2CUTE: Hi

DOPEY: what did he say

SAM44: 16/male

SUPERWEE: AAAAAAGHHHHHH

TOTTIE: I like eggs

LULU:can smoeone hlp me g35 o wekga

BOB: are you female

But the truth is, despite their shortcomings, you'll find chat rooms all over the Internet and in every online service. And not only will you find them, but also you might have trouble getting into them because they'll often be filled to capacity. For some reason, chat rooms have been, and continue to be, among the most popular areas online.

What To Expect.

A chat room is any area where people congregate and communicate online. Conversations are typed and occur in real-time (the normal passage of time; not delayed). You can join a general conversation room or one devoted to a particular topic. Anyone with access to the Internet can chat.

One reason chat rooms are so popular is that they can be exciting. We're not talking about the heart-pounding excitement you feel when you're skydiving. Instead, chat rooms can be exciting in the same way that a first visit to a social club can be exciting.

You can meet and converse with people who share your interests, and you're not burdened by the baggage of your reputation or past experiences. In fact, the biggest difference between online chat and person-to-person chat is that in a chat room, you're not burdened by your identity—that is, your real-life identity—in any way.

Many of the people who visit chat rooms shed their identities and their inhibitions and harmlessly assume roles they couldn't assume in face-to-face conversations. For example, a retiree might jump into a teen chat area to see what the kids are talking about these days. Or a man might take on a girlish user name and spy on a women-only chat area.

Online identity switches and cybervoyeurism provide some juvenile fun and a cheap thrill or two, but it soon loses its luster.

Another reason a person might join a chat room is to get information about a specific topic. Although there are plenty of general interest chat rooms online, most chat rooms are oriented around central topics. You'll find lots of people in chat rooms devoted to hobbies, TV shows, computers, and practically anything else.

Getting Up The Nerve.

Whether you decide to visit a chat room for one of these reasons or just out of curiosity, you should make it a point to visit at least one chat room as part of your online experience.

Getting into most chat rooms is as easy as finding a chat room that interests you. There are plenty of chat rooms out there if you know where to look. Every online service is laden with them, and with most online services, it's just a one-click process to enter a chat room.

Even in chat rooms dedicated to a particular topic, such as this entrepreneurs chat room on America Online, the conversation sometimes dwindles down to meaningless drivel.

For example, in America Online, just click the People Connection button in the Channels window. You'll instantly be transported to an available chat room. We can't vouch for the quality of conversation you'll hear when you're there, but at least you won't have any problem finding people who want to talk.

It takes a few more steps to find a chat room on the Web. To find one, head to any search engine or Web directory and search for a chat area. For example, if you desperately want to discuss politics with anyone, search for "chat AND politics." You'll probably come across at least a dozen or so politically oriented chat rooms.

The name of a chat room should immediately tell you what the topic of conversation is, and sometimes the name is preceded by a pound sign (#). Using our search example, you might find a chat room called "#politics." The pound sign indicates that it's a chat room; "politics" indicates what you can expect to discuss.

You'll be able to enter some of these Internet chat rooms with a click of the button, similar to entering a chat room in an online service. You usually have to enter a name by which to identify yourself, and you might have to register with the site. Generally, this simply entails giving your name and E-mail address and picking a user name. Some sites let you upload a photograph of yourself, as well.

With other chat rooms, particularly any chat room that wants to establish its reputation as an area for serious discussion, the process of entering the room may be more involved. You may have to apply to be accepted into the chat room.

Speaking Up.

Once you've gained entrance into the hallowed grounds of the chat room, you can start broadcasting your comments to anyone who wants to listen. Of course, if you do that, you may be forced to leave the room before you're ready.

Before you do anything in a chat room, you need to lurk (listen to the conversation without saying anything) in the background for a while. You wouldn't interrupt a conversation at a dinner party if you didn't know what the topic of discussion was; similarly, you shouldn't throw in your two cents in a chat room until you know what's going on. Just say hello and then listen in. After you catch the drift of conversation, you're ready to contribute to the discussion.

The method of participating in a chat room varies for each one; check the chat room's list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to learn the particularities of the room. But in general, all chat rooms have two fields: a conversation field where the most recent lines of conversation appear, and a message field where you can enter what you want to say. The conversation field generally is accompanied by a scroll bar so you can view earlier segments of conversation; the message field usually includes a Send button.

Type what you want to say in the message field, then click the Send button and your message will appear in the conversation field. The message should appear immediately; if it doesn't, your message may have been discarded by the host.

Many chat rooms are governed by a host who answers questions and monitors the conversation. Hosts have certain hours when they are available, and conversations typically peter out when the host is off the air.

The host can kick out obnoxious chatters, including anyone who uses profanity, insults, even irrelevant chat, from the room permanently. Chat rooms that aren't governed by hosts are more likely to be disrupted.

In addition to being monitored by a host, many rooms are monitored by programs that search incoming messages for inappropriate words and phrases. The programs discard any messages that contain offensive words.

Getting Into The Conversation.

Just as with any normal conversation, there are certain conventions and rules of etiquette that govern chat rooms. The sooner you pick up on these fine points of chat, the sooner you'll become a welcomed member of a chat room.

One of the first things you may notice about the conversation in a chat room is that there is a lot of indecipherable script flying around.

Because the conversation is typed and not spoken, it takes a little longer to get your thoughts on-screen. To keep conversation flowing at a regular pace, a number of communication shortcuts have evolved. The shortcuts can be divided into three groups: emoticons, actions, and acronyms.

Emoticons are combinations of punctuation marks and letters that create on-screen pictures. Well, they create a picture if you know what to look for.

Some of the most common emoticons are faces. To see the faces, you have to tilt your head to one side. For example, this emoticon

: ) - is a smiley face, and,

; ) - is a wink.

Actions let others in the chat room know what you're doing and are set apart by asterisks. They also might be accompanied by a "/me" to further clarify that you're referring to your own actions. For example, if you want to let someone know you're laughing at something that was said, you could type /me **laughing**.

The acronyms are a little less obvious. Acronyms are simply the first letter of every word in a phrase. Some of the ones you're bound to see include BTW, which stands for "by the way," and ROTFL, which stands for "rolling on the floor, laughing." (See Mind Your Manners Online in the Internet Basics issue.)

Some of the jumbled combinations of letters and punctuation marks you see on-screen aren't emoticons or acronyms. Instead, they're misspellings and punctuation errors.

That brings us to our first rule of chat room etiquette: Try to spell and punctuate correctly. Not only are these types of mistakes annoying to read, but also it creates confusion in a chat room.

In addition to this, there are a number of other rules of etiquette you should follow when participating in a chat room. A few things to avoid are:

• butting into a conversation without learning a little about what's going on.

• typing in all uppercase letters; this is the online equivalent of screaming.

• trying to sell something.

• insulting other chat room members or using profanity.

A few ways to endear yourself to your fellow chatters are:

• asking good questions.

• raising interesting points.

• being polite.

• spelling correctly and using proper punctuation.

Having said that, though, the most important point is to act just as you would act anywhere else—on a city street, in your local community group, on lunch at work—and you will get along fine with everybody. You'll meet some interesting people, and maybe you'll learn something.

by Jeff Dodd