“Important service announcement: Because of a recent system update, you must change the e-mail address that you use to sign in to Windows Live(TM) Messenger. Until you change your e-mail address, you won’t be able to use Windows Live(TM) Messenger.

To change your e-mail address and find out more about this system update, go to… [URL REMOVED]”

This is what greeted me this morning when opening Adium to connect me to the plethora of IM networks out there, some of which I use daily for work (MSN included sadly!)

I use the same eMail address for most personal stuff - it ends with mac.com - it seems that MSN is no longer willing to have users on their network with anything that isn’t a hotmail.com address mac.com addresses.

To add insult to injury the webpage that the obnoxious message I received pointed me to responds with “This page could not be displayed”… how helpful.

I remain contactable on any rational IM network… Now that I’ve discovered it only affects mac.com addresses I’ll potentially get around to creating a new MSN name at some point but I do not want one that contains the word hotmail!