Talking to People Online
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| For those of you not hip to chat rooms, here's
the scoop. They're akin to the party lines of yesteryear, but you type instead of talk.
Chat rooms allow you to correspond with dozens of people from all over the world,
instantly. Addictive and popular, chat has helped fuel the growth of the major commercial services, but it is available on the Internet as well. On the Internet chat rooms are called channels, which have names starting with "#" for public channels and "&" for private ones. The hundreds of channel topics cover almost every imaginable interest, from #hottub to #jeopardy. To find the available channels, go to a search engine, like www.altavista.com and enter chat channels for a search. Your first chat room experience may be a bit daunting. With as many as 20 or more people communicating simultaneously, it may take a little while to get your bearings as lines of text cascade down your screen. Take time to acquaint yourself with the group before joining in the discussion. Read the many FAQ's (frequently asked questions) on that channel to ease your way in. Offensive behavior can result in your being banned from a channel, so follow the rules of Netiquette and think first before you type. But, above all, watch the time!!!! It may be way past time to go to bed and here you are still discussing the rain forests with someone in Australia. |
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| Newsgroups provide a way to read articles
pertaining to a specific topic and to communicate with other people interested in that
topic. Newsgroups allow you to access them anytime and read and respond to their articles.
Newsgroups are identified by their name. For example: rec.autos.antique. The leftmost section of the name is the general category of the newsgroup. In this case, rec (for recreational). Some other category abbreviations are: sci for scientific, comp for computers, misc for miscellaneous, biz for business news, K12 for education, soc for society (discussions about culture, religions, history), alt (the newest misc) for alternative category. The same netiquette rules apply as for chat rooms. You can find news groups on any national internet company or in any search engine by searching for the topic. There is also special news group software available to purchase. |
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Chat Rooms 
News Groups 