A "Chat Letter" From Tracy Marks

Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 13:59:20 -0500 
From: Tracy Marks  
To: NETTRAIN@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU
Subject: 

In response to my request for "clean and decent" Internet
chat rooms to take students to in an Internet chat and
conferencing class:
On the web...

C. Kerrigan recommended TalkCity
http://www.talkcity.com  
also available by irc chat.talkcity.com port 6667. 
She suggested #New2Internet, #ComputerTalk, #New2TalkCity
or open chat in #TownTalk and #TownTalk1.

Nicoya Huntsman is enthusiastic about the Australian-based OzChat...
 http://www.ebs.com.au/Oz/   
(remember time zon differences!}
Geoffrey Silverstein suggested 
http://www.wbs.net
In regard to IRC, apart from Talk City...
Kathryn Toyer recommended the Undernet channels #writers and #webe30+.
Ron Atkinson recommended Undernet's #Computers channel.
Sharon Centanne recommended Undernet's #41plus.
__________

Requiring telnet or other software...
Paula Davidson recommended her talk site, Atheneum at
brevard.cs.unca.edu port 7000 ( 
telnet://brevard.cs.unca.edu:7000 )

Heather Snedeker suggested the Palace...which does have its access 
limitations in a class setting, and costs (for full capability).

Brian Pomeroy recommended using ParaChat
http://www.parachat.com/ to set up one's own web-based chatroom.
(This looks good....definitely worth exploring...)
______
I had asked Ira Pasternack about his recommendations for conferencing,
and he most recommended  ICQ  and  Net Meeting , but suggested 
also checking out  Netscape Conference   and AOL  Instant Messenger.
____

Here's what I did my first three-hour class, focusing on web-
based chat rooms....(with students ssigned to visit two chat
centers from the recommended list during the next week):

Omnichat at http://www.omnichat.com  for refreshed web-based chat
(good beginning experience for web newbies in Chatterbox and
private room - nobody was there but us - students need to
learn to stop refresh before they type)

Excite Chat  http://www.excite.com   
(java or vplaces)
We set up a private chatroom right away because we encountered
smut in every chatroom we entered.

TalkCity  http://www.talkcity.com   (java)
Again, we set up a private chat room right away, as we encountered
smut (and one man in class was propositioned by another man)
as soon as arrived at new2TalkCity, less at new2Internet. It's
apparently better to head directly for the computer chat rooms.
I recommend the EzPro access here... Students liked TalkCity best
of the text-based web chat rooms.

VisitMe  http://www.visitme.com 
What fun! Students had a great time moving around their avatars
and chatting in the room I set up there. Highly recommended,
though somewhat memory-intensive java. You can easily choose one of
the six (?) available environments and get your own avatar-based
visual chat room in a matter of minutes...though loading time
is slow on some computers. Sign up at http://www.visitme.com

I'll make my VisitMe room available for a limited time to Nettrainers
who want to check it out....I may change the address, so you might
follow the link I'll have up at

http://www.geocities.com/~webwinds/irc/chatvis.htm 
To enter the room - this week the passkey is bluefish.

(GLEASON SACKMAN- If you decide to repost this, please omit the
above sentence with room address and passkey...I'd prefer to limit
vistors to Nettrainers)

To change your avatar, click the man silhouette button and use NEXT.
To chat in cartoon balloons, type in the box at bottom center. To chat
in a dialogue window, click the ! dialogue button....(And don't
fill up my message board, please!) To move around, click on screen.

ALSO...
My chat resource pages for students are now up at

http://www.geocities.com/~webwinds/irc/chat.htm 
with chat resource urls, recommended chat rooms divided by
category (java, proprietary software, web-based etc.), chat
netiquette information, and paraphrased help guides to
OmniChat, Talk City, ExciteChat and VisitMe.

Irc next week...then ICQ....
Thanks to all for the recommendations.

Tracy Marks
_______________________________________________________________
Tracy Marks, M.A.   tmar@tiac.net
http://www.windweaver.com/ 
WINDWEAVER Web and Windows95 Resources - extensive Web search resources
WINDWEAVER Net Search Bookstore  http://www.windweaver.com/booksrch.htm
Webwinds web cameras
http://www.geocities.com/~webwinds/ 

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David J. Hark
dhark@fred.net
dhark@intrepid.net
HARK/INTERNET-HELP
http://www.fred.net/dhark
http://www.ohurley.com/dhark
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/5001
Last updated: 24 January 1998