It's been about two years now since MSN cancelled its chat service. They decided to do it because they felt the chat rooms were being exploited by sexual predators to look for victims. The chat service is still around today, but in a much more limited form(it has lots of restrictions, like you have to be a subscriber to use it, you can only chat with people from your own country, etc).

I certainly miss chatting on MSN. You used to be able to talk to all kinds of different people from all over the world, but now you can't do that anymore. It was great way to communicate and meet people from far away.

I gave up on real-time chat (IM not included) a while ago. I'd much rather forums like this (although slower, it's mnuch nicer and better moderated)

MSN Chat was one of my first activities on the web. I then got hook on Talk Cities chat for a while and came back to MSN to find that it had become a pay service. Since then I got hook onto forum boards like this one. This is the first time I heard about MSN being down though. I remember joining Excite a few days before learning that it too was going out of business a couple years ago. I gave up on Yahoo because it had become too wild and unruly, a lot of the rooms had 20-30 bots in it.

I don't really miss MSN chat.  It was fun for a whle, but then it started to go downhill.  In the end, I'd go into some rooms, and find nothing but morons abusing the service

I gave up on real-time chat (IM not included) a while ago. I'd much rather forums like this (although slower, it's mnuch nicer and better moderated)


I never caught the chat bug, no matter how beguiling the idea seemed to other people. Even in the 'golden days' of the chat rooms in the late 90s most people talked crap, making it impossible to have a decent conversation. I favour message boards/forums like this one because I can actually have meaningful discussions with members I know. The flashchat option is also a really good addition as well.

First time I ever used it I got asked if I wanted some cyber sex which freaked me out a bit !
I do recall getting thrown out of a literary chat for using the word 'heroin' apparently drug references were a big no-no. We were talking about Sherlock Holmes and his addiction as I recall.  ::)

First time I ever used it I got asked if I wanted some cyber sex which freaked me out a bit !
I do recall getting thrown out of a literary chat for using the word 'heroin' apparently drug references were a big no-no. We were talking about Sherlock Holmes and his addiction as I recall.  ::)


Never can be too careful...apparently alot of dealers use internet chatrooms to conduct their business!  ;) ::)

Don't miss them one little bit, but do use it for emergency communicaton.

I do kind of.

I used to chat a lot. I still do actually, and I do kind of miss MSN chat rooms. It's fun to talk to people from different countries and make new friends. But I agree you do have to be careful who you talk too. My biggest chat tip? Make up any and all information you give people. Never, ever tell anyone anything you don't want them to know. And remember--they don't know you are lying!

They don't really know who you are, only what you choose tell them. I have used this advice on myself many times and have never had a problem in the chat rooms. If someone asks me for my number or address, I tell them sorry I don't give out that information to people I don't know.

Any time I ever go into Chats, all I ever see are bots and stupid crap like that, so I rarely go. One time I preached Jesus to one of those pornbots, with hilarious results, like "lol Jesus can come 2 if he wants just give him the link"