Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company  
The New York Times
September 6, 2001, Thursday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section G; Page 3; Column 3; Circuits

LENGTH: 845 words

HEADLINE: ONLINE DIARY

BYLINE:  By Pamela LiCalzi O'Connell; This column appears on alternate Thursdays. 
Tales of your own life online may be contributed by e-mail to online@nytimes.com.

BODY:
 
Elite Digits

Instant messaging -- real-time electronic text conversations -- is a bona fide cultural 
phenomenon. America Online, for instance, says that membership in its two services, 
Instant Messenger and ICQ ("I Seek You"), exceeds 200 million.

Although active users probably number in the tens of millions based on daily log-in 
figures, that's still a fairly big chunk of the online population. But whenever the masses 
embrace an activity, some will try to establish an elite status to distance themselves from 
the rabble. Take the case of ICQ, which is free and emerged in 1997. On eBay, a small 
but regular auction market has developed for ICQ user identification numbers with only 
six digits -- the shortest possible. And it's not just because they are easier to remember 
than longer ones.

A six-digit ID "means that you are a hacker or a very early Internet user," explained 
Maxym Borysenko, a recent bidder who currently has an eight-digit number. New ICQ 
users are issued numbers with as many as nine digits.

Some of the six-digit ID's have sold for more than $150. "A certain status has developed" 
around the low numbers, said Cindy Harvey, an AOL spokeswoman.

But another bidder on eBay, Brian Patterson, disdains those who seek such user ID's for 
status rather than convenience. "If I happen to win a small number for a few bucks, then 
so be it," he said. "I'm not betting my online identity on a number."
 
 

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GRAPHIC: Drawings (Chris Gash)

LOAD-DATE: September 6, 2001