A couple of days ago, someone behind the scenes “pushed the wrong button” and everyone was able to sign in using Windows Live Messenger, even without an invite! A few sites jumped the gun and took it as the signal that the beta was now open for everyone, which isn’t actually the case. Earlier today the “problem” was rectified and now we’re back to requiring special access to sign in.
But something else happened at the same time: the invite system changed a little, you no longer need someone to send you an invite. Instead, you can now just go to a URL which grants you access and away you go.
I asked someone on the beta team earlier today what the story was:
Direct Sign-up was just enabled through Ideas.live.com yesterday, which enables people to get directly into the Closed (read: not Managed) Beta… We are helping the Messenger team scale their service, and as such enabled Direct Sign-up to make it easier for people to join and get the service.
So it looks like they’re stepping things up a notch and want more users testing.
Invitations can still be sent and do work, Leah also posted about this today, she gives a good reason to still send out your current invitations:
If you are already using the beta and have invitations left, we still encourage you to send them out. People are way more likely to try out the beta if they receive a formal recommendation from you.
MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger are two very different applications, each have a different purpose and target audience. As such, you are able to install both on Windows XP. This has caused much confusion with the API that exists in both of them.
Continue reading ‘MSN Messenger vs. Windows Messenger API confusion’
Heard of the MSN Developer Center? Now there is the Windows Live Developer Center, apparently announced today at MIX06.
As the welcome page says:
The Windows Live Developer Center on MSDN is your one stop shop for the Windows Live Platform, including information on getting started with Windows Live services, latest documentation and APIs, access to community areas and relevant blogs, and announcements of future releases and innovations.
So far not much appears to be new, for example, the link to Windows Live Messenger just redirects to the old MSN Messenger page.
Regardless, have a look and keep an eye out, we will be seeing some cool new opportunities for developers.
I am nearly done working on the major overhaul for the Web site. For the past couple of weeks I have been tying up some loose ends and fixing things here and there. If you have a good eye, you may have noticed some minor changes happing in preparation for this update, if you visit the forums, you can’t miss an obvious clue.
Now I am interested in feedback. As always, before I launch anything publicly I like to get as much feedback as possible. I want to show a few people the new Web site and hear what they have to say. It can be good or bad; I can try fixing the bad things and continue doing the good things. Just send off an email to info@fanatic.net.nz if you are interested and I will give you the URL and a password for access.
It would be especially helpful if I hear from anyone with Web design/development experience, such as getting feedback on the theme and usability from a technical stand point.
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Tags: bot, MSNP.
At the start of January, Todd Biggs responded to a question at the MSDN forums about third party clients which connect to the .NET Messenger Service. He explains that there is only one client which is licensed to connect to the network, the Reuters Messaging client. Additionally, there are various ISV programs and services, ie. bots.
Although this really just tells us about the licensing information we already know, many people ask about it and here is the answer again. My question is, if you use or create and unlicensed client, what’s going to happen? Nothing has happened in the 2+ years since the licensing was introduced.
The terms of service states the following under section 3:
You may only use Microsoft software or authorized third-party software to sign into and use the Service. You can find a list of authorized third-party software at http://messenger.msn.com/Help/Authorized.aspx.
And under section 13:
Unless you, or a third party on your behalf, have a separate written contract with Microsoft that modifies this contract, then we may terminate or suspend your Service at any time.
My interpretation of this is that if you use a third party client, Microsoft reserve the right to block you from connecting to the service, which I have never heard of happening.