Natwerk Designs

Do you find the IM chat room experience to be...UNDER-whelming?

I am a big proponent of internet-based communications but the one area I find least value-added would be chat rooms. Not text chat between friends or families...just chat rooms where strangers IM one another. Invariably, someone contacts me with the "asl" question first (age/sex/location). Then they want to see your image on webcam if you have one. Then if they have a display picture, it is frequently some gorgeous model that is not them. And what is usually behind it? Some Nigerian trying to scam me, some Asian young gal looking for an American husband to import her, or some a sex-cam gal trying to get you to lay down a credit card and watch her for money. These chat rooms have become so over-run with scammers and hustlers, I rarely go there anymore. And I do fear for our young people who get suckered in (e.g. internet predators). Are you sick of it too? Chat rooms are nice innovations, but based on what populates them, what does this say about society or people in general?

Public Comments

1. You mean the yahoo chat rooms? I dont use them much any more. They tried to get rid of the bots, but the bots have learned to over ride the verfication process. And I am not being sexist here but a young female like me from the United Kingdom is fair game for obscene IMs. Certian countries think the British girls are easy. And I find if I ever go in rooms , they can show as full, but no ones talking. Just my views you got a good point there.I also get alot of males wanting to marry me so as they can get into the UK and get a visa, tough I am already married.
2. If you guys used to like the yahoo chat rooms a few years back before the bots and arabs took them over you should check out OohYa Chat. No bots or booters and so far the people are all genuine and very nice. Still a new site so not near the user base Yahoo has but maybe that's a good thing. Check it out if you get a chance www.oohya.net