Aside from that I forgot to mention in a previous update that I noticed a typo stating the incorrect day of the week for my January 2024 post! It may have taken a year, but it was noticed and corrected! ;-P

I made a small tweak to the site, reducing the width of the layout by 40%. For those who weren't around back in the day, this site's layout is based on its original iteration as the AIM section of AOL-Files.com. I kept it at full width because that's how it used to be. Screen sizes and resolutions have certainly changed in the past 20 years. And not just getting bigger-than-ever, but also becoming smaller-than-ever with smart phones and other internet enabled portable devices. So what do you think about this tweak? Let us know on Discord!

The AOL/AIM revival scene has seen continued growth this past year! Off the top of my head, the largest milestone for the scene was NINA releasing their P3 (AOL 4.0) protocol support on May 6, 2024! I think getting File Transfers/Direct IMs working in December was a major AIM milestone for NINA and the scene in general as well. Many people have been requesting these features for years now!

What about Phoenix? I have personally been unsuccessful getting it to work on Phoenix, aside from a local <-> local connection. Very recently a member of the Phoenix Discord asked Wildman himself about it:

SleepyBones (ex. LazyBones) — 12/22/2024 1:21 PM
@Wildman Productions Will AIM ever support sending images and calling?

Wildman Productions — 12/22/2024 6:26 PM
i've been able to send images through direct connection before with specific versions of AIM.
the calling function we still dont know why it wont work, something undocumented in the protocol specification

SleepyBones (ex. LazyBones) — 12/22/2024 6:28 PM
Which specific versions? So I can download them

Wildman Productions — 12/22/2024 6:29 PM
i think maybe 4.7 or 5.0, later versions of 5 seem to have some undocumented additional security that needs implemented 
server side, because even though direct connection would initially work it would forcibly disconnect after a second or two.

Will 2025 be the year Phoenix is able to add this feature as well? Only time will tell!

I'm very excited to see what 2025 has in store for the AOL/AIM revival scene!

So uhh... much like last year... I don't have this year's "gift" ready...

BUT, NINA has us covered, yet again!

They now support AIM Direct Connection via their proxy. This means most people no longer need to worry about port forwarding/network configuration! You'll just need to use their updated AIM patcher, verify under AIM Preferences -> Direct IM -> Firewall that 'AOL proxy server only' is selected, and you're good to go!

You might be asking yourself, "What's that imagery with his buddy icon?" That is called IM Chrome! During the release of AIM 5.9, AOL updated the capabilities of AIM Expressions. IIRC I tried this feature out very briefly. (During this release era, I had mostly transitioned to using GAIM/Pidgin for my main client.) I don't think setting your IM Chrome is live yet, but I just wanted to post a preview/teaser here for now! I'll keep you all updated, though!

I'm going to try to make at least one more post this year. I'd like to go into detail about the past year and also the upcoming year as well! For now, though, I gotta go! TTYL ;-)

Our Discord has been pretty quiet so I figured no one was hurting for an update. I will admit my focus has been on offline activities as of late, but receiving messages can be a motivator for me!

AIM-Files Updates: It has been a year since I updated xakAIMChatJoiner to version 3.0 and I've been keeping it all to myself! To be honest, I forgot all about it. I use it regularly, and it slipped my mind! Oof! Once NINA added support for different chat room exchanges, I updated it allow for that. I'm pretty sure I've ironed out any bugs. Expect a formal release later tonight or tomorrow on the AIM-Files.com Discord server!

Phoenix Updates:

Revision 86 Patch
Posted by: Wildman on: Jul 10, 2024

There appears to have been a bug in adding AIM contacts which the friendly name contains a space character, this problem should now be resolved.

More AIM In More Places
Posted by: Wildman on: Nov 13, 2024

At long last the old AIM Client for the BeOS, BeAIM, has been dug out of the mothballs and given a fresh lease on life, thanks to recent efforts
by nipos to compile the aging program for Haiku, add missing features, and debug problems:

Check out the progress Here

NINA Updates: tonyshowoff made an announcement on the NINA Discord:

NINA and Escargot #announcements — November 14, 2024 at 10:04 PM (EST)

Greetings and salutations buddies, have I got news for yous.
AIM is now free and open for general use.
If you've got an Escargot account all you need to do is follow the instructions here: https://nina.chat/connect/aim/

This is large part thanks to the recent fundraiser and of course the hard work of our developers, and overall support from the best community on the Internet.

ICQ however is still in gamma as some features are still incomplete, however you can still register a UIN and use it in AIM if you want.

For those who paid $2 for early access you have been given access to PowerTools, which is basically our version of Nitro, for now it only allows you to speak
in the #last-call channel, however in the near future it will open up additional features and access within AIM, ICQ, etc. Of course all gamma tier and higher
donors also have PowerTools so you're already in the butter zone, baby.

If you get the PowerTools reference, let us know in #aol-desktop (that's a hint right there)

Now that AIM is freely available, running it is not free, so we still need your support. You can support us via: a one time or recurring donation, both of 
which come with rewards and Discord roles, learn more here: https://nina.chat/donate

If you can't donate, don't tell us, instead you can still help by telling others about us via tweets, toots, videos, or whatever else you can think of.

Site Updates: While browsing my personal archives, I found an ooold article submitted by squirrel way back in 2002. This article, Using Your Own AOL Buddy Icon, sat in my "todo" folder, never getting the chance to see publication. Unfortunately the information isn't usable anymore, but for historical purposes I have put it up. This is also the introduction to the AOL Articles sub-section.

Yeah that's cool and all, but how about something practical that can be used now?

MBA has submitted a tutorial, Patching the iOS AIM Client. This is especially useful because NINA's service allows these these apps to be used again!

Last (but not least), yours truly has added a new "Secret", Free NINA AIM Access. This information is only useful to non-donators that signed up for the free NINA ICQ promotion...

A very brief history: The ICQ service was started by Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996. It was then bought by AOL in 1998. According to a 2001 release from Time Warner, ICQ had over 100 million registered users. AOL later sold the ICQ service in 2010 to Digital Sky Technologies. (Owners of VK which was known as Mail.ru at the time!)

tonyshowoff made an announcement on the NINA discord:

NINA and Escargot #announcements — June 26, 2024 at 8:59 AM (EST)

Uh-oh!

Looks like the ICQ is gone, oh shucks, oh well! Wait, it still lives on with NINA!

We want to celebrate this wonderful occasion of the end of the old ICQ and the beginning of the era of NINA ICQ.

Until June 29th (Edit: Extended to July 1st) if you register a UIN you will be able to sign on to our ICQ service
without donating, for free, and yes you keep access after the 29th (Edit: Extended to July 1st)!
                    
We support ICQ 2000 through 8, and while some features are still in development, you won't find anyone who supports as much as us.

You can learn more here: https://nina.chat/connect/icq/

Please still consider donating because we've had very few donations this month and are already behind on hosting.
We want to continue bringing you fun services with weekly updates.
We don't bombard you with ads or sell your information so we require donations to keep going and money is always very low.
                    
https://nina.chat/donate

I cropped the end of the post that was more in-depth about donating. You can follow that link for all the details!

Now, I would like to take a moment and share some *exclusive* screenshots of the main interfaces for 2 of Mark Zuckerberg's AOL fader progs! Until now we weren't able to grab these screenshots without being signed onto AOL!

This Vader Fader about screen was the only screen we could see previously!

Aaaaand here it is, the Vader Fader main screen:

Sample fade from Vader Fader:

Last but not least, we have the main screen of Zuck Fader:

NINA doesn't currently support Keywords, so I couldn't do much with Zuck Fader yet! I feel that it's pretty safe to say these interfaces haven't been seen by anyone in about 20+ years!!

I'd also like to link an article and its follow up from patorjk.com:

Was Mark Zuckerberg an AOL add-on developer?
Steve Case Confirms Zuckerberg as Former AOL Hacker

Welp, that's all I have ready for the moment! Now that things are taking off, I have SO MUCH content I'd like to share... but so little free time right now! Weekends might see the most updates, but stay tuned for more!