Comments on: Where have all the chat rooms gone?

By: Jack Yan

Jack Yan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:06:58 +0000

Stuart, whenever there are illogical decisions made—such as the cancellation of a popular service—I say, ‘Follow the money.’ I think you hit upon it, though I imagine today, the cost of hosting chat rooms will have fallen, and servers have got more powerful.
What’s old may well be new again. As people tire of the all-talk world, where everybody has a blog and no one is forming new friendships or collaborating, we might see a “revolutionary” new site and those of us old enough might just think, ‘Hang on, isn’t that a chat room?’
We are already seeing reports that Twitter has peaked, and people may well want a service that has a similar bent. The next logical evolution, I would say, is a Twitter grouped by interest …

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:50:15 +0000

I’ve often wondered about this and, ironically, the issue itself seems little discussed. Around ten years ago large public chat services such as MSN Chat were the main forms of communication and I don’t think a simple loss in popularity is the only explanation. As you say, this form of communication provides something which blogging, tweeting and using instant messenger services don’t and the medium still appeared to be hugely popular when the large sites such as MSN and Yahoo pulled the plug.

I think the answer probably has a lot more to do with economics than the preferences of users. Running large scale chat services was a real drain on resources – both in terms of server/bandwidth considerations and in terms of the monitoring of discussions to eliminate spam/illegal content. By shifting focus on to services like Windows Live Messenger companies were able to retain most of their audience at a fraction of the cost.

This is a shame because the old chat format was an exciting experiment in the art of meeting people and it’s one which blogging, IM services and the other alternatives haven’t adequately replaced. I can only hope that the tide turns once again and we can experience a revival of the chat services available a decade or so ago.

By: Twitter Trackbacks for Lucire: Insider» Where have all the chat rooms gone? [lucire.com] on Topsy.com

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:11:06 +0000

[...] Lucire: Insider» Where have all the chat rooms gone? lucire.com/insider/20090614/where-have-all-the-chat-rooms-gone – view page – cached One of the topics raised by Summer Rayne Oakes, Lucire's editor-at-large, was why chat rooms fell out of favour this century. — From the page [...]

By: Raj Arvin

Raj Arvin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:01:53 +0000

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By: David Morrison

David Morrison — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:53:41 +0000

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By: Go Small Biz

Go Small Biz — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:24:57 +0000

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By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:51:28 +0000

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By: Sharon Dille

Sharon Dille — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:10:50 +0000

Lucire: Insider» Where have all the chat rooms gone? http://tinyurl.com/mttrjk

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:55:56 +0000

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By: Lucire

Lucire — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:07:43 +0000

reports: Where have all the chat rooms gone? http://tinyurl.com/mttrjk

By: Summer Rayne Oakes

Summer Rayne Oakes — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:38:25 +0000

RT @jackyan Where have all the chat rooms gone http://bit.ly/netizens

By: Jack Yan 甄爵恩

Jack Yan 甄爵恩 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:51:46 +0000

RT @Lucire: Where have all the chat rooms gone? http://tinyurl.com/mttrjk