Few years ago, before full featured social network services like Facebook became common, we used simplish Instant messaging, such as ICQ, MSN, and others. As one who does not want the full social network stuff and really only needs the simplish communication tool, i still use "classic" IM services

What do you use for this application ?

I wish there was a chat room on the site, so we can chat.

I wish there was a chat room on the site, so we can chat.

agreed.

Ash, I use Discord, aswell as Skype (rarely use skype nowadays) also use google hangouts and facebook messenger I'd say the best one out of these is Discord....

I moved to XMPP. The benefits are that it is like Email : No single service provider (choose your preferred one) and no single software (choose your preferred software client)

Before Ria moved up we used Pidgin as our IM service. It's not tied to any specific service like Live or Yahoo!

Pidgin is not a provider, it is an application that can connect to many IM networks. Some of them are closed with one official service provider (Live, Yahoo, ...) , and some are open (XMPP)

I used to love MSN/Live before it was replaced with Skype.  It worked well, and had neat features.  One of my favorites was View Webcam, which allowed for video only from a webcam (no audio, just video/text).  It worked great on less than ideal internet connections.  It was choppy, but the video actually worked better over dial-up than Skype does on what should be a high speed connection.

I used to love MSN/Live before it was replaced with Skype.  It worked well, and had neat features.  One of my favorites was View Webcam, which allowed for video only from a webcam (no audio, just video/text).  It worked great on less than ideal internet connections.  It was choppy, but the video actually worked better over dial-up than Skype does on what should be a high speed connection.

they should really update the site to include skype rather than MSN...