# Remember the AOL chatrooms?



## applecruncher (Apr 12, 2018)

Hard to believe it's been about 20 yrs since I first got internet at home (dial up).

"You've got mail!" 

The AOL chatrooms were the rage.  Live streaming, limited as to how much text you could post at a time, no pictures.  Various subject categories but late in 1998 a lot of the chat was about the Ken Starr/Linda Tripp/Monica/Bill drama.

On a couple boards there was British high school kid who was a little Hitler/Nazi.  Amazing how so many adults allowed him to wreak havoc and terrorize, all while they continued to flock to him and remain under his thumb.


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## jujube (Apr 12, 2018)

Oh my gosh, yes!  All of a sudden, the world was open to you and you could talk to just about anybody.


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## Deucemoi (Apr 12, 2018)

never used AOL but there were many virtual chat rooms where you could create your own avatar, text chat live with others in various sites, listen to music, play games etc...they were free but now mostly gone, only pay sites left and like much of the irc channels there is not much chatting, mostly they stream music....


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## debbie in seattle (Apr 12, 2018)

Yes and I miss them.


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## SifuPhil (Apr 12, 2018)

Never used AOL chat but I'm still using my original AOL email. Boy, that goes back some years ...


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## C'est Moi (Apr 12, 2018)

Ah, the magic sound of dial-up connections!   Yep, I remember AOL and how they inundated the US mail with their disks.       That would have been around 1994; we built this house and had it pre-wired for cable and internet.


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## SifuPhil (Apr 12, 2018)

C'est Moi said:


> Ah, the magic sound of dial-up connections!   Yep, I remember AOL and how they inundated the US mail with their disks.       That would have been around 1994; *we built this house and had it pre-wired for cable and internet*.



We built this house
We built this house
We built this house
On AOL

~_Jefferson Starship_


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## Marie5656 (Apr 12, 2018)

I guess AOL was the go to ISP for everyone in the 90's.  I lived the chat rooms, used them a lot.  At the time, I was so new to the internet world, it took me a while to realize there was an internet beyond the walls of AOL.  Granted, not much of one..but there.  I kind of miss the chat rooms, but find that now I much prefer a place like this to the chat.


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## HipGnosis (Apr 12, 2018)

In the waning years of my marriage, AOL chat was my only social life.
When we divorced, she blamed AOL.    She wouldn't accept that she had the cause and affect out of order.

An online friend and I had a contest of trying to come up with a chat room name that did NOT draw perverts.  I don't think we ever did.  We found out that some people have an eerily odd definition or application of 'tickle'.


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## applecruncher (Apr 12, 2018)

In summer of 1999 I was recovering from surgery, slept a lot. I got up at 3am, logged on and the chatrooms were FULL! Some were people in other countries but even the US people were on full blast. :laugh:


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## NancyNGA (Apr 12, 2018)

Never used AOL, but there was something I believe called  UseNet ? I remember early on getting a response from a stranger in St. Petersburg, Russia.  I thought this was some kind of magic. Actually it took a while to convince me it wasn't a hoax.


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## SifuPhil (Apr 12, 2018)

*Usenet* is still around, still going pretty strong. Never got into it myself, though.


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## IKE (Apr 13, 2018)

Up till about 18 months ago I had been on AOL since the mid 90's.....first it was a pay service for several years and then it went to free for many years and then about 18 months ago they came out with 'AOL Gold' and wanted to start charging $6.00 per month so I cancelled but kept my free AOL email.

I tried the chat rooms a time or two but quickly figured out that I type too slow.


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## debbie in seattle (Apr 13, 2018)

SifuPhil said:


> Never used AOL chat but I'm still using my original AOL email. Boy, that goes back some years ...



Me too!


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## helenbacque (Apr 13, 2018)

The 90's were my full-time motor home days so didn't have internet access.  Did have satellite dish for TV and very early cell phone (think $1.00 a minute for use) so heard and saw a lot about AOL.  I remember being given free discs but without a service provider, it was useless.  

When I traded RV for condo living, my first move was to connect to Internet but never had an AOL account


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