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 M$ to charge for their chatrooms
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Tony




PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 9:08 am   Post subject: M$ to charge for their chatrooms

As of Oct. 14, in Canada, the U.S. and Japan, the company will move the forums to a subscription-based service that will require users to register identities and billing details and pay a "nominal fee."

MSN forums/chatrooms in other countries including Europe and Asia will be just shut down. The reasoning behind it - kids get too much junk Confused

analyst Rob Helm, with independent research firm Directions on Microsoft, said "I think this change will have welcome side effects ... but fundamentally I believe this is a move to make MSN more profitable."

"I am not sure what Microsoft is trying to achieve here if it is not a financial decision, as it is not going to stop chat on the internet," said Ian Brown, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research.

The government seems to be on this as well. Making up laws about internet communications. I personally dont know how ISPs will react to that Rolling Eyes Tories (here in canada) for example want to introduce laws that "claim will make it more difficult for paedophiles to use internet chat rooms". How they going to do that - I donno... maybe when you sign up there will be a checkbox labled check here if you're a paedophile or something. They also want to increase penalties to those who refuse to unlock decreapted info stored on the net Rolling Eyes

I can see it now - "Access to MSN chatrooms - $5. Keeping encripted files on the net - $50 a year. Still being able to get a girl's phone number in a chat - priceless. There're some things that can't be charged for, for anything else Microsoft will milk you for all its worth"

And damn straigh. M$ is just taking advantage of uninformed parents and kids and trying to make more cash.

Update from yet another source

In their new paid chatrooms, M$ wants to be able to identify and, presumably, curtail what Microsoft considers offensive behavior and to cut down on spam. Meaning if you post something our friend Billy G. will consider offensive, its all logged under your account with your CC info. Thats like chatting with your home address posted instead of your nickname.

Which ofcourse defies the whole purpose of a chatroom in a first place. Everyone will just move on to non M$ chatrooms. IRC for example.

I wonder if they can charge you for spamming?
Quote:

you've posted same message 5 times in past minute. $5 fine will be charged to your CC

Quote:

our filter detected the use of the F word, another $5 fine will be charged to your CC

Quote:

words Billy G. and gay were found in same sentance. The lawsuit costs will be charged to your CC


Laughing

sources:
here
and here
and also here
you guested it
Latest from compsci.ca/blog: Tony's programming blog. DWITE - a programming contest.
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Dan




PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 9:20 am   Post subject: (No subject)

wow, this is gr8 news for hackers or any one eltes that can tacke over thous things (which is not that hard)

now insted of just taking over a dum gourp you get there CC num + they have to pay more to make another one, lol
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Tony




PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:53 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

I dont think you got this right... its not MSN groups, its MSN chatrooms.

But yeah, if one was to hack that thing, it would be a heck of a DB catch.

Although thinking back, VeriSign also posed the same issue. If one was to hack that thing, they would take over the unused internet (redirecting all of invalid URLs).

Better yet - hack a dozen of global DNS servers and redirect all of valid URLs to yours Wink If you'll place enough of "pay pre view" ads (if there're still such) you gonna make them go bankrupt Laughing
Latest from compsci.ca/blog: Tony's programming blog. DWITE - a programming contest.
Dan




PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:24 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

well i think there are M$ chat rooms for gourps so i was thinking that could bring up the hacking isuses. but just making even one list there CC num whould cause many isues since M$ has never been good at scurity.
Computer Science Canada Help with programming in C, C++, Java, PHP, Ruby, Turing, VB and more!
krishon




PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 5:48 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

lol, tony that is soooo true
Asok




PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 7:21 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

if you actually need a chat program, I highly reccomend the palace

http://www.thepalace.com/

it's 2D graphic chat which is better than a typical irc room.
Tony




PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2003 8:39 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

The prices are in! And to privilidge to chat in a monitored environment with everything loged, scanned and traced back to your home address will come at a very cheap price of only $29.95 a year Shocked

Well they're doing it in a tricky way actually. You can ether subscribe to MSN extra storage for $29.95 a year or to MSN browser software for $124.95 a year. Both packages include chatroom access.
Latest from compsci.ca/blog: Tony's programming blog. DWITE - a programming contest.
Dan




PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2003 12:52 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

OMG, that whould be the same cost as 10 and 1/2 years of compsci.ca hosting for the brower one!!

why whould you pay that for a chat room that logs everyting you say?!?!? i know of lots of chat rooms that have mods that are free on irc!
Computer Science Canada Help with programming in C, C++, Java, PHP, Ruby, Turing, VB and more!
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krishon




PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2003 5:00 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

wait talkin with friends on ur list and not the chat rooms is still free rite??
Tony




PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2003 5:21 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

yes, MSN messanger will remain free... for now.

Since its a private chat and its up to you at what you read (isn't it the same in chatrooms? just random people).

Oh, did you know that there's 10million unique MSN messanger users in Canada? I find it unlikely since Canada's population is just 30million Rolling Eyes
Latest from compsci.ca/blog: Tony's programming blog. DWITE - a programming contest.
krishon




PostPosted: Fri Sep 26, 2003 9:27 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

yah...but kids and students like u and me and other ppl use msn all the time
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