Sams Teach Yourself Internet and Web Basics All in One

You might have heard people refer to chatting on the Internet as being in a "chat room." Well, you don't have to go into a special room in your house that you designate only for these chats. Chats are divided by subject matter, and the term chat room really refers to the subject area you have entered on the Internet.

Room is an appropriate word to use, however, because it's very much like being in a room full of people, all talking about the same subject. Everything you "say" by typing it into your computer can be "heard" by everybody else in the room ”they will see your words appear on their computer screen. That can be a very small group of people, or dozens.

Thousands of different chats are under way at once, each in its own chat room. When you join a chat, you enter a room, and from then on you see only the conversation that's taking place in that room.

In most chat rooms (or channels), the conversation is focused on a given subject area. In a singles chat room, participants chat about stuff singles like to talk about. In a geology chat, people generally talk about rocks and earthquakes.

When you're in a chat room, everything that everyone else in the same room types appears on your screen. Each participant's statements are labeled with a nickname to identify who's talking. Those participating in a chat (known as members ) choose their own nicknames and rarely share their real names . In a chat, you can be whoever you want to be, and so can everyone else.