What is a Chatroom?
A chatroom can be on a webpage, or it may be a program that you run. Some are just text, where you see alot of names in a room, and everyone is chatting in a main window. Or it may be Voice Chat. Or even a graphical chat where people have “avatars” that might be a cartoonish figure or a picture. There are many types of chatroms, and they are all over the internet. One of the most popular is Yahoo. They, like other places, have many chatrooms devoted to different topics and demographics. You can get to a Yahoo Chatroom by using Yahoo Messenger as well. Or you can try the Prowler chat rooms through the Prowler Browser. Chatrooms have lingo, get used to it. BRB is Be Right Back and so forth. Do NOT put ASL to ask Age, Sex and Location, as it is considered to be very immaturish to do so by most adult chatters.
A chatroom is a website on a computer network where online conversations are held in real time by a number of users. Each user might use different equipment to communicate. For example, you could either communicate using a computer keyboard or a headset with a microphone. Sometimes a web camera is used so members can see each other while they are communicating..
A chatroom is “live” interaction (usually “talk”) between members who are in the same chatroom. In a chatroom, you say “hi” to another member, and they can immediately say “hi” back (live interaction). • In comparison, there are Bulletin Boards (BBS), which are also known as “Newsgroups”, “Forums” or “Discussion Groups”. These are the posting of messages in an e-mail fashion. Generally a topic or subject is introduced, and various people email in their responses. There is no “live” interaction; the format automatically requires delays. Chat 101 contains a Guestbook, which is slightly different than a Newsgroup. It’s simply there to “sign in”, and leave a comment. No replies from Guests are expected. • How a chatroom “looks” depends very much on the software the chatroom is using. You might get simple text (the easiest to follow), or you might end up with an avatar (a representation of a character – like a comic or drawing). If you can locate the option (or ask someone in the chatroom),
Chatrooms are live or real time conversations which can be public or private. In a public chatroom, you can talk to everyone in the chatroom; however, you may not know any of the participants. There may be hundreds of people or only a few in the chatroom at that time. In a private chatroom, the creator of the room decides who can come in to chat. Users in public rooms create private rooms and invite certain individuals to come in. There are hundreds of links to chatrooms all over the world on the Internet, some of which can be found on the Resources page of this web site. These web sites have information on how you can set up your own chatroom or you can join one that is already established.
