Sometimes. They could be really fun for meeting random people.

Not at all. I was never into chatrooms.

Not really. Lots of perverts on there I found, not that there aren't here too..lol..but you don't go to a chatroom to discuss cooking and get hit up by someone wanting to "heat things up" in the kitchen with you.

not really

Omg, chat rooms...*nostalgic* that takes me back, I got in on chat rooms when they were on the out but that's where I met my Ex! It was long distance so we met in the chat room, between flying to see each other and calling we'd talk in Yahoo or AIM private chat.

Now. I hated chat rooms back in the day. gave birth to the "Trolls"! hate trolls!

When chats were filled with real people back in the days of AOHell, yes I loved them. Then the predators and bots moved in and now it's a clusterfuck of stupid people, so I don't miss them.

In fact, Yahoo just took down all of their chat interfaces. I thought that was probably the smartest thing they ever could have done.

Assuming pure versions of both, devoid of trolls and people seeking to hook up on every kind of chat room, even ones about cooking, I think I might actually prefer chat rooms.

I think it can be really easy on the surface to lump chat rooms and forums together as basically a version of the same thing but I don't think it is. MOST people use forums purely as a place to express their own opinion, more or less ignore /most/ other users opinions. There are some instances of replying or interacting with other people's posts in a semi-conversation-like manner, but it's really mostly about you. Chat rooms, however, are in fact about having conversations. Chatting with people. You have to watch what people are saying to keep up with the conversation, not just look at the question at the top of the page, ignore all the other responses and type your answer and be on your way.

Now if you'll excuse me, i've typed my answer and will be on my way.

I think AOL still offers some chats and I've used AIM to set up my own chat-- but it's between friends, not strangers. I do miss it though!

There is a program out there yet called Paltalk that still has tons of chatrooms. A lot of them play music and some are adult rated rooms.