This all started back when I was a teenager. At the time, being an admin, guide, or sysop seemed like the coolest thing ever. My friends and I were always trying to take over the Msn hosted chat rooms and become part of the staff.
Looking back, I realize I lacked a lot of knowledge because we were all just getting started. Most of us were using bots like MasterBot and Cube SuperBot. There were several others too, but I can't remember all of their names. I do remember one called Trojan Horse. Unless someone still has the source code sitting on an old hard drive somewhere, a lot of that history may be lost to time.
My cousin and I spent countless hours creating our own bots. We had plenty of ideas and a lot of ambition, but we never released anything publicly. It was all for our own entertainment and learning experience.
I even created a bot for a chat network whose owner apparently hosted it from his college dorm because they had access to a T1 line. Back then, that was incredibly impressive. Those were the good old Enetwork days. Not many people seem to remember it, but it had a decent community. My cousin and I would spend hours chatting there, messing around with users, and hanging out in MSN Chat as well.
As time went on, MSN Chat clones started appearing, and eventually MSN Chat itself shut down. By then, I had mostly moved on to platforms like Paltalk and Skype. Skype was great for messaging, but it didn't offer much beyond that. Paltalk, on the other hand, brought voice and video chat into the mix, which made it feel much more interactive.
One question I've thought about over the years is this:
Has the MSN chat bot era ended for good?
Personally, I don't think so. There are still plenty of creative programmers out there who are inspired by classic MSN-style chat systems, IRC networks, and custom bots. I tend to lean more toward IRC because it offered greater control and flexibility. Many of the old MSN bots relied heavily on web browser integration, while IRC gave users and developers much more power to customize their experience.
What do you think? Has the MSN chat bot era truly ended, or is it simply evolving into something new?
Looking back, I realize I lacked a lot of knowledge because we were all just getting started. Most of us were using bots like MasterBot and Cube SuperBot. There were several others too, but I can't remember all of their names. I do remember one called Trojan Horse. Unless someone still has the source code sitting on an old hard drive somewhere, a lot of that history may be lost to time.
My cousin and I spent countless hours creating our own bots. We had plenty of ideas and a lot of ambition, but we never released anything publicly. It was all for our own entertainment and learning experience.
I even created a bot for a chat network whose owner apparently hosted it from his college dorm because they had access to a T1 line. Back then, that was incredibly impressive. Those were the good old Enetwork days. Not many people seem to remember it, but it had a decent community. My cousin and I would spend hours chatting there, messing around with users, and hanging out in MSN Chat as well.
As time went on, MSN Chat clones started appearing, and eventually MSN Chat itself shut down. By then, I had mostly moved on to platforms like Paltalk and Skype. Skype was great for messaging, but it didn't offer much beyond that. Paltalk, on the other hand, brought voice and video chat into the mix, which made it feel much more interactive.
One question I've thought about over the years is this:
Has the MSN chat bot era ended for good?
Personally, I don't think so. There are still plenty of creative programmers out there who are inspired by classic MSN-style chat systems, IRC networks, and custom bots. I tend to lean more toward IRC because it offered greater control and flexibility. Many of the old MSN bots relied heavily on web browser integration, while IRC gave users and developers much more power to customize their experience.
What do you think? Has the MSN chat bot era truly ended, or is it simply evolving into something new?
