Internet chat channels; how often do you visit them?

[Rocker]

How frequently do you visit internet chat channels? If frequently, which channel(s) do you recommend?

Rocker

[echnidna]

Used to use ICQ but that was a few years ago, dont use chatchannels these days.
(unless you count Ubeaut's forums as a chat channel)

[bitingmidge]

Nice one Rocker, a poll on polling day!!

Never found the need for idle chat!!

I am a great lurker on lots of forums (like this one for two or three years before I got a rush of blood to my head).

It's a wierd world out there, and I am pleased to be contributing to that statistic in my own small way!


Cheers,

P

[gemi_babe]

When I first got on the net some 5 years ago, I was shown to a chat channel called IRC and you used mIRC to access it. It is good fun as you can use all sorts of pop up messages... hard to explain but great fun.

These days I don't enter chat rooms but keep a few close friends on yahoo messenger. Its great for leaving offline messages.

[journeyman Mick]

Rocker,
you need an option in your poll for "huh? what's a chat channel?" :confused: I only found this BB whilst searching for woodworking machinery on Australian sites. I come here, I check mail on Mymail, do the occasional search, follow some of the links people on this BB point out and I reserve library books. I'm sure there's all sorts of interesting stuff out there but it's abit like looking through a big city Saturday newspaper - packed full of stuff that must have significance for lots of people, but seems almost alien to me. (Plus packed full of ads for escorts, strip clubs, meeting places for singles etc etc etc - the world sure has a lot of sad, lonely and desperate people)

Mick the hillbilly

[Robert WA]

Is ICQ considered a chat channel? I use it now and then to catch up with a friend in the US.

[Rocker]

Mick,
Your post, and the results of the poll so far, show that internet chat channels, despite having been around for over 10 years, remain one of the best-kept secrets of the World-wide Web, used by only a tiny proportion of Internet users. Part of the reason for this, I suppose, is that people read horror stories in the papers of how perverts use them to lure vulnerable children, or that Osama bin Laden uses them to communicate with his al-Qaida cohorts on the other side of the world, so that normal people are discouraged from getting involved.

There are some chat channels that are accessible on the NineMSN and Yahoo websites, but I have never used these, and I know nothing about them - maybe Gemi-babe can provide more insight into them. The real aficionados of internet chat use a program called Mirc, which you can download from the Mirc website http://www.mirc.com/ , which also has instructions on how to use the the program.

There are a number of different 'Nets', i.e. groups of servers running chat channels, such as efnet, undernet, dalnet, etc. Channel names begin with a #, and there are a number of established channels on all the nets, which are kept open by 'bots', even if no-one is actually using the channel. To get onto a channel, you must first connect to a server that forms part of the net on which the channel resides, and you then join the channel. Apart from the established permanent channels, you can also set up and join an ad hoc temporary channel which you create yourself. I should mention that you do not actually chat, in the sense of using your voice. You type, and what you type also appears on the screens of the other channel users as soon as you hit the 'enter' key.

I am only familar with a couple of channels, which I have frequented on and off for the past ten years. They are #30plus on efnet, and #41plus on undernet. The regulars on these channels are mostly American, but there are some aussies and poms, and a few continental Europeans. As a result of being a regular on these channels, I have acquaintances from all over America, and in all the capital cities of Australia. The channels are best visited between 9 a.m and 3 p.m. Eastern time, when it is evening in the US. So the chat channels are best for retired people, housewives, or for people who have access to a computer during their lunch hour. Internet chat is really best for people who have plenty of time on their hands; if you are busy, and find difficulty finding time to do the things you need to do, then it is best avoided, since it can be quite addictive.

There are of course horror stories of people whose marriages have disintegrated, because one spouse became emotionally involved with somone they met on the internet. But then again there are probably lots of marriages that have disintegrated because of someone that a spouse met in a pub or club.

Apart from the general channels, there are numerous channels for special interest groups. For instance, my wife regularly visits genealogy channels.

I should perhaps mention that I met my wife in a chat channel on the internet

Rocker

[Rowan]

Guess being a good country lad I consider this forum a chat chanel cause the converstation are how I like them, really slow, long and drawn out, usually with no significance to real life!!!!!!

[oges]

I guess im just a computer geek, i talk on a few scrollsaw related msn sites, also mirc, icq, yahoo, msn.

[journeyman Mick]

Rocker,
I had two attempts at reading your explanation and, while I am sure it's excellent, clear and precise I found my eyes glazing over and my brain tuning out :confused: (now I know what my wife feels like when I enthusiastically explain, in detail how, say a Lucas Mill works). I spend more time than I should here, so it's probably just as well that I don't understand this chat channels business. BTW, I'm with Rowan on this BB and its exchanges.

Mick

[gemi_babe]

Mick,
There are some chat channels that are accessible on the NineMSN and Yahoo websites, but I have never used these, and I know nothing about them - maybe Gemi-babe can provide more insight into them.

Rocker

Yahoo is an instant message program. Very easy to use. http://au.messenger.com/yahoo
Click on the link, it will explain everything to you with pictures
They have great 'smilies' which help with showing emotion.

When you enter a yahoo chat room (different from Instant messageing) you are able to chat via voice if you have a mic or a head set with a mic attached. This can be great fun and cheap if you have friends OS. You must have speakers or a head set to hear others

I don't chat in any rooms anymore. mIRC is good but can be quite complicated, but once you get use to it (like you have with this site) it can be quite entertaining.

[Wood Borer]

I get my fix of sanity using this BB.

Our kids tried to convince me to use one of the chat things 8 years ago, nobody responded so I cursed all chat rooms, spat the dummy and have never gone back. Sounds like my stubborness has paid off for once.

[Rocker]

Wood Borer,
If you go to chat channels looking for a sanity fix, you probably will not find it in them. I think of it more like a visit to the zoo, where you go to observe the curious habits of the animals. You probably would not want a lot of the people who frequent the channels in your house, but their antics are amusing to watch, when you know you can leave at any time, and you can put really annoying people on 'ignore' so that you no longer have to put up with their comments.

Mick,
I am sorry if you found my explanation confusing, but it is much easier to show someone sitting beside you how to use mIRC, than it is to try to explain it in a few paragraphs. If you seriously want to find out about it, you can study the mIRC webpage, which gives full details. As I suggested earlier, for people who have a full social life or whose daily lives are busy, internet chat has not got much to offer that you don't have already. I regard it rather like a visit to a pub, where you might strike up an interesting discussion with someone you may never meet again.

I will be happy enough if someone, whose life, for whatever reason, is socially isolated, is motivated by reading this thread to broaden their horizons and perhaps get some enjoyment from visiting Internet chat rooms.

Rocker

[HappyHammer]

Nice staffy Gemi.

[gemi_babe]

Thanks HappyHammer...

Looking up chat channels are you?