These chats are like American families, and so the first & main rule - is "get along with the people who are there". No rough stuff, no hurtful things. This is a warm, friendly place, not a place for teasing painfully.
If you want to argue with someone, use the private chats. Or leave. Or make them 'Invisible',and they are gone. You will not see their posts; they will not see yours. See who is ignoring who (AKA "the unpopularity contest") today.
If you lose it and get awful, we may put you on a time-out - either for a short period, or until you are willing to post an apology on the BBS to show that you understand, or permanently.
By using these chats, you explictly waive your right to complain to anyone anywhere (including webmaster) about anything that anyone posts. See the section on 'Serious Infringment' in the Chat Rules to see the list of penalties - all dreadful, humiliating and expensive. You have already explicitly waived all your defenses by using this chat, and in addition, you have agreed to indeminfy and hold harmless any chat user affected by your complaint to anyone other than the webmaster.
These chats operate under the Laws of Unites States of America.
This system is for the use of authorized users only. Individuals using this computer system without authority, or in excess of their authority, are subject to having all of their activities on this system monitored and recorded by system personnel.
Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals possible evidence of criminal activity, system personnel may provide the evidence of such monitoring to law enforcement officials. (per Elec Comm Priv Act, 18 USC 2701-2711)
Free Speech -- see what the EFF has to say about threats to Free Speech -- and perhaps join it to protect your rights! For instance, Because of a recent European Union Court ruling forbidding criticism of the Court, we now censor the words EU and Court.
Romance is inherently dangerous. What seems a great joy may well bring greater sorrow. Even when successful it ends in death, sooner or later. On the other hand, so does celibacy. Call it what you will -- Tragedy, thermodynamics, Sport -- you have been warned.
Any of these people may well be psychotic axe murders, methadrine-addicted pedophiles with AIDS, undercover law enforcement agents determined to make a horrible example of people like you, or worse - far, far worse.. If you plan to meet one in person, meet in public with witnesses, so - if your headless torso shows up in a phone booth in Duluth - the police will have a starting point. Do not go alone & unarmed.
Some of the chat users may well be mentally unbalanced -- psychologists say 25% of all people are nutcases, so if you are interested in someone, be sure to ask all the questions. Make sure you can call them anytime at home and at work; talk to their family and friends. If they are on the up & up, they should have no objection to this. If they won't cooperate, dump them fast.
Ask the person to get a webcam and to hold their passport up to the webcam so you can see that they are who they say they are - or perhaps they can get fake passports....
Don't send anyone any money or presents - jewelry, candy, flowers, until you have made sure who they are. And talk about it in the Chat so if they are carrying on with someone else at the same time - it will come out and they will get caught.
Or perhaps you are a Psychotic axe murderer -- be careful -- these people may well be far worse than you and have plans for you that will startle and dismay you.
At any rate, the chances are pretty good that you are the cutest, wealthiest, best-educated and most desireable person in the chat.
Why Goats & Lard? I dunno - it was what the users suggested and it seemed funny to me. Got a better idea? Tell me!
Chat Rules - Read 'em. Now.
Maybe it was ALL CAPITAL LETTERS - people who post in All Caps generally are clueless newbies, Wackos, or enraged, and what they post is generally not worth reading, so we throw it away automatically.
Or perhaps it was obscene or abusive - we filter out a lot of questionable stuff automatically. We don't want to get the whole site blocked by the many porn filter programs that are out there and that are triggered by certain words ....
The filters can be kind of a pain, but without 'em we'd have nothing but people with very limited vocabularies telling each other "Bleep You, Bleephead" - which would ruin the fun.
Colors: aqua, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, yellow
More colors and Still more colors to pick from.
To get your message to include a color,
The chat runs at a constant speed; when there is a lot of traffic on the net, your
pages may be delayed by your internet provider or firewall. In addition, some of
the advertisers have slow, overloaded servers.