Tips on Talking CHAT
Updated 9/6/01

As the internet grows, more and more users are flocking to the many varied chat rooms scattered across the vastness of cyberspace.

The reasons for the popularity of chat are varied but most users are looking for other users with similar interests. Typically this is to learn from, exchange knowledge, or gain secrets. Most of the information exchanged involves careers, skills, hobbies or even intimate things such as sexual habits and proclivities. It matters not what your exact interest happens to be, because in the world of Chat, there are always people with identical interests somewhere to be found.

There are several popular free public chat services operated by major organizations. The listing below also includes each URL where the programs can be downloaded. [fw]=freeware; [sw]=shareware

AOL Instant Messaging [fw] D/L AIM
Yahoo's Instant Messenger [fw] D/L YahooIM
Microsoft's Instant Messenger [fw] D/L MSIM
PalTalk's Instant Messenger [fw] D/L PalTalk
Internet Relay Chat [sw] D/L mIRC
PopNote [fw] D/L PopNote

Each operation above offers a variety of features aside from text chat, such as file transfers, voice, video, or other customized services.

For sheer volume of users, I think AIM is the winner, closely followed by Yahoo. For superior voice and video quality, try PalTalk. IRC is based on old technology and is starting to fall apart, mostly because it does not support voice or video.

Note: 2/4/2002 Since I wrote the paragraph above, several folks have contacted me telling me Im off my rocker about IRC; that in fact it is still a very popular chat medium and continuing to grow. Therefore I retract my statement that it's falling apart but stick to my guns about it being old technology. My guess to explain the growth is that more of the world is being connected to the Internet every day and that it takes time for newbies to discover what experienced users already know.

There are other chat services such as ICQ and PowWow but their user bases have dropped substantially in recent years, mostly because they failed to keep up with technology, and provided poor service by comparison to the chat leaders. However, some users still swear by them.

There are also more and more private programmers developing proprietary chat applications that interface with (or piggy back on) existing major services. One such animal worthy of mention is a Chat client called "Yahelite" that uses Yahoo's chat Servers. It can be obtained from: David Binette Here(M1) or Here(M2).

Yahelite has a lot of user configurable options; but like many similar creations, it is NOT very user friendly and more oriented to coke glass net-nerds. The programs functionality is more the dictates of its author (how he envisions chat should be) rather than cow toeing to the wishes of his audience. The author is obviously a brilliant programmer, but like many of those, is a bit arrogant, terse and egocentric. The upside is his program is free to use with no obligation to pay; and that, in todays world, is amazing.

Here are links to several other, mostly free, 3rd party chat clients that work with Yahoo, AOL, ICQ and MSN.

Download Yazak - Text, Voice, Cam
Download Ychat Text, Voice, but no CAM

EasyMessenger is highly recommended if text and file xfers are your only needs. It is very small, works on all major systems.
Download Easy Messenger

Download CheetaChat
Download EyeBall Text Chat - works all
Download Jabber - Text only
Download Odigo Chat - works all
Download Trillian - works all
Download ICQ


PopNote is my own freeware chat creation and provides users the ability to chat or send IM's peer to peer. Peer to Peer requires at least one user to have a static IP. However, there are workarounds for this limitation. The primary advantage of Peer to Peer is PRIVACY, because the data packets move exclusively between the two users PC's an no intermediarie chat relay servers, as in AIM, YAHOO, MSM or PALTALK.

Things to know when chatting

First, recent polls indicate that 85% of all chatters are males. So if you are a guy and looking for romance, and see a chat room with an abundance of women, beware of the Posers (i.e. males, who, for whatever reasons, enjoy pretending to be girls). If you are a woman and looking for a man, you can't lose.

Lingo

Here is a list of Emoticons or symbols or letters that convey a variety of emotion. They are frequently used in chat rooms to abbreviate typing long strings.

AFK....Away From Keyboard (operator no longer monitoring)
ASL....Age/Sex/Location (out of popularity and considered lamer)
LOL....Laughing Out Loud
LMAO....Laughing My Ass Off
ROTF....Rolling On The Floor
BRB....Be Right Back
BBL....Be Back Later
G2G....Got to Go
IMHO....In my humble opinion
SOL....Sadly out of luck
PXT....Please explain that
AFAIK....As far as I know
<G>....Grin
<VBG>....Very Big Grin
[:-)]....Smile
[:->]....Evil Grin
[:-p]....Sticking out tongue
@}>-`--,--`---....Long Stem Rose

For a complete listing of text emoicons, check HERE.

In addition to these simple text icons, many chat programs will interpret some of these and others listed below to actual color faces in the chat dialog.

Cowperson....[<):)]
Clown....[:o)]
Green kitty/alien....[=:)]
Cow....[3:O]
Skull....[8-X]
Rose....[@};-]
love....[:x]

Chatting Etiquette

Upon entering a room it's expected that you do several things. Introduce yourself and state the reason for your visit. "Bob, Private Pilot - looking for old aviation magazines". Always observe any room rules and follow them. Never lurk (just enter and say nothing) or behave rudely i.e. "God it's slow in here" or ridicule other occupants, i.e. "Joe is a jerk". And finally, do not expect to be entertained; rather, learn to participate!

Buddy Lists

As you navigate the many chat rooms and meet online friends, you will want an easy way to reconnect with users in the future. Contact between users are accomplished through unique "screen" or "user names", assigned to each and every user at the time they subscribe to the service. Basically, your unique Nic (for NICkname), is equivalent in the chat world to a unique email address. Similarily, just as you can save an e-mail address to an address book, you can save a Nic into a "buddy" or "pal list" from which you can tell if he or she is online and contact them.

Choosing a Nickname

Because usernames are unique, and so many people have already established chat accounts, you will likely have trouble using your exact full name, i.e. John_Smith. However, you may succeed in registering John_Smith_70129. Or, JohnSmithTheJetPilot or JohnTheLadiesMan. Some characters are prohibited in Nic, typically "*" and "/" but there may be others.