Free Chat Rooms

Regardless of your quest - whether it is chitchat bingo, teen chat rooms, or online dating, you are probably looking to get it for free. It never ceases to amaze me that we would never find ourselves wondering into a store looking for free stuff, yet we continue to believe that the Internet owes us free information, free samples, etc. Well, online searches for free chat rooms are one of the leading in the Internet industry.

People of all ages and all corners of the world attempt to locate free chat rooms - or at least local chat rooms where they would have the opportunity to eventually meet with their new cyber friend face-to-face. The funny thing is, in all my years of using online chat rooms, I've never been asked to pay a fee. Mostly, the providers of these free chat rooms make money by selling your information, which they attain by making you register before you are permitted to enter a free chat room. If you're new to online chat, this article will have you chatting in no time! We will lead you down the right path and you will find FREE ONLINE CHAT ROOMS. But first, here's a brief explanation of what chatting online involves.

A chat room is essentially a non-existent cyber room where people gather to talk, flirt, exchange ideas, find new friends, and generally get some relief from loneliness. With online chat, communicating to people in the same cyber chat-room is made possible via text messages in real-time.

Online chat primarily refers to direct one-on-one chat or group chat, using tools such as instant messaging applications, Internet Relay Chat, etc. The expression "online chat" or "chat rooms" comes from the word chat which means "informal conversation". Some chat rooms use both text and voice simultaneously. The oldest form of true chat rooms are the text-based variety. Talkomatic, developed around 1974, claims to have been the prototype of the text-only chat room. The most popular of this kind is Internet Relay Chat (IRC). The popularity of these kinds of chat rooms has waned over the years, and IRC's popularity has rapidly given way to instant messaging. There are also graphical user interface (GUI) text-based chat rooms. These are visual chat rooms that add graphics to the chat experience, in either 2D or 3D (using virtual reality technology). These virtual worlds are capable of incorporating elements such as games (in particular multi player online games) and educational material. The most popular environments also allow users to create or build their own spaces.

Some visual chat rooms also incorporate audio and video communications, so that users may actually see and hear each other. The primary use of a chat room is to share information via text with one or more persons. New technology has enabled the use of file sharing and web cams to be included in some programs and almost all Internet chat or messaging services allow users to display or send to each other photos of themselves.

Some people who visit chat rooms use them as a place to experience online adult relations, also known as computer love or cybersex. While not physically able to see their partner, cyber-ers apparently get stimulation by reading sexually explicit quotes. While many in the media focus on this aspect of chat rooms as it certainly boosts their ratings, it is by no means the only thing chat rooms are used for. People engage in "cybersex" for many reasons. Unfortunately, sexual predators can use cybersex conversations as a means of identifying potential victims.

Online Chat Room Etiquette

Chat rooms usually have stringent rules that they require users to follow in order to maintain integrity and safety for their users. Particularly in rooms for children, rules usually do not allow users to use offensive language, or to promote hate mail, violence and other negative issues. Also chat rooms often do not allow advertising in their rooms or flooding, which is continually filling the screen with repetitive text. Typing with caps lock on is usually considered shouting and is discouraged. Chat rooms usually have a list of rules for users to obey when they chat online though they are not usually kept.

Sometimes chat room venues are moderated either by limiting who is allowed to speak (not common), or by having moderation volunteers patrol the venue watching for disruptive or otherwise undesirable behaviour.
Yet, most commonly used chat rooms are not moderated and users may type what they personally choose to send.

Chattiquette / Nettiquette
The term chatiquette is a variation of nettiquette and describes basic rules of online communication. To avoid misunderstandings and to simplify the communication between users in a chat these conventions or guidelines have been created. The chattiquette varies from community to community, in general it describes basic courtesy, introduces new user into the community and the associated network culture. As an example, it is considered rude to write only in UPPER CASE, because it looks as if your are shouting.

Some of the above information was attained from Wikipedia.

To learn how to practice chat room etiquette, go to eHow.