to add the Facebook part of the jabber separately or does iChat also support logging in with the macintoshgarden account and then logging in with facebook or something else afterwards? I don't know how to configure it in iChat and there isn't a single explanation on the internet. Thanks!

I honestly can't remember as I stopped using it almost immediately due to security issues. The set up has probably changed by now too - I'd advise asking at macintoshgarden.