WLM Royal Mess-up

Author: Aasemoon

21 May

My current mood:

Windows Live Messenger never fails to surprise with all sorts of new and improved bugs and glitches. But as of this morning, I’ve ran into a problem that’s much worse than anything I had ever experienced before. In the morning I noticed that somehow some of the people who I usually see online during those hours, appeared offline. Then near noon when I logged on again, a friend who was looking offline to me, started a group conversation with me that included another friend who was also appearing offline! Well this was obviously quite odd, since offline people don’t even get listed in the group conversations on WLM, but they were both listed, with an “offline” sign in front of their names. And one of them, was talking to me!

Then I started testing around and found out that a good number of people who appear offline to me, are in fact quite online. And as for trying to communicate with them, it works quite randomly. As in, they may or may not receive my messages, and I may or may not receive theirs. Of course I did try logging out and back in a few times, with no change. Then I got on my Palm Pilot and logged onto my mobile WLM account, and guess what, the same people look offline over there too! Also shortly after, I started noticing that people’s nicknames don’t show up correctly, and I see their email addresses instead. And to make things worse, I know 1 contact which has disappeared off of my mobile account so far.

So, since the same issue is repeating on different clients on different systems with different accounts, well, this is obviously not a local issue. I have to mention that the 2 accounts are linked, but…. well I don’t know if that’s even relevant. Honestly, this makes absolutely no sense to me. It’s the oddest thing I’ve ever encountered on WLM. For now, I’ve told everyone that I’ll be available on Skype… but I have no idea what to do if this problem doesn’t somehow resolve itself. Any ideas anyone?

Update: Boy do I hate Microsoft and do I feel like completely boycotting Windows Live altogether right now. While looking for news on the issue [which apparently is not just mine], look what I found:

“Microsoft has shut off the Windows Live Messenger IM for users in the countries embargoed by the US, hence Microsoft no longer offers Windows Live Service in those countries.”

That of course includes Iran. Enough said I believe.

Filed under: Grotesque, Horrible, Messengers, Microsoft, Web, Windows Live

12 Responses for "WLM Royal Mess-up"

Bent Rasmussen May 22nd, 2009 at 09:30 1
This might not have been the wisest decision to make. I’m not sure where the decision lies – Microsoft or the regulators. Surely Microsoft is acting on regulation, but whether there is some elasticity involved is another matter.
Mike H. May 22nd, 2009 at 10:59 2
Wow, what a bunch of losers. They just shut out some of their most active users with this decision.
Oliver May 22nd, 2009 at 12:32 3
MS has a tendency to waste gained karma almost immediately.
Aasemoon May 22nd, 2009 at 14:58 4
@ Genox: Oh you’ve said it!
riles May 22nd, 2009 at 15:29 5
I thought you were in Canada? Well, either way, that seems like quite a stupid move on MS’s part. But what’s new? One step forward (more openness), eighteen steps back. :-
riles01 May 22nd, 2009 at 15:31 6
By the way, please pay no attention to the atrocious layout of my site. I plan to move to a new software I’m building as soon as I have the time to finish it, so I don’t want to waste resources making it look better. Maybe I should just switch the theme again.
>-=))))}}}8> May 22nd, 2009 at 15:37 7
Unfortunately, this may be more than just an arbitrary decision on their part. Embargos are “government” policies that cover trade, goods, services, etc. I guess somebody somewhere has determined that instant messaging is a “service” that falls under that category.

You probably shouldn’t blame Mr. Softy, more likely, it’s some government plutocrat who’s pulled the plug. Just look at what Google has to do in order to service China.

The real test is to see if other US-based technology services (yahoo, AOL, gmail, etc) are being required to do the same thing. MSFT gets blamed, but it’s probably bigger than just them…
Aasemoon May 22nd, 2009 at 15:38 8
@ Riles: Yup I don’t live in Iran, but I’m half Persian and a large bunch of my friends and family live there, which I communicate with over the web. The problem I’m experiencing right now is not related to the new MS policy, but this is something I found out about while looking into my issue.
Aasemoon May 22nd, 2009 at 15:41 9
@ Fishy: Yeah…. that is also true. Yahoo did something similar a while ago…. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. =/
>-=))))}}}8> May 22nd, 2009 at 17:29 10
What’s interesting though is that you said even though these people appeared as Off Line, they were able to start up conversations with you, so perhaps the service itself isn’t quite disabled, just the notification feature?

Is there a Canadian version of MSN Live? Maybe it’s another one of those “Not OK In Canada” problems like some of the vid services…
Soren May 22nd, 2009 at 19:05 11
That is outrageous! I have never been a fan of what you usually call “MS Politics”, but this so far is the most idiotic action they’ve taken.
Jael May 22nd, 2009 at 20:25 12
I can NOT believe this shite! Just what the bloody hell were they thinking? I have a feeling this is going to come back and bite them in the a** at some point!