Name of Site: Yahoo!Chat
URL:
au.chat.yahoo.com
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: When you're starting out in the world of chatrooms, Yahoo is probably going to be one of your first stops. It's big, it's friendly (mostly) and it's fast. Yahoo!Chat makes use of a fast loading Java applet or alternately Yahoo's own Messenger program. On entry you are given a list of categorized and sub-categorized rooms accompanied by how many people in each - numbering male, female and squares which presumably means sex undisclosed (or possibly that they are a hermaphradite). There are literally hundreds of categories of rooms available with the more popular hosting some 2000 people at a time, split up into rooms of 50 people each. And with the largest rooms in the Romance section, you can pack your cybersex gear, log on and get ready to find "love"... - SS
Name of Site: Lycos Chat
URL:
clubs.lycos.com
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: While not as big as other major portals like Yahoo!Chat or Netscape Chat, Lycos still has a fair number of categories and at least a couple hundred people on the site at any one time. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on what you are looking for) literally everyone seemed to be concentrated in romance/relationship rooms, outside of these the number one room appeared to be somethign called "Mystic Tavern" where users like "the Dark Child" and the "Decadent Lady" get to play out their medieval fantasies...One interesting feature of this site is the related 'clubs' and message boards sections, which provide other avenues of communication with your fellow surfers. All up Lycos has spent some considerable effort to make a very communal site, but it falls somewhat short simply from lack of participation. - SS
Name of Site: Talk City
URL:
www.talkcity.com
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: Talk City is one of the big guns of online chat and comes feature packed and highly recommended by all the people I chatted with. There were some 600 people online using close to a hundred rooms when I logged on, with the make up of rooms being the usual combination of dating/romance and other assorted categories. One particularly entertaining idea that Talk City features are Chat games, which come in three varieties: Alphabet Soup - make a funny phrase out of random letters, Finders-Keepers - make words out of other words, and Ridiculist - team based trivia. Chat games are a nice variation for when you just can't find anything meaningful or intelligent to share, not that that seems to stop anyone else. - SS
Name of Site: ICQ Chat
URL:
web.icq.com/icqchat
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: ICQ is one of the big names in online messaging and their site reflects this by giving you every possible method for communicating with other humans. ICQ Chat like most other online chat facilities uses a Java client, however unlike many other sites you won't need to register a profile first, so instead you can just whip on any old anonymous name and jump straight in. One unfortunate side effect of using ICQ Chat is the semi-psychosis induced by the rainbow of colours everyone seems to use here, not just as their text colour but as the background for their text colour as well...think yellow text on fluoro pink followed by blue on red and you should get the idea. Eeek! - SS
Name of Site: MSN Chat
URL:
chat.ninemsn.com.au
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: NineMSN Chat is a good place to get local Australian-flavoured chatting. Being a part of the MSN network you'll need a .NET Passport to get in, but once that's done you can browse the hundreds of chat rooms available. Unlike some chat sites, there are actually plenty of people spread across virtually all the rooms. The chatting itself is through what is easily the slickest looking client I came across and rooms have moderators and sets of rules with etiquette that is followed fairly strictly. All this alongside tools to stop abuse makes for a fairly safe environment to chat in. As always Romance/adult related categories are easily the most popular, but with a healthy amount of people making up the many other categories from "Horses R Our Life" to "The Psychic In Us" you are sure to find something that bakes your noodle. - SS
Name of Site: Chat Seek
URL:
chatseek.com
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: One problem you may encounter when searching for good chat rooms, is separating the good from the bad, and believe me there is a LOT of bad! With pop-ups, links to casinos/porn and a sea of empty rooms, you'd be forgiven for becoming disenchanted. Thankfully Chatseek aims to help you in this respect with a selection of links to Chat sites categorized up into topics of conversation. With close to two hundred chat sites linked in 30 categories, this is a useful resource when you're looking for a good site to visit. It is bound to lead you off onto hundreds of memorable conversations, rather than the usual "what's the weather like in Canada today Pierre1675?" jibber. - SS
Name of Site: Internet for Beginners - Chat & Forums
URL:
netforbeginners.about.com/cs/chatforums/index.htm
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: None
Review: If you're new to the Internet, you may wish to visit this site prior to your head-first foray into the insanity that is online chat. As part of the About.com network, this is both an informative and useful reference. Featuring an acronym dictionary where you can find out the meanings of acronyms like, well let's see just OTTOMH (off the top of my head) you might have seen such staples as BRB (be right back), D/L (download) through to words you'll never know how you got on without like DWPKOTL (Deep Wet Passionate Kiss On The Lips) - which is rather useful for some of the more risque chatrooms. Also available is some introductory information about chatting online, links to some newbie chat sites and a guide to emoticons or smiley faces that will turn you into a total &8-| (nerd) in next to no time! ROFL! - SS
Name of Site: Good Chatting
URL:
www.goodchatting.com
Load Time: Normal
Ease of Navigation: Signposted
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: Good Chatting is a chat website with that little bit more. Featuring a Java applet that lets you plug into the Good Chatting IRC channels, you have access to about 15 or so populated rooms. Above and beyond this you can also read a number of articles on chatting like the eternally useful reminder 'Trust No One' to the timeless 'Chat Etiquette', you can also use the chatting glossary or start your own IRC chat channel - which is free if you do it by yourself - or $10 if the site administrator, Julie has to help you. Julie is a complete chatophile and according to her, at least two couples have married through her channels! So if you're keen to get into chatting without being bowled over by hundreds of rooms, check out this site. - SS
Name of Site: On Chat
URL:
www.onchat.com
Load Time: Slow
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: On Chat is one of a new breed of chat sites which is using visual aids to help you in your chatting. When you sign up to On Chat you select a small picture known as an avatar which is then your visual representative in the chat rooms and that's exactly what the rooms are...rooms! When you enter you see a picture of room, complete with perspective, doors leading out and a bunch of avatars placed around the room for all the other chatters. You can move your avatar around to stand next to somebody or to make suggestive gestures at them (hours of limitless fun right there). After hours of boring old text chat, this was so refreshing and in many ways much better than regular chatrooms, because you can easily see who is talking to who. While it still has some way to go, I think visual chat could be the thing of the future! - SS
Name of Site: Telstra BigPond Chat
URL:
bigpond.com/chat
Load Time: Scorching
Ease of Navigation: Walk in the Park
Plug Ins Required: Java
Review: I must confess to being slightly surprised that Telstra ran a chat website, but it was a pleasant surprise. With plenty of home grown chatters, it's nice to speak to people who aren't experiencing climate patterns and time zones diametrically opposed to our own. And it's relatively popular too, with a variety of rooms and plenty of people, many of whom wholeheartedly recommended the site. One highlight of BigPond chat is their featured chat sessions which occur regularly, with celebrities such as Mark Geyer passing the talking stick, uh, football to the punters! There's also a news bulletin (called LOL News - don't ask) and plenty of help for beginners. All up it's a good site, and it cleared up a few mysteries about why my phone rental is so high! - SS
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