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place in cyberspace where you and your friends hang
out to talk and share ideas.
Because chat
room messages are spontaneous and instantly visible,
there is a potential for abuse, which may or may not
be intentional. Site hosts typically post a
frequently asked questions (FAQ) list to guide users
to appropriate chat room behavior, such as
introducing yourself when you enter a room, making
it clear when you are directing a question or
response to a specific user, and reporting
disruptive users, for example. Disruptive users may
verbally abuse other chatters, monopolize the
conversation, or even just disable it by repeatedly
typing the same word or phrase into the
conversation, a practice (much frowned upon) known
as scrolling.
Chat rooms
can be found that focus on virtually any aspect of
human endeavor or interest: there are current
communities based on classic movies, Irish ancestry,
baton twirling, and psychic readings, for example.
Various sites, such as Yahoo, provide a directory of
chat sites. Others, such as MSN Web Communities,
guide users through the steps required to create
their own chat room.
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