Does Aol Still Have Chat Rooms

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Does Aol Still Have Chat Rooms
AOL's chat rooms were wildly popular 10-15 years ago, but times have changed.
Story highlights AOL chat rooms, popular in the 90's and early 00's, are less so today thanks to new technology Chat rooms helped the users communicate rapidly with others like themselves Today, social networks' chat services let people exchange in real time with existing friends Still, some networks like Twitter and Linked In thrive on creating bonds between strangers
Last month, Sean Parker of Napster fame launched Airtime .
Amid the hoopla of the launch -- attended, for some reason, by Jimmy Fallon and Snoop Dogg -- Parker told an anecdote about meeting his business partner, Shawn Fanning, 15 years ago in a chat room, saying , "There's something exciting about bringing spontaneity to the Internet. All of your interactions online are constrained by the people you already know."
So far, Airtime hasn't exactly been a hit . Apparently people don't feel constrained by interacting with the people they know -- they feel comforted by it. But what, exactly, did happen to the chat rooms Parker so fondly remembers?
I talked with Joe Schober, the longest-running employee at AOL and its current chief architect.
His relationship with the company started in 1988, before it was America Online. Back then it was called AppleLink, a project commissioned by Apple Computer and a company called Quantum Computer Services to connect Apple II and Macintosh computers.
The beta test was dubbed "Samuel" and for Schober, a teenage fan of BBSes (bulletin board systems), it was an intriguing opportunity. He recalls a "little frontier town" where you could initially recognize almost every screen name you came across. When the main chat room filled to capacity, necessitating the creation of Lobby 2, the community celebrated.
It only took 23 people to fill a chat room.
"I know for myself, personally, I found it fascinating," says Schober. "The BBS world, it tended to be a one-line experience -- you were the sole user of the service, you could send email, you could leave messages, but it wasn't interactive in real-time in the same way. So the experience of going into a chat room and getting a response a couple of seconds later from someone who was in the same chat room was just really cool."
Slowly, the service grew, expanding to support DOS and eventually Windows. The chat product, called People Connection, had a variety of rooms for people interested in such topics as genealogy and strategy games. Schober remembers a ticker dubbed "Network News," a kind of virtual community newsletter that would let people know when certain chat rooms had a special guest or were discussing certain topics.
Schober moved from beta tester to full-time employee in 1992, when the service -- now officially called America Online -- went public. The company was positioned perfectly for the onset of the Internet Age. Windows 3.1 was released, making personal computers both more affordable and easier to use. And, despite our memories of the slow-dialing modems of the '90s, connecting to the World Wide Web was faster than ever at the time.
"In the '80s, if you had a 2400 baud modem you were pretty hot stuff," says Schober. "2400 baud is painful. People talk about their cellphones being slow now; a slow cellphone might be 256k or 512k, so if you think about something being 100 times slower than that, it's ridiculous. So you started getting to the 9600 and 14,400 baud modems that made the speeds a little more comfortable."
Participation in chat rooms started to snowball; as more people used them, the variety of chat rooms increased, attracting even more people. Then, in 1996, America Online opened the floodgates by introducing a monthly flat rate instead of charging by the hour. For $19.95 a month, users could now linger in chat rooms for as long as they wanted.
The late '90s, according to Schober, was when chat rooms hit their peak. Just how powerful was America Online during this time? Reggie Fairchild, product manager for AOL 4.0, shared this little story on Quora :
"When we launched AOL 4.0 in 1998, AOL used ALL of the world-wide CD production for several weeks. Think of that. Not a single music CD or Microsoft CD was produced during those weeks."
It worked. People signed up in droves.
AOL's subscriber base grew to 17 million in 1999. This is the era that many people, myself included, remember most vividly. As a gawky kid entering high school, chat rooms were a haven from the awkwardness of real human interaction. I'd use them to discuss punk bands like Operation Ivy with other teenagers, to play the chat room-equivalent of Dungeons & Dragons, and talk to what I very much hoped were actual girls.
Around 2000, however, I found myself drawn more to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) than I did to AOL's chat rooms. Launched in 1997, AIM became widespread once it was made available to non-subscribers in 1998.
Then in the 2000s, the rise of DSL and cable modems made paying AOL a monthly fee for Internet access seem increasingly unnecessary. Friendster launched in 2002, Myspace in 2003 and Facebook in 2004. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft made gaming in chat rooms seem antiquated.
There were, in short, a lot more options for people who wanted to interact online. AOL's walled garden was officially dismantled in 2006. Chat rooms were available to AIM users until 2010, when AOL announced , "Since usage of AIM Chat has declined significantly in recent months, our focus has moved to other products."
Today, chat services such as Facebook Messenger and Google Talk (a.k.a. Gchat ) are popular, but chat rooms as they existed in the 1990s are mostly a relic.
So, is the chat room dead? Schober doesn't think so.
"I don't think people have necessarily stopped using them -- there are just different ways of expressing the same concept now," says Schober. "Now people on Facebook will start a thread on someone's Timeline and really start interacting with one another. It's a different visual format, it's organized differently, but its really the same concept we had around the chat room."
Yes, that's true, but to me the experience just feels different. That's what Parker was getting at when he talked about the "spontaneity to the Internet" during the Airtime launch. In the '90s, I constantly interacted with people known to me only by their screen names; today, I only interact that way in comments sections and on Twitter, and only occasionally.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm nostalgic for AOL chat rooms, but would I use them if the company brought them back? No. But that doesn't mean some entrepreneur out there isn't working on something that captures the same spirit, albeit without the same hegemony AOL enjoyed. In the meantime, I'll have to settle for talking with strangers on Twitter . Anybody want to talk about punk bands from the late '80s and early '90s?
This article originally appeared on Time.com :
© 2021 Cable News Network. A Warner Media Company. All Rights Reserved. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network.
Updated 1843 GMT (0243 HKT) July 6, 2012

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AOL offers a variety of chat rooms for members who use either its free or Desktop Gold web browsing software, have the standalone instant messaging application AIM, or play games on the AOL Games website. Users can join public chat rooms focused on their interests or start private chats with members they invite. The only things you'll need are a free screen name and the appropriate software for the type of chat room you want to join.
Before you can participate in any of AOL's chat rooms, there are a few necessary tasks you need to complete, including downloading the appropriate AOL software for your computer and signing up for a screen name. Both the software and account is free, and you won't need to subscribe to AOL's dial-up or broadband Internet service to access the chat rooms either.
The software you'll need to download depends on the types of chat rooms you want to join. While you can only access the People Connection chat rooms through AOL Desktop for Windows or for Mac , you can create and participate in AIM buddy chats with both the AOL Desktop software and the standalone AOL IM (AIM) software.
Since both buddy chats and People Connection chats use a special protocol within AIM or AOL Desktop, there's no specific web address you can use to visit the rooms outside the programs. Chat rooms on the AOL Games website, on the other hand, are accessible through any web browser.
AOL also has a paid service, AOL Desktop Gold , that has chat rooms not available to users of the free or older versions of the software. AOL Desktop Gold is $4.99 per month with a free 30-day trial.
Signing in to AOL Desktop, AIM, or AOL Games requires an AOL screen name, which will be used as your online ID and also provides a way for other members to contact you through email and instant messaging. AOL's registration page lets you choose a screen name, fill out your personal information, and set up a password. After the brief sign-up process, you'll see a confirmation that your screen name is ready to use. You can then type your screen name and password on the sign-in screen on AOL Desktop or AIM to get ready to chat.
AOL People Connection is the main home to dozens of chat rooms grouped into two categories: chat rooms created by AOL and chat rooms created by members. Chats in both groups focus on a specific topic, such as health, hobbies, arts and entertainment, games, food, celebrities, geographical location, pets, politics, friendship, travel, and sports. Chat rooms created by members can be either private or public, and private chats require that you know the name of the chat room to participate.
The process for viewing the People Connection room list and joining a public chat is as follows:
Joining a private member chat is different. After you access the Created by AOL Members chat list, click "Start Your Own Chat" or "Enter or Start Private Chat" on the right. You can then type the private chat room's name to join an existing room or set up your own private room.
AIM buddy chats are private chats between members using AOL's instant messaging service and require an invitation to participate. Designed for general conversation, buddy chats are useful for chatting with members who don't use AOL Desktop but have access to the AIM software. Starting a chat is very simple for both AOL Desktop and AIM users and is as follows:
Sponsored by AOL, Games.com lets members chat with each other during single player and multi-player games. When you join a game, a chat box displays to the right and connects you with other people playing the same game. Some of the games featured on the website include arcade games, word games, puzzle games, casino games, and sports games. When you first join a game, the site will ask you to sign up for a screen name or sign in with an existing one. Unlike the other types of AOL chat rooms, you can chat on this site using just your web browser.
AOL has comprehensive guidelines that users need to follow to ensure a safe chat experience for all members and requires members to agree to these policies when creating a screen name. These rules focus on appropriate language, the distribution of content, and various types of illegal activities.
AOL's various language guidelines ban the use of language that could offend, threaten, take advantage of, or harass other members. Prohibited language includes the following:
There are also various rules regarding the sharing of links, images, sounds, and data through chat. This includes the following:
It is prohibited on AOL chat to exploit minors for personal information, including names, telephone numbers, home addresses, or any other information one could use to track down the person. Users are also not allowed to abuse the network by sending spam or viruses.
Whether you want to find others who share your interests, chat privately with your friends, or meet other people who play your favorite game, AOL's variety of chat rooms provide numerous ways to connect to members and possibly even meet new friends. The experience in chat rooms can greatly vary, especially in the People Connection rooms, so feel free to try different chats to find the one that makes you most comfortable. Additionally, remembering to follow the chat guidelines will help make the chat experience more safe and enjoyable for all members.

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Does Aol Still Have Chat Rooms

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