Will someone explain this to me?

MSN Chat rooms are parts of the MSN site in which users can enter a "virtual" room and "chat" with anyone in the room. Also, everyone in the room can see/hear what is being said.

It operates similar to IM, except IM is directed at a particular person, and the correspondence between the two IM users is not seen/heard by others

so, zrock. The infamous chat rooms that we have heard so much about are the breeding grounds for perverts, but not for IM users. Thank you and welcome to A2K.

You're welcome - glad to be here.

I noticed that you quoted Tesla, a poet and a visionary. A remarkable man, perhaps another unsung hero.

Many of the pedophiles make their initial contact with the kids in chat rooms. They often then try to move the conversation to an IM session which is more "private".

btw, I think "prowling grounds" is a better term here than "breeding grounds". These people are already pedophiles before they ever get into the chat rooms.

Right, fishin'. We had a case here in Florida of just such a situation. Well, I enjoy IMin', so I hope that's not included in MSN's axe job.

Can someone explain what IM is please?!?

Hey, Grand Duke. I'm certain that someone will.

I think you are safe with just the MSN Messenger Letty! They aren't cutting that off.

Grand Duke - "IM" = "Instant Messanger". Just a small program that allows 2 people to "chat" directly between themselves. I think the 3 big applications are Yahoo!, AOL and MSN Messenger.

That's cool. I've used MSM Messanger before, but didn't know they were known as IMs. Cheers!

Maybe if everyone had to use web-cams in chat-rooms, then none of the dirty perverts could pass themselves off as kids. I know that some people wouldn't be comfortable with this, but it's got to be better than simply closing them all down.

GD - I dont think that bandwidth capacity being what it is will be able to handle video traffic from so many web cams in the chat room...

Though it would give a whole new dimenstion to "virtual sex"

Maybe one day in future it will be possible. Probably when we're all using flying hover-cars and wear clothes made of silver-foil...

(Sorry, obscure reference to 'Tomorrow's World' on BBC)

Gautam, you hit the nail on the head... Some friends of mine showed me a setup where the computer screen is divided into up to nine squares. Each shows one of the people "chatting" via webcam. Just delete clothing, and Voila! Virtual Orgy!

no, I never participated. I just know they liked to...

this sucks because you have to pay for it now it's bull S i mean come on why pay now?

Another What th?

I don't know, Letty. It might be a reference to a2k's chat room, which is a little quiet lately. I have spent many hours on it, on the Art Chat, which is on Sundays, eek, supposed to be right now, and we were trying to set it up for Sunday noon, NY time, too, so that people from Europe could have a chance to join in. A2k chats are civil and fun. Being able to chat is now one of the perks of being a subscriber to A2K'S Premium services. (See the blue lettering at the bottom of each page.)

OK, Osso, Gotcha. Too bad about the A2K chat room. Miss a lot of the folks that used to fall in.

I've been thinking of promoting it more, but waiting til first of year since everybody is so busy right now. The thing is, if I announce a time in the art forum, not even some of the art forum frequenters see it, because even they don't check the forum to post ordinarily. I need to push it in the subscriber's forum and in general - and that's just me talking about the art times. Lots of people chatted at different times, and sometimes came into the art chat too, where it switched, usually, from whatever art subject was at hand and on to general talk, I met lots of nice people that way.

The trouble with giving a time is... that if you go to the chatroom and nobody's there, you can't really keep it open to see if anyone comes in, say in five minutes, without not using your computer for something else. So hanging around waiting involves doing a crossword puzzle on the side or yikes even washing the dishes and checking from time to time. It's hard for people with busy lives to show up at exactly 8 o'clock.....

When people do show up though, it's neat.