What was your late 90s chat room? Ever meet anyone IRL?

[YellowJersey]

So, for the dottering old geezers like me, what was your late 90s chat room? Did you ever meet anyone IRL?

 My online addiction was Live Universe; I used to spend hours in one particular chat room dedicated to Pokemon (I was in my mid-teens). My parents said nothing good would ever come of it, but that's where I learned to touch type through by just brute forcing it. I actually met a number of people IRL. One was a girl who was local (we went to see some movie while her mother chaperoned). The other four I met IRL were actually Kiwis, three of which I keep in touch with today. I met two of them during my first trip to NZ in 2007 and then I met the other two on my last trip in 2013. I'm not sure why the chatroom attracted so many Kiwis.. maybe because I'd often be on late at night so the time zones just kinda worked. And I still have all my organs, despite having spent the night with two of them (not in a sexy way, just "I'm traveling and need a place to crash for a night")

 So, got any stories from the 90s about chat rooms? I remember those days fondly.

 Now if you'll excuse me, I need to pay for something with exact change at the store and yell at some kids to get off my lawn.

[vetali]

Not really 90s as I am not that old, but MSN messenger and xfire were mine until WoW. I haven't met anyone IRL Some internet forums in between as well, but most resulting in me adding people to MSN or xfire.

[MultiGamerClub]

I got born in '96 so im not that old.. But ive met several people from MSN and much older forums.

Used to be very active on those free fps games and soon i got invited to those forums and found like minded gamers.

Even have some friends from 8 or 10 years ago when i was just 10-12.. on facebook and steam..

 

Only gotten to meet a few people from the internet and.. Honestly im suprised i wasnt kidnapped at one point.

Young / stupid = stupid choices like meeting 2 online people that was basicly twice my age.. Yeah not a good idea x'D

 

It ended up being more nostalgic and more friendly, but ive never said this to anyone in my life..

Guess its just very weird now when im 10 years older, also my back hurts like hell too now

 

Now.. i might go to sleep.. ITs like.. what.. 7.48am and i havent slept for.. Err... 38 hours? Something something..

sleepiong rythm bad.

Edited February 5, 2022 by MultiGamerClub
*few people, was more than 2 people.

[Zusafek]

Mine was mIRC.  I still use it to this day with a bunch of my friends. I've met nearly 100 of my friends from on there all over the US and Canada. 

[Skiiwee29]

mIRC for Counter-Strike was my go-to in the 90s but otherwise it was AIM, ICQ, or Yahoo chat rooms where I spent most of my time chatting in my teens in the 90s. I have met a few people over the years from then and keep in touch with only 2 from that era. 

[Anghammarad]

I was using STRICQ on my Amiga, and Bersirc on PC.

 

Well I met my wife in an IRC Channel =) 

 

Else there usually were a few chatter meetings/gatherings a few times a year. 

[adarw]

2 minutes ago, Anghammarad said:

Well I met my wife in an IRC Channel =) 

 

did it turn out to be a happy ending? XD 

[Anghammarad]

8 minutes ago, adarw said:

did it turn out to be a happy ending? XD 

It was until april 15th 2016... she had a heart attack and didn't recover. Sadly... 

 

Else it were 20 wonderful years i'm happy to have had. Heaven on earth.

 

=) 

[IPD]

Trillian.  If you didn't use it BITD, you were missing out.  MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, etc--all in one program.  God I miss those days.

[tkitch]

AIM, ICQ, Usenet, random internet forums

 

ICQ UIN: 7741473 (Sadly long since password hacked)

[RaptorPudding]

ZDnet Chat was a lot of fun in like 98, lots of people had a good time with custom avatars, custom sounds and chat bubbles. They killed it and made it into some tech chat thing. There was another chat room called The Palace. That one was pretty cool but the chats weren't so great. I think Excite Chat was around for awhile but got shutdown. I had AIM, ICQ and Yahoo Messenger but it seems like it kind of all dwindled out into using MSN messenger, then that died out too. You could instantly pester people with text messages when flip phones came out. That was the thing in the early 2000s, cell phones. Don't call too much before 9pm though. MP3 players came on really strong as well, and suddenly everyone was too cool to talk anymore and had their ears plugged up with headphones. I remember seeing all these students in the hall waiting for the college class to start with white earbuds plugged in. It's nowhere near as bad as when smartphones came out though, people could exist without their phones and carry on conversations with each other. I didn't learn about IRC until much later and that has been a pretty solid resource for chats and spreading knowledge until Discord came along.

[Bad5ector]

My chat room in the 90s was on mIRC, efnet server, channel #Warez2Share