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Chat room Evaluation Tested so far- : Tiscali
Lycos Interactive /Yahoo chat
Genie/O2 Wap Phone Chat MSN/Windows Messenger ICQ Habbo Hotel
We tested several chat rooms and
Instant Message services
www.tiscali.co.uk Using the Chat There are several chat rooms available, and they were fairly easy to navigate. No membership was required. You can log on and chat without registering. You do not need a password or Email to log on to the chat. The choice of registering is available, but hidden in many links. Although I did find the help pages were useful and gave full instructions on how to use the chat, and make a room of your own. However I found these instructions to be gobbledygook ! Features You can send private messages to other chatters, Which pop up in a separate window to the chat. You can also add colours and smileys. An Ignore feature is available using the " /silence " command. ( I only discovered this as I looked in the help pages ! ) I found there were one or two adds on the page, but nothing intrusive to the chat itself. This chat also has a forum for users : http://www.tiscali.co.uk/forums/ Moderators and General Behaviour A Bot was a moderating the chat itself , but no other active moderators were available. Users were kicked for bad language but I did not see any users been given a warning for flooding. Safety Advice None existent. ( Or did I miss it ?) How ever a help page did give you guidance on how to behave in the room.
www.lycos.co.uk Using the Chat The chat is in a style of a ship and the more times you use the chat you gain a *ranking which gives you more features. And if you reach a high enough rank and pass a test you can become part of the moderation team ( navigator ) There are several chat rooms available, and they were fairly easy to navigate. The rooms cater for all ages groups and chatting abilities. There are 9 decks and up to 10 or more rooms on each deck. There are also quests to do while chatting to keep you busy and give you more features. Paid Membership is not required. How ever should you wish to register as a paying chatter, you are given more functions, and features. An E- mail address & password is required. Help is given to you by " The captain" ( a Bot chatter ), instruction pages which were excellent, and Moderators. Features You can send private messages to other chatters,or choose not to accept messages and you can ignore chatters who are bothering you. An Away feature is available - should you need to move away from the keyboard. ( regular chatters only - depending on *rank) A profile section is supplied, these are supervised by chat moderators and any offensive profiles are removed or amended at once. You can also add, smileys. ( and emotes also depending on *rank) There are Bot chatters who interact with you, and they are very sweet and can be helpful. WARNING !! One of them is a ships rat and he can be rather offensive, but has his own room, and doesn't bother general chat. You are given a warning before you enter the room as to what the room is like. You can also have a room of your own to chat in and be in charge of. ( more features available depending on *rank ) Ignore and friendship lists are available so you can see who is on the list at any time, ( Guest chatters have ignore feature only ) . I found there were one or two adds on the page, these were very intrusive to the chat and rather annoying. This chat also has a forum for users :http://www.overground-chat.com/ Moderators and General Behaviour Moderators ( Navs, Navigators, Navis ) are a visible presence through out the chat. They are easy to identify as they all have an anchor next their nickname. They greet new users as they enter a special room designed to teach chatter skills and how use the chat features. Navigators are available at any time and a list of online navigators is available in a menu at the side of the screen. They move about the chat "ship" and will find and help you, if you message them for help.
Navigators deal with people who flood the chat, use bad language , and abuse other chatters. ( The chat is censored for new users and the censorship is removed depending on *rank ) They also remove and deal with offensive or inappropriate profile pages. Safety Advice Excellent. An active chat team on line 24 hours a day will help you at anytime and give you the best advice.
www.ICQ.com. Using the Chat There are several chat rooms available, in fact the and more I looked the more I discovered that there were thousands ! Some of which were NOT suitable for anyone under the age of 21 ! Which were fairly easy to navigate. Membership is not required which means you can chat as a guest, but you can give your ICQ Number if you want to. Features You can send private messages to other chatters. And I found a lot of Spam Messages did appear, most of it porn related unfortunately :-( I found there were one or two adds on the page, but nothing intrusive to the chat itself. Moderators and General Behaviour Bot Moderators can kick people out of the chat for offence language in the main room. Safety Advice None existent. ( Did I get it wrong ?)
Using the Chat You need a mobile phone that uses WAP to connect to the internet to access this SMS style of chat. There are several chat rooms available, and they were fairly easy to navigate. Membership is not required, choose a nickname and chat. Remember the person you were chatting to called "Neil" may not be the same person in the room also called "Neil" - Beware of multiple usernames. Features You can send private messages to other chatters. ( 1 - 1 ) But in order to do this you have to leave the main chat room SMS. As tempting as it is to just say this is getting expensive, just call me instead DO NOT be tempted to hand out your mobile number ! Chat in the main room is in the style of SMS messages and the page refreshes as messages are added. This style of chat can be expensive as it costs money when the page is reset. Moderators and General Behaviour No Moderators but censorship for offensive language in the main room. ( Did I get it wrong ?)
Safety Advice None existent. ( Did I get it wrong ?)
www.MSN.com Using the Chat This comes as standard with windows Xp or downloaded if you have another operating system. You need to have a hotmail address or net passport to use it. This is a private message style chat, how ever several friends can be added to conversations. You can add people to your contact list by email address or log in name and you can choose your own nickname and password. And you can change the name seen on screen at anytime. Features You can send private messages to other chatters. You can ignore chatters who are bothering you. An Away feature is available - should you need to move away from the keyboard. A profile section is supplied. You can also add smileys. File transfers, Net meeting and group chats are also available. I found there were one or two adds on the page, but nothing intrusive to the chat itself. Moderators and General Behaviour As the chat is yours you are in charge of what goes on. People can only contact you when you have given someone an email address to contact you via MSN. You can block people and stop them contacting you again if they are bothering you. Safety Advice Excellent. But well hidden in the help section.
www.ICQ.com Using The Chat This Program needs to be downloaded. This is a private message style chat, how ever several friends can be added to chat room style conversations. You are given a number when you register and you can choose your own nickname and password. You may also go free for a chat and random users may message you.
Features You can send private messages to other chatters. You can ignore and appear off line chatters who are bothering you. An Away feature is available - should you need to move away from the keyboard. A profile section is supplied. You can also add smileys ( newer version only ). File transfers, Net meeting and random chats are also available. There are lots of features available on ICQ and it is recommended that the security and privacy options are used before setting down to use the program fully.
*Warning!* ICQ and its parent company AOL have had many complaints from unhappy chatters. All of which have gone ignored and remained unanswered. I feel it is a shame that such a great program has had so many unhappy users uninstall it in droves. Porn Spam Messages, once rare, are now a standard feature of ICQ :-( Genuine Random Chatters are available to choose from, however, It is recommended that you choose very wisely indeed. "Random Chat with a friend" is now totally useless due to the amount of "Spam Bots" and "Fake Users" who appear every 2 clicks or so. They are fairly easy to spot, all being 20ish years of age and appearing in every list from General Chat to 50 Somethings, and all with a homepage URL pointing to dating sites. But with the correct configuring you can prevent them spoiling your chat. You may want to stop unknown users sending URL requests or file transfers. And add a few words to the banned words list to stop offensive messages popping up from spam messages. I found there were one or two adds on the page, but nothing intrusive to the chat itself. Moderators and General Behaviour As the chat is yours you are in charge of what goes on. People can contact you at anytime when you are shown as online. ( This may or may not be a good thing. )
Safety Advice Disclaimer as you download which says the chat is not to be used by people under the age of 13 Years. Personally I think that should be changed to 21!
www.habbohotel.com This chat is in the style of a hotel. You need to purchase furniture for your room or get an in hotel job to get points. Using the Chat There are several chat rooms available, and they were fairly easy to navigate. Membership is required which means you can not chat as a guest. This chat works on Macromedia Shockwave. An E- mail address is also required. You can choose a chat persona who looks like you to take your place in the hotel. Features You can send private messages to other chatters, but only if you know the chatter you want to message. A profile section is supplied which everyone can see, as long as you know chatter you are looking for. I found there were one or two adds on the page, but nothing intrusive to the chat itself. Moderators and General Behaviour I did not see any moderators actively on duty, although a help icon is available (?) and you can message for assistance from a " habbo " at any time. I didn't see any users been given a warning for using bad language, or flooding. But a censorship feature blocks banned words and replaces them with " Bobbo" That didn't stop chatters using bad language as they just typed words with spaces and full stops. I personally found the whole thing seemed to be a marketing tool for "Sunny Delight", "O2" and "Splash Plastic", as you are required to " purchase items for your room ". When logging on to use the chat I was rather disturbed that boxes keep poping up warning me that I may be compromising my security, when loading the shockwave movie screens. I found the chat was hard to concentrate on and it would have been better if your speech came from your chatter persona rather than the top of the room, so that people in the group knew who you were talking to. There didn't seem to be a list of users to tell you who is in the room with you, but you can search for other users ( great if you know who you are looking for.)
Safety Advice Excellent. Full instructions are given as to how contact someone if you feel threatened.
www.yahoo.co.uk Using the Chat This program needs to be downloaded from yahoo This is a private message style chat. You need to enter a group name to add people to your list. People can be added to your contact list by email address, or user name and you can choose your own nickname and password.
Features You can send private messages to other chatters. You can also message people in the chat room if they are using messenger. The feature works with well with Yahoo chat. You can ignore chatters who are bothering you. An Away feature is available - should you need to move away from the keyboard. A profile section is supplied. You can also add smileys. File transfers, Net meeting and other functions are available. These are handy if you want to check the news and weather. There are also "environment" features which you can add to your messages to make them more fun. I found there were no adds connected with the chat at all. Moderators and General Behaviour As the chat is yours you are in charge of what goes on. People can contact you when you have given someone an email address, log in name or you are logged on to yahoo chat. You can block people and stop them contacting you again if they are bothering you.
Safety Advice Excellent. Full instructions are given as to how contact someone if you feel threatened.
More Chat Programs will be evaluated soon.
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