the.com/chat rooms
the internet before it had a face, a like button, or a business model.
means a live text space where strangers typed at each other in real time, usually about nothing, occasionally about everything.
from grew from 1970s systems like plato and cbbs, then exploded with compuserve cb simulator in 1980 and aol in the 1990s, which turned typing to strangers into a national pastime.
aol keyword eraasl became a universal opening line by 1997
peak populationaol ran thousands of rooms simultaneously by late 1990s
decline driverfacebook and texting killed rooms by mid 2000s
still aliveirc networks quietly run since 1988, untouched
for instance
aol chat rooms — defined 1990s internet, shut down officially in 2010
irc — 1988 protocol still used by open source and hacker communities
yahoo chat — ran 1990s to 2012, notorious for scams and romance
omegle — 2009 random stranger chat, shut down in 2023