Introduction

Welcome to the NINA & Escargot community.

Let's do a quick overview of terms and so forth.

AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and AOL are two different things

AIM is a small instant messaging program similar to MSN Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger. Where as AOL is a full on, classic desktop program which not only provides the ability to chat, but also send/receive email, look up content, browse the web, etc. Calling AIM "AOL" is confusing in the community, akin to calling "Windows Live Messenger" just "Windows" because it just happens to be the first word.

The term "group chat" is a bad term mostly centered around MSN and little else

The proper term is "chat room". Messages sent privately between two people (like a DM) are "instant messages" or "private messages", those are never called "chats", that's just even more confusing. This is a bizarre and regrettable artifact of Microsoft calling things by names nobody else did.

NINA & Escargot are effectively the same thing

Escargot is only MSN/WLM and NINA is everything else, but it's the same user system, same login, same developers, same everything; they are 100% shared across the platform, in fact it's a single platform/network.

Classic messaging apps aren't meant to be used as on-demand entertainment

That isn't to say they aren't (or can't be) entertaining, it means that you sign on, let the buddy list/contact list hang in the background while you do other things on your computer or mobile device. You can, of course, message someone and they may respond, or you can wait for someone to message you. However, with some younger new users, they expect that if they sign in they'll be instantly bombarded with entertaining conversation like they're pressing play on a video and they will literally stare at an empty buddy list/contact list waiting for something to happen to them. One has to be pro-active in getting (or keeping) a conversation going.

I messaged someone and it said it couldn't be delivered because they aren't online! Your service is broken!

They're not online. Sounds like it's working as intended.

When will AOL (or whatever else) be free?

We don't know. Projects like these take time, money, effort. AIM is now free, while AOL and ICQ remain behind small (but reasonable) paywalls to help pay for development. We understand that not everyone can afford $25 for AOL or $2 for ICQ, but we don't have ads nor sell your data, and hosting, domains, etc are not free, so while we develop things we typically help fund everything by letting people in early willing to pay.

We need your help

If you want to help, the best way right now is to help us keep the lights on and deal with our growth by donating. If you can't do that, tell others about our services, spread the word, but please don't spam.

Is Escargot down?

No.

See also our Extended FAQ