Will we ever get IM service back?

I'm convinced that the answer is, "No."

That tweet from Jack made me less confident than ever. It's been down for nearly three months and it's been more than a month since there was any official word. Then we get a tweet that says they are "intent" but it will take "some time"...? That doesn't inspire a lot of hope.

Don't get me wrong, I'll be happier than most if it comes back on line, but I'll eat a crayon if it's back before 2009.

I understand that capacity needs to be added and such but seriously I really don't think this is the "top priority" as they keep saying. If this is a top priority and taking 3 months, what about stuff that isn't top priority? There are plenty of xmpp sollutions out there. Some are quite scalable even if the configuration can be confusing (ejabberd I'm looking at you).

Well they originally had the capacity which ran out and then they got some amazon s3 space for the "static" content such as backgrounds/"avatars" ect.... so they should have the capacity for I.M. again. And i'm sure people in the U.K. would love it back since they have no S.M.S. option anymore.

It should be a high priority, especially with the recent removal of SMS to international users. I'd be happy to have my notifications and replies sent to my IM and actually work - since I'm logged in a lot of the time on IM.