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thePurpleGiant · Jul 5, 2002, 09:46 AM

Well, I know, this is rather lame, but I was reading the thread about Palladium and MS's attempt to control the world, and getting quite annoyed. So I went to change my MSN Messenger name to "Microsoft sucks"...but what do I find out , I get an error, "invalid name" it tells me...

After testing a few combo's, I found out that the word "Microsoft" is banned in your MSN name!

...So I decided to simply put "MSN names should be free" as my name, but whadaya know "MSN" is a banned word too

"Bill Gates" is allowed luckily.

That's just my little story, thanks for listening

Jeremy

TNproud2b · Jul 5, 2002, 09:49 AM

whoa.

somebody actually uses that messenger thingy?

thePurpleGiant · Jul 5, 2002, 09:59 AM

Yeah mate, over here MSN is all the big thing. Yahoo is slowly gaining ground. AIM is going nowhere...seriously MSN is what everyone uses in my area, it's sad but true.

(As a side note, I'm testing a little plan to prove how peer pressure works. I'm slowly convincing individuals to come and try AIM, then slowly withdraw from MSN, by the end of the year I plan to have my buddy list ~250 people at least half on AIM, and then watch the effect sweep the nation...it sounds like a huge task but I think I can pull it off...

)

Vanquish · Jul 5, 2002, 10:55 AM

Yep MSN is the only thing here in Europe, almost nobody uses ICQ anymore, AOL is almost unknown here (so iChat won't be popular here), Yahoo messenger: nobody uses it. It's almost 100% MSN Messenger.

There are a lot of words you can't use like: f*uck (I can accept that this type of words isn't allowed) for instance but also other simple words like: service, help etc.

<blockquote>quote:<hr /> (As a side note, I'm testing a little plan to prove how peer pressure works. I'm slowly convincing individuals to come and try AIM, then slowly withdraw from MSN, by the end of the year I plan to have my buddy list ~250 people at least half on AIM, and then watch the effect sweep the nation...it sounds like a huge task but I think I can pull it off... )
<hr /></blockquote>Don't put your hopes to high <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> , I'm already trying this for months but with no luck (everybody wants the MSN emoticons and instant changing of ones nickname) also I think MSN is actually *much* better than AIM. The use of you email as your log-in is good (even tough those annoying hotmail-accounts get priority over normal passport-non-hotmail-accounts

)

philzilla · Jul 5, 2002, 11:17 AM

i use it to talk to one person, because all the other IM's seem to freak her XP laptop out . maybe that's all part of this conspiracy?

i think this matter should be referred to chris_h, marked for immediate attention. it's obvious that Microsoft are trying to figure out a way to steal our kidneys and replace them with Oreos.

schep · Jul 5, 2002, 12:11 PM

Just us M$ instead of microsoft

nonhuman · Jul 5, 2002, 12:50 PM

Try changing your AOL screen name to 'Flying Cow'. When I actually used AOL (a long frelling time ago), that name was restricted. Nobody had it, but they wouldn't let you use it for some reason.

thePurpleGiant · Jul 6, 2002, 06:44 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Vanquish:
Yep MSN is the only thing here in Europe, almost nobody uses ICQ anymore, AOL is almost unknown here (so iChat won't be popular here), Yahoo messenger: nobody uses it. It's almost 100% MSN Messenger.

There are a lot of words you can't use like: f*uck (I can accept that this type of words isn't allowed) for instance but also other simple words like: service, help etc.

<blockquote>quote:<hr /> (As a side note, I'm testing a little plan to prove how peer pressure works. I'm slowly convincing individuals to come and try AIM, then slowly withdraw from MSN, by the end of the year I plan to have my buddy list ~250 people at least half on AIM, and then watch the effect sweep the nation...it sounds like a huge task but I think I can pull it off... )
<hr /></blockquote>Don't put your hopes to high <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> , I'm already trying this for months but with no luck (everybody wants the MSN emoticons and instant changing of ones nickname) also I think MSN is actually *much* better than AIM. The use of you email as your log-in is good (even tough those annoying hotmail-accounts get priority over normal passport-non-hotmail-accounts

)<hr /></blockquote>Well, I'm not gullible or naive enough to believe that it was me that did this, but I remember when google first came out. I read about it in some PC mag, that this 'beta search engine is actually quite good'. No one I knew used it at all, but at work I operate the intranet homepage, so I placed a link there. Within a month everyone who accessed this page now used it as their primary search engine, at home too. Before I knew it, every single person in my area was using it, and so the effect spread...

Why am I telling you all this? Because I'm bored...It wasn't me that made google popular, but it's still fun to think so