Does anyone "chat" in these?  if so, what chat client do you use?  I use VooDoo Chat.
http://www.voodoochat.com/

I have been 8 years connected to the Net and have been on quite a few chat sites but got very bored with the 'Hi, Bye, Hugs, Kisses.' thing or people who wanted to Cyber sex with you. Someone in a chat room once asked me what I would do if my teenaged son (they were fishing coz they didn't even know I had a son) saw me in the nude. I answered as quick as a flash that the entire family were naturists and never wore clothing at home, so it was no big deal for any of my children to see me in the nude. They had absolutely no come back for that! I found a lot of people would come on threatening suicide etc and people would be all sympathetic and most of the time it would not have been true. I tried ICQ again last year and it was the same old same old. Very boring. I am glad I discovered forums and in particular this one! I may check out the one you have though Paula.

I used to go into a chat room a long time ago.  It does get very old, the things your'e talking about and you would think that only women would get harrassed for cybersex but not so, with the username MeanDean I periodically got private messaged from people hoping that I would type dirty to em in violent ways.  It supprised me every time too because it kind of out there and of course I just had to talk to them long enough to find out if they were being serious or joking around... serious every time.
And it is stupid to be taking 5 minutes to say hello and goodbye to every single person in the chat room.

Quoted from SuziH

... I found a lot of people would come on threatening suicide etc and people would be all sympathetic and most of the time it would not have been true...

I experienced that too Suzi.  While I was a chat host for Excite, we had specific instructions on what to say (type) in this type of situation.  People often thought we were mean because we did nothing.  What they didn't realise was that we couldn't just drive over, rather we'd have had to get on a plane and fly to the US to check these people out.

thats rubbish

Quoted from mercat

thats rubbish

Such a sweeping statement with no basis in fact.  

Care to elaborate?

chat rooms are boring

Quoted from dara

chat rooms are boring

They are like life ...  just what you make of them/it!  

what are you talking about...

any one on...

Kelley23, this isn't a chat room, it's a forum.  If you want "instant" chat, you'll need a chat room, otherwise you will have to wait quite some time for a response.  

Yep..... like over an hour
No I still don't use chat rooms these days.

Me neither, hate them with a passion.

Same here. Forums are much better I think, I prefer getting to know people than chatting to randoms.

They were alright years ago, I used to play what they called WORDOX, a kind of scrabble online many years ago. I made some good friends around the world playing this as you could chat 'live' while playing.
But I have never been to chat rooms as such.......boring, I imagine