What is a chat room?

A chat room typically takes the form of one or more ‘windows’ on


the screen that contain line after line of text. One line is a response

from a single person, their ‘Nic’ (Nickname) or ‘Handle’ is generally

shown alongside. The people in the chat room enter a line of text

and then press ENTER, where it is displayed for everyone to see. It

then continues in a free-for-all chat session where one person may

be having a dozen simultaneous ongoing ‘conversations’ with

different people. It can get very confusing to follow as there are

typically many people carrying on different conversations at any

one time. Crowded chat rooms can appear completely random at

first glance.

Once you first jump into a chat room it can be quite a shock, and

will take you some time to get used to what is going on and what isbeing said. It is best to just sit back for 5-10 minutes and watch


the action to get a feel for the topics being discussed and the mood

of the people. It is not unusual to see a lot of swearing, personal

messages that you have no idea about, and lots of acronyms.

It’s a good idea to make up a unique handle for yourself and

stick with it, that way people get to know you. It’s not unusual to try

and enter a new chat room only to find someone is already using

your handle. Some chat clients like Yahoo! Chat assign you a

permanent handle, which means that no one else is able to use it.

Volunteers moderate some chat rooms, and people who swear

constantly or provoke other people are kicked off. Moderated chat

rooms are a much nicer environment to chat in, so it’s a good idea

to start off with those ones if you can.