Technically, xfire is required for new members. Mikeb has been around so long, there were few requirements when he joined. However, it is true that all members should have xfire and TS3 installed an know how to use it.
I think it's a bit petty to suggest you would give up your tags before you would attempt to use xfire again, even though it has been years since you tried to use it. I don't need to PM you, I can tell you here; I would like for you to download, install, and run xfire and see if you can use it. If you have issues, please contact an admin (feel free to contact me) and we can help you change some settings that may make it run much better. You are not required to run it while you are gaming, particularly if it messes with your gaming such as causes lag etc. However, it is very useful to contact admins and the like when there are issues in servers. As others have said, forum posts are NOT the preferred or even reasonable method for contacting admin about server problems that need immediate attention. XI has used xfire as our official in-game communication tool for quite some time now.
As for your hesitation for using xfire or TS because it is a portal for hackers.. I don't now a single person who has had issues with hacking due to using xfire or TS. I cannot say that it does not happen, it just seems quite unlikely to me that it does and I've never heard of it happening.
Please don't take this as an attack against you MikeB. You've been around here a long time, and you are a valued member of XI. I just think a little willingness to work together and get this sorted would be reasonable. It's your call dude.