Site News: Hey! We had a brief period of downtime leading into the new year. I'm hoping you all were too busy celebrating to notice. :-) This downtime was for a good reason, though: our host has upgraded their servers and is passing on the awesomeness (at no additional cost)! The transfer was pretty smooth, too!

Aside from that, I've done some minor housekeeping around the site: tweaked the top banner design, expanded CSS for post quotes. By the time you read this, I will have the 2025 news archive completed. As I do every year, I will leave some of the most recent posts visible on the main page for a couple more weeks.

BeAIM News: Back in November 2024, I mirrored a post from the Phoenix website about BeAIM, a client for BeOS/Haiku by nippos (nikisoft). While I was archiving the news posts, I happened to notice there has been several updates in the past year! This even includes a new project name! For posterity, I will post the changelog since my original post.

2025-12-23 - BumbleBe (formerly BeAIM) Changelog

What's new in version 1.8.0:
  
Rename and rebrand to BumbleBe.
  
No changes in functionality intended.

What's new in version 1.7.1:
  
Fix loading resources when running the application from a non-standard path.
  
Fix crash when deleting a group that still has buddys.
  
Allow shrinking chat windows again after messages have been sent.
    

      
This was broken before, so that every new message locked the minimum window size to the current one, you could then make it even bigger, but not smaller again.
    
  
  
Show profile message and away message (if away) in the "Get User Info" window.
  
Open links only on left click, do nothing on right/middle click.
  
Switch to different color scheme as default if dark system colors are used.
    

      
If you have used BumbleBe before, the light default colors may have already been written to your configuration, so that you don't see a difference here.
    
  
  
Fix some broken combinations of custom font face, size and color in the same message.
  
Add "Get a Screen Name" and "Forgot Password?" links, shown only if the default server is used.
  
Correctly load per-user settings and saved password when switching between accounts in the login window.
  
Add translations for the new strings in English and German.

What's new in version 1.7.0:
  
Rewrite the whole UI to make use of Haikus Layout Kit, rather than hardcoded coordinates.
  
Implement support for HiDPI screens by scaling everything depending on the font size.
  
Move the Changelog into a separate file and reorder it to begin with the latest version.
  
Replace custom MakSplitterView in the ChatWindow with native BSplitView.
  
Integrate PopupTextControl to improve the combined text input+dropdown thingy for the username.
  
Make sure new windows always open within the visible area.
  
Let the TrayIcon scale based on the DeskBars MaxItemWidth() and MaxItemHeight().

What's new in version 1.6.3:
  
Automatically detect https:// links just like the http:// ones, and make them open the browser on click.
  
Enable the commented-out "Style" menu in chat windows and implement the missing pieces for it to work.
  
Add support for strikethrough text (needs hrev58553 at least).
  
Add the previously unused Idle Detector input filter to the package.
  
Make the login progress status text visible.
  
Add translations for the new strings in English and German.

What's new in version 1.6.2:
  
Replace password input to solve a bug with Copy & Paste.
  
Fall back to English if system language is unsupported.
  
Add support for different font families in messages.
  
Look for sounds at the right directories using find_paths - How could the old code ever have worked?
    

      
You still don't get sound yet as a Pull Request to Haiku that implements play_sound still needs to be merged.
    
  
  
Automate generation of debug builds and packages, and document building.

What's new in version 1.6.1:
  
Add support for Haiku system colors.
    

      
That means full support for dark mode!
    
  
  
Switch from custom translation library to Haiku LocaleKit.
  
Allow switching between system DNS and proxy DNS when using a proxy.
  
Minor fix of the window size of the ColorPicker.

What's new in version 1.6.0:
  
New maintainer again, added me to the credits.
  
Switch default server to PhoenixIM / iwarg.ddns.net, AOL AIM is dead.
  
Change license to GNU GPL 3.0, previously no license was specified.
  
Add Spanish translation (thanks cocobean).
  
Fix compiler error related to wrong function return types
  
Fix tons of compiler warnings that appear with GCC 13.
  
Fix application crash when opening the Setup window.
  
Fix connection not working at all.
  
Fix proxy port setting always resetting to default 80 or 1080 (only do that when switching between HTTP and SOCKS5 proxy if no custom port is set)
  
Fix SOCKS5 proxy support, improve error handling for HTTPS proxy.
  
Drop compatibility #ifdefs for pre-BONE BeOS - Everyone should be using Haiku nowadays.

Check out the latest release here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

CrossTalk News: Click here to see a list of which clients CrossTalk currently supports.

Summary of CrossTalk's December announcements

2025-12-02 • New service logo (created by @zookajoe)
2025-12-05 • Server maintenance
2025-12-07 • The team is aware of MSN/WLM to Yahoo! interop issues
2025-12-08 • "Malwarebytes Browser Guard is blocking unpatched WLM2009 downloads as well as all patched downloads of other WLM/MSN versions"
2025-12-10 • No further response from Malwarebytes since the initial response over 48 hours ago
2025-12-12 • 100 concurrent users!
2025-12-14 • Server restarted for system updates
2025-12-18 • "Beginning the process of scaling up and redoing our server infanstructure. ­There may be intermittent issues with connectivity during this process.­ Sorry if any issues are encountered."
2025-12-19 • "You'll now get a Cloudflare challenge when visiting the site. This is to combat bots, particularly ones that scrape the member directory."
2025-12-21 • Service will be migrating from SQLite to MariaDB
2025-12-23 • The team is aware of profile updating issues
2025-12-24 • "Incredibly belated, but I've uploaded a new build of Reroute with the domains changed to the current ones. You must update before April 14, 2026, or you will not be able to connect to CrossTalk anymore (as that's when the old domains expire, I'm not renewing them). We will update the pre-patched MSN installers soon."
2025-12-29 • "Messenger Plus sounds server has been temporarily taken offline to mitigate the issue. We're working actively to fix the service and bring it back online. Non-sounds related features of Messenger Plus will still work in the meantime."

Open OSCAR Server News: The project has been receiving daily commits. Stay tuned for further updates!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I have been regularly working on a handful of my favorite VB6 projects in my (very limited) free time. I don't want to jinx myself and talk about the specific projects, but just know I have started A LOT of very cool projects since 2021. Final touches, writing documentation, and actually releasing are my struggles! I find writing the documentation to be extremely boring to be honest. (Looking at you, Hell's Ediction!)

I don't have much to offer right now; there aren't any major updates with NINA or Phoenix. I know I'm slacking on covering other services. I had mentioned back in September that I would like to cover the Retro AIM Server (Now called Open OSCAR Server) and CrossTalk. I still have every intention of doing so, I just haven't gotten around to it. YET! :[

You know what? I'm going to take a first step here... RIGHT NOW!

Open OSCAR Server News: Here is my first entry for OOS-related content.

2025-12-09 - Open OSCAR Server - v0.21.0 - What's new?

This release is the culmination of 6 months' work to implement support for AIM 6-7, 
which rounds out support for:

• Buddy Icons: AIM 6-7 clients can upload and retrieve buddy icons.
• Temporary Buddies: Starting an IM with someone not on your buddy list 
  triggers proper sign-on and sign-off notifications.
• Server-side Profiles: Profiles are saved and retrieved directly to and 
  from the server for select AIM 6 clients that support server-side profiles.
• Offline Messages: Sending and receiving offline messages is now functional. 
  Recipients receive a notification from AOL System Msg upon sign-on that informs 
  them that they have offline messages.

You know what they say: the first step is always the hardest. It's getting late, I'm going to cut this short, but I hope to update soon with a RELEASE of an OCX I was working on over the weekend...

NINA News: tonyshowoff has updated the NINA website to set the record straight about NINA's status... I personally am excited to read this because this now leads me to believe NINA isn't going away anytime soon! NGL, I have been worried that one day I'll come home to sign on and get the dreaded could not connect message. This update gives NINA users a bit of a sigh of relief...

NINA's still around

    .----.   @   @
   / .-"-.`.  \v/
   | | '\ \ \_/ )
 ,-\ `-.' /.'  /
'---`----'----'

We're not shutting down, we haven't shutdown, nor did we ever 
shutdown in the first place, despite claims to the contrary. We 
have never said that we were shutting down.

The website has to be closed for now, but the service was, is, 
and will always be up.

All social and web stuff has moved to escargot.chat. However, 
you can use your Escargot account (or register there if you 
don't have one) to login to NINA, simply remove the 
@escargot.chat from your username.

How to connect:
OSCAR: login.oscar.nina.chat port 5190
P3: testpea-n01a.blue.nina.chat port 5200

Stats: 447 online
More information coming soon.
ASCII art by HJW

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With the way this all went down, there has definitely been confusion and misinformation throughout the various communities. On September 14, I myself made a post stating NINA was shutting down. (Oops!) If you check here often, you might have noticed I have been making some ninja-edits where needed as new information becomes available to me. I'll typically strike out the text or add an update tag to show that.

So, at the time of my post, there was no official announcement of NINA shutting down, and I should have made that clear, which I did not. My closest sources of information at the time seemed convinced that a shutdown was going to be the outcome of the situation. It's easy to assume as much, too, because that's typically what happens once a project receives a C&D, right? :grimaceface: Whoops whoops! I regret not wording that post better... my apologies for the faux pas!

Other News: I have been working on some of my passion projects. One small, one-day project, from November 11, was a simple AOL chat sender, written in Delphi 7.0, that works with the old America Online 4.0/5.0 software. I don't know why, but I had an incredibly strong urge to try to do something in Delphi again. (The last time being wayyy back in 2002!) So I grabbed a few functions from the classic VB6 BAS file, dos32.bas, and ported them to Delphi! It was a fun learning experience; I enjoyed it. I posted a screenshot and the source code on our Discord server if you're curious. I named it "Delphic Oracles 0.01" trying to ironically reference a prog-style name. :nerdemoji: :cloudface:

Alright everyone, that's all I have for you right now! Have a great weekend!

Phoenix News: Phoenix services are run from Wildman's home internet connection. Many people (whom aren't grateful for a FREE service, provided out of passion, nonetheless) criticise that fact. Do they not understand how entitled they sound? Sure it's not ideal, but it's a relatively small passion project. I'm just grateful for the effort. They probably should be, too. It's not like any of them have made a bigger contribution to the community, right? Can you sense my frustration from my text? haha. Okay, I'm getting off topic. Wildman's ISP has finally decided to offer fiber optic services with speeds up to 1 Gbps up/down! I'll share the posts from the Phoenix Discord server from, well well well, exactly 1 month ago, hah!

Wildman Productions — 10/6/2025 3:00 PM (EST)

it's on paper and formalized, pertaining any unforeseen technical catastrophe I have finally frisked the right politician, greased the right squeaky hamster, and harassed the right cubicle workers with my vast amazing god tier knowledge of networking and programming, to get the frontier engineers to stop making excuses and bring to us 1Gbps up and down fiber networking

{account of events maybe somewhat overly exaggerated for cinematic effect} blah blah ass covering jargon ;p

strap yourselves in we're going to the future at lig[h]t speed


Wildman Productions — 10/6/2025 3:07 PM (EST)

then at last phoenix desktop can leave limbo hell and be fully deployed

Fans of Phoenix, there's something to look forward to! Now, onto my next tidbit of info... it looks like the NINA website was updated!

NINA News: I haven't heard much of anything official since the whole shake up of September. Myself and a handful of diehard users have still been idling in the "Last Call" chat room. NINA's (old) website and socials are gone, but the protocol servers have still been up. Here is the text posted on the NINA.chat website:

NINA's still around

    .----.   @   @
   / .-"-.`.  \v/
   | | '\ \ \_/ )
 ,-\ `-.' /.'  /
'---`----'----'

All social and web stuff has moved to escargot.chat. However, you can
use your Escargot account (or register there if you don't have one) to
login to NINA, simply remove the @escargot.chat from your username.

OSCAR: login.oscar.nina.chat port 5190
P3: testpea-n01a.blue.nina.chat port 5200

Stats: 644 online
More information coming soon.
ASCII art by HJW

One thing I did notice is that anyone [UPDATE: older accounts, might not apply to newer accounts] can now use the P3 server, where as before, that was reserved for donators only. For the n00bz (used ironically) out there, this means the old America Online 4.0/5.0 software can connect to this server.

With That Said: Please, do not contact me for assistance in doing this. You can try asking others for assistance on the AIM-Files Discord server, but I will advise you to be polite and patient. If you come in acting entitled or demanding, you will be banned.

AOL News: AOL has been sold to the Italian company Bending Spoons for approximately 1.5 billion US dollars ($1,500,000,000)! The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2025, pending regulatory approvals. Bending Spoons plans to invest in AOL to help it grow and serve its large customer base.

I guess you can speculate why NINA received a C&D back in September... makes more sense now. I'm going to leave a list of links for further reading:

• AOL Has A New Italian Owner: Unicorn Startup Bending Spoons
• AOL Has Been Sold to New Owners As Yahoo Unloads The Classic Site & Dial-Up Internet Service
• You’ve got a new owner: AOL is sold in reputed $1.5B deal to tech conglomerate
• Turns out AOL is still a thing - and it's just been bought for $1.5bn