Got some news on Messenger? Help contribute to the website by sending us your find.Web2Messenger is still alive, but development is slow (invites included)
on Sat 26 Apr 2008 (14:13 GMT)
on Sat 26 Apr 2008 (14:13 GMT)
When Web2Messenger first hit the scene it was big, very big. People went mad trying to find an invite to the service, that displayed your Messenger status, display name and personal message within an image that you could manipulate and show on various websites and forums.
TheBlasphemer has now posted some new news after five months and hearing nothing:
So it sounds like the service just isn't profitable for these busy workers. The developers now have other things going on in their lives and bills to pay. Let's hope the service can be maximized or even sold to someone who can exploit Web2Messenger to its full potential.
Invites:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
>> Source: Web2Messenger official forums
TheBlasphemer has now posted some new news after five months and hearing nothing:
We haven't really been working on Web2Messenger for quite a while now, but it's been silently running in the background doing what it's supposed to do. The only real problem was that changing your passport or signing up wouldn't work, as the add-user routine in the bots were broken. Initially I've just wanted to keep Web2Messenger running as both Andrew and I find it quite useful, but as people kept on bugging me about the aforementioned bug, I took some time yesterday to try and fix it. For now it seems fixed, and in case it fails again I've added some event logging that should alert me to the exact place it's failing so I can pinpoint the problem easily.
Now, we aren't opening up Web2Messenger to the grand public yet, but I did drop off a few invites to a forum and a news site to generate some new buzz around it. Reason being both that I'd like to see my bugfix tested, and that I'd like to get some feedback on things. Web2Messenger in it's current form has no real future. We're currently running into our maximum capacity, but making no real profit. We would like to add an extra server (think roughly 200$ per month), but we're simply unable to afford it. We're hoping someone might have a good idea or opportunity to get some proper advertising income so we could put some more time into W2M. So, if you have any ideas about how to generate some income, or have an idea for a sponsoring deal or something, please do not hesitate to reply to this forum thread or use the contact form.
Now, we aren't opening up Web2Messenger to the grand public yet, but I did drop off a few invites to a forum and a news site to generate some new buzz around it. Reason being both that I'd like to see my bugfix tested, and that I'd like to get some feedback on things. Web2Messenger in it's current form has no real future. We're currently running into our maximum capacity, but making no real profit. We would like to add an extra server (think roughly 200$ per month), but we're simply unable to afford it. We're hoping someone might have a good idea or opportunity to get some proper advertising income so we could put some more time into W2M. So, if you have any ideas about how to generate some income, or have an idea for a sponsoring deal or something, please do not hesitate to reply to this forum thread or use the contact form.
So it sounds like the service just isn't profitable for these busy workers. The developers now have other things going on in their lives and bills to pay. Let's hope the service can be maximized or even sold to someone who can exploit Web2Messenger to its full potential.
Invites:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
>> Source: Web2Messenger official forums
Nile's Animation Plug to keep the news feed active and entertain the masses
on Thu 24 Apr 2008 (15:44 GMT)
on Thu 24 Apr 2008 (15:44 GMT)
Yeah guess I shouldn't do this again, but I think it makes us a more community friendly news site and the news is damn slow recently. And also I seem to get the reputation for these offtopic posts to advertise my own animations and what not :P Some of you might even find them entertaining :O
So this one was a group project and is based on a famous fairy tale, it's pretty dark in nature with some stuff some people (dunno who) may find disturbing or worrying or scary, but most fairy tales and some nursery rhymes traditionally are pretty gruesome, usually involving death or torture of some kind.
Hope you Enjoy, Red (Riding Hoody)
>> Watch Red (Riding Hoody) on Youtube
So this one was a group project and is based on a famous fairy tale, it's pretty dark in nature with some stuff some people (dunno who) may find disturbing or worrying or scary, but most fairy tales and some nursery rhymes traditionally are pretty gruesome, usually involving death or torture of some kind.
Hope you Enjoy, Red (Riding Hoody)
>> Watch Red (Riding Hoody) on Youtube
In a bid to distract from the protests concerning the Olympic Flame, Chinese Messenger users have shown patriotism to their country by adding a heart next to their display name.
Estimates have varied, but some sources claim up to 5 million users have adopted this trend (who knows where that figure has came from). The show of dedication has also been noted by the mainstream media.
This isn't the first time this has happened, I previously recall something along similar lines showing tribute to those who died in the Madrid train bombings. This kind of thing shows how one person or a group of people can create a quick fad over the Internet.
Believe me, this is the only news I have ...
>> Source: Dragon TV claims 5 million MSN Messenger users 'heart' China
Estimates have varied, but some sources claim up to 5 million users have adopted this trend (who knows where that figure has came from). The show of dedication has also been noted by the mainstream media.
MSN China spokesman Feng Guangshun released the figure on Thursday. Many more people have opened their MSN accounts to find a message which asked them to add the 'red heart' and 'China' in front of their signatures.
Feng said he expected the number of participants of this activity, which started Wednesday as a spontaneous patriotic campaign by Chinese Internet users, to raise dramatically in the following few days.
Feng said he expected the number of participants of this activity, which started Wednesday as a spontaneous patriotic campaign by Chinese Internet users, to raise dramatically in the following few days.
This isn't the first time this has happened, I previously recall something along similar lines showing tribute to those who died in the Madrid train bombings. This kind of thing shows how one person or a group of people can create a quick fad over the Internet.
Believe me, this is the only news I have ...
>> Source: Dragon TV claims 5 million MSN Messenger users 'heart' China
Microsoft have been known for blocking links stupidly in the past. But I think this one takes the bullet ... you can now longer receive links to to the hit web messenger eBuddy within Messenger! mess.be had this to say on the issue:
Microsoft have made a mistake from blocking things from day one, it is an inefficient system that was poorly coded and even made Messenger slower. Blocking one of the most successful services to take advantage of their product was an error of judgement and like I said last week Microsoft don't seem to be pleasing those who work closely with their products.
>> Source: mess.be
A considerable number of people may have, for whatever reason, reported the popular web-based IM client through the Report abuse option that's sitting in every "Help" menu since version 8.1. But I'm not even seeing those hardly annoying, automated "I'm using eBuddy.com!" messages anymore.
Or perhaps Microsoft just accidentally blocked the site of a competitor... again. But while last week's mistake was corrected in less than a day, the ban on eBuddy.com has first been noticed by Messer Bram already last Wednesday.
Either way, it's probably yet another example of a safe URL being blocked as part of Messenger's inefficient worms and SPIM filter. Both parties were contacted and I'm awaiting their reaction.
Or perhaps Microsoft just accidentally blocked the site of a competitor... again. But while last week's mistake was corrected in less than a day, the ban on eBuddy.com has first been noticed by Messer Bram already last Wednesday.
Either way, it's probably yet another example of a safe URL being blocked as part of Messenger's inefficient worms and SPIM filter. Both parties were contacted and I'm awaiting their reaction.
Microsoft have made a mistake from blocking things from day one, it is an inefficient system that was poorly coded and even made Messenger slower. Blocking one of the most successful services to take advantage of their product was an error of judgement and like I said last week Microsoft don't seem to be pleasing those who work closely with their products.
>> Source: mess.be
If this post sounds bitter, it's because I'm angry right now. Last night the main website was down for 11 hours due to a formal DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice regarding allegedly infringing content on the website. This was sent by Microsoft concerning this news post.
The post listed details on the first news of Windows Live Messenger 9, back in January 2007! As a result my web host, Dreamhost was forced to take down Messenger Stuff until the content was removed. I was outraged (not at Dreamhost, they were just following the law), but at Microsoft for issuing this DMCA notice for talking about upcoming software. It later turns out the news post was not the issue, but comments within them, revealing links to the beta.
I must stress I cannot control what people post in comments, this is the Internet! I do get a lot of spam comments and I do go through them as delete as much of them as possible, including those of copyright material of leaked betas (I really do). What annoys me the most is Microsoft simply went straight to the DMCA notice instead of contacting me politely on the issue of which I would have complied in the fullest way. My email address is in my WHOIS information of which they would have had to access in order to contact Dreamhost!
The lack of working with me on the issue is what hurts. I always thought msgstuff.com had a good relationship with Microsoft and the fact they can't ask my nicely to remove content, which I find impossible to control is mind boggling. To put this simply Microsoft went step to step 3 instead of step 1. My opinion is that they are abusing their power and hurting their relationship with those who talk about their products and that's a huge mistake for any company.
Back in 2003 Microsoft did this to Neowin, over a feedback post listing links to XP Peer-to-Peer Software Development Kit (SDK).
I only hope that this does not happen again as I simply can't control what you want to say. Now I know this post is very rant like and bitter, but I am 'ticked-off' to say the least over the issue especially as this could of been a much simpler matter.
To top it all, if you visit the deleted post, Google ads still provide you with links to the beta (I guess that's my fault too).
So what do you my readers think of this problem? Were Microsoft in the right to take down my website and am I just overreacting to the whole issue?
P.S. Don't post any links to leaked betas in this or any other post.
The post listed details on the first news of Windows Live Messenger 9, back in January 2007! As a result my web host, Dreamhost was forced to take down Messenger Stuff until the content was removed. I was outraged (not at Dreamhost, they were just following the law), but at Microsoft for issuing this DMCA notice for talking about upcoming software. It later turns out the news post was not the issue, but comments within them, revealing links to the beta.
I must stress I cannot control what people post in comments, this is the Internet! I do get a lot of spam comments and I do go through them as delete as much of them as possible, including those of copyright material of leaked betas (I really do). What annoys me the most is Microsoft simply went straight to the DMCA notice instead of contacting me politely on the issue of which I would have complied in the fullest way. My email address is in my WHOIS information of which they would have had to access in order to contact Dreamhost!
The lack of working with me on the issue is what hurts. I always thought msgstuff.com had a good relationship with Microsoft and the fact they can't ask my nicely to remove content, which I find impossible to control is mind boggling. To put this simply Microsoft went step to step 3 instead of step 1. My opinion is that they are abusing their power and hurting their relationship with those who talk about their products and that's a huge mistake for any company.
Back in 2003 Microsoft did this to Neowin, over a feedback post listing links to XP Peer-to-Peer Software Development Kit (SDK).
I only hope that this does not happen again as I simply can't control what you want to say. Now I know this post is very rant like and bitter, but I am 'ticked-off' to say the least over the issue especially as this could of been a much simpler matter.
To top it all, if you visit the deleted post, Google ads still provide you with links to the beta (I guess that's my fault too).
So what do you my readers think of this problem? Were Microsoft in the right to take down my website and am I just overreacting to the whole issue?
P.S. Don't post any links to leaked betas in this or any other post.