The Future of AIM+

[kiggastyle]

I think that the whole point of AIm is to express ur self amongst ur family, friends and enimies!.....and if u jus wanna get the job done jus email em or callem!

[thursday]

Yes, and what better tool to express your emotions than an instant messenger .

<sarcasm>
OMG BIG-O, YOU NEED TO UPGRADE TO THE NEWEST VERSION OF phpBB BECAUSE IT HAS MORE SMILEYS FOR ME TO POST WITH JUST ISN'T DOING IT FOR ME.
</sarcasm>

[ibetheone]

I think you should continue finishing your project on AIM 4, and also if you have time try working on making a new version from the ground up that would would be compatible with AIM 5. Or you could say what the hell and just release the source code for AIM +(not that I am begging for it), but you could get other people to help put the project together and making it compatible for AIM 5. Also haven't you people seen the other posts before where you can make your own aim themes, a lot of people have already started doing this, check out

http://www.gigahosts.com/~c1003/aimicons/themes.php

There are lots of cool themes there especially the texas tech one with the cool water ripple effect on the side(made in java by the way). Anyways keep up the good work.

[nunubutt]

I think you guys should just first try to make the AIM+ compatible with the AIM 5. THen after the compatibility is resolved work with the Cool features later. I am looking foward to making my own skins. AOL software engineers are plain idiotic and doesnt make any features that its users would gladly appreciate. Their just using cheap IM tech from their AOL IM software...I'm not surprised though.

[a big sombrero]

i have new thoughts on this. i have a feeling that a lot of people will be inclined to use the new AIM just because its new. If you can start developing for AIM5 now and have the options in there to make it LOOK like AIM4 (turn off expressions send/receive, typing ind. on/off, uncluttering buddy list etc) then I could do it. I say release what you have now for AIM4 (hopefully the password protection for history is done) and we will all continue to use that until you come out with an AIM5 compatible AIM+.

[XelaNibur2]

I know that AIM5 is very different from AIM4, but move on! It'll take a lot of work to start a whole new project, but AIM+ is supposed to configure with Instant Messenger. It shouldn't hold you back! I primarily use AIM+ to remove ad's and other annoying AOL added things, and for the history. Everything else is just a bonus. Setup a version for AIM5 with just the barebones at least. Who knows how long until the final release comes out, so you two have time to set it up. Thanks.

[dmf sauce]

AIM5-IS-EARLY-IN-BETA. MOST-PEOPLE-THINK-THE-EXPRESSIONS-ARE-RIDICULOUS. WHAT-IF-YOU-START-MAKING-AIM+-COMPATIBLE-WITH-AIM5-AND-THEN-IT-CHANGES?!

You'll have to start all over again! Foolishness!!!! Working on AIM5 now would just be dumb! The first beta came out only 3 weeks ago! It usually takes AIM at least 3 months to release a new version! There is so much time to change things...jeez people, think!

[[]DaT_MaNN03]

ya just release wut u hav for aim4 or finish up wut u think n then start on aim5 n tell us when its finished so we can upgrade

[SoccerNutUSA]

Gotta go for aim5. First of all, people will upgrade aim just 'cuz there's a new one out there, or even worse, they're idiots lime me because they have it set to automatically check for updates and immediately apply them. It's disappointing when all of the sudden aim+ doesn't work any more. Second, I have to echo what others have said about functionality. We'd rather have the basic functionality work with aim5 than all the bells and whistles work with aim4...

[jester22c]

I say keep working on v4 for the time being. v5 is still just a beta and many things can and probably will change with it in the upcoming versions. From the vast majority of people that I have talked to that have used v5 say it is all buggy and sluggish. I would improve on v4 since we know it works and decently for the most part.

In reality, if you start development for v5 right now, those "upcoming features" will most likely never be added to v4, but will be added to v5, and this will dissapoint many people I am going to stick with v4 unless I see a great improvement in v5 (which I'm hoping for). Those who choose to keep v4.x will probably want these features too. So I say stick with v4 for the time being, finish what you started.

Wait till v5 is final to make AIM+ for it.

[ZeroAvengerX]

everyone is asking why people stick with aim 4 and why not move on to 5, the reason is because AIM+ doesnt support 5 yet and all of us are loyal fans of +!
someone on page 1 asked why i said "XPish" i meant the buttons not the window style, with AIM5 anyone can see "XPish" look not just XP users

and we have all agreed that the expressions suck so stop repeating that!

i also support Blahman when he said "it's still in beta you never know what they might change or add to the final"

but in my opinion you should still just add what you have in coming soon to the AIM+4 and then work on support for the betas of AIM+5 so that when AIM5 final comes out you have less to do, you already support most of everything due to the messing around with the betas!

i can almost guarantee at least 80% of everyone who still uses AIM4 will switch to 5 if you get a + out for it

[kiggastyle]

EXPRESSIONS ARE COOL!!!


haha...jk

[imotic]

to those who said stick with aim4 because aim4 is better- this isn't about which is better, this is about weighing all the benefits and risks of starting a new development tree. Yes, personal preference of aim+ users is of course important, but it is not the be-all and end-all.

To those who said that this is just a beta, and everything might change- for one thing, AOL will not get rid of expressions. They've obviously invested a lot of money into it, what with almost every expression so far being somehow related to a corporate identity. There are few "improvements" made to AIM from v4 to v5, with expressions being one of the only ones that's slightly more than eye candy (that I've noticed so far). For another thing, beta releases imply that all major functionality has been implemented, and all that's left is minor details and whatever bug fixes come up. I assume that the parts of AIM that AIM+ would be touching are pretty much frozen.

As far as making one version of AIM+ for both AIM4 and AIM5... that doesn't seem all that feasible in my eyes, although BigO would be better equipped to answer that than I would, of course.

I understand the opinions of those who don't upgrade if they don't need new functionality. But most people upgrade sooner or later. How many are using AIM3.x? It's somewhat obvious that sooner or later, people will upgrade. Many AIM+ users are those who want to get the most out of AIM; and many of those who want to get the most out of AIM are those who upgrade frequently. A lot of people already have upgraded (which is somewhat obvious just by the traffic on this forum), and many more will upgrade as soon as AIM5 is no longer beta. Do you really want to start developing then?

I guess that depends on how long it would take to come out with a version of AIM+ that supports AIM5. If you can start development after it's no longer beta and have it released 3 days afterwards, I'm sure that everybody would be happy, but I'm not sure how realistic that is. If it would take longer, then the earlier you start, the earlier it's done, the earlier people can use it.

Another question is, how many things would you otherwise try to squeeze into AIM+ for v4? Personally, I'm content with what's currently in there (at least enough to urge new development on), but I understand that there are others who aren't.

And yet another question is how many developers there are, and how much time is spent on development. Ryan, could you use some assistance? Would you accept it?

These questions really have to be answered somehow before I could give an objective opinion... but seeing as how I've already upgraded, I vote to start now;)

[EvilJolly]

I hate AIM 5, but I don't want to be using AIM 4.8 while AOL continues to add features to 5, and most users want to switch eventually. If we stick with 4.8, people will most likely think of AIM+ as dated software. Basically there's going to be two types of users...

1. They want the latest version of the software they're using.
2. They want things to stay the same and will stick with 4.8.

I believe if you can make it so that AIM 5 appeals to the 4.8 users by altering it's look and feel to be the same or similar, and appeal to the AIM 5 users because you are keeping things up to date. Personally I haven't even had the desire to try AIM 5 just based on the screenshots, but if AIM+ worked with it, I might be willing to give it a try. Why did I have to become so damn dependant on this program!

[kiggastyle]

dohhhhh, what if u make it so that the new aim+ is compatible with aim 4 and aim5?