The Ins and Outs of ICQ

On Monday 6th April, I prepared for the chat task which was arranged for a few us to meet online on Tuesday.

Firstly I downloaded the program, which was quite straight forward, I then created an account filling in as little information about myself as possible. I accepted all the terms and conditions (which I actually didn't read...) and then I was ready to go.

I had a bit of a play around with the settings and my profile etc, added a few people who's ICQ numbers had been posted on the Blackboard.

I found the ICQ program to be quite straight forward and, easy to setup, easy to locate friends if you had their ID number or nickname. When you are "chatting" you can see when other people are typing a message.

I was involved in a 3 way chat, at times I did find it confusing keeping up with the conversation. I think for someone who was experiencing chat programs for the first time it would be very difficult keeping up. I have had extensive practice at the MSN chat, a little bit from ICQ many years ago.
Rachel who was in our chat group was quite worried about the security of chat programs and about all the terms and conditions that most people read through when joining. I was not so concerned as I have had the previous experience with chat programs. It would be quite interesting to know how many people actually read the terms and conditions before accepting these programs.

Also if you are a slow typer you would struggle keeping up with the conversation and having your say. Unless you are with a group who have a similar typing speed. Having people in a group who type at the same speed would help the conversation flow at a suitable speed and would allow everyone to be involved equally.

I thoroughly enjoyed using ICQ again and felt that this task was a huge success. The people who were more advanced users of ICQ helped the less experienced through the task. I don't think security would be a huge issue unless you are adding a heap of people that you don't actually know. The use of emoticons is a very useful way of expressing your mood or feelings when in the chat program. If we didn't have this option many people may find it very difficult understanding sarcasm, jokes, or if someone is angry etc...

ICQ is good fun and very handy communicative tool!! :)