How to Practice Chat Room Etiquette

Chat room communities have become more structured as the Internet has evolved. Many rooms have sets of rules and guidelines, often unofficial, by which users are expected to abide. Maintain proper etiquette when chatting to ensure an enjoyable and flame-free experience.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Internet Access
• Chat Software

1. Find out whether a particular chat room has its own FAQ (frequently asked questions) section before you enter. If it does, review the FAQ section for specific etiquette guidelines.

2. Introduce yourself when you enter a room by typing your age and gender. In some rooms, a general location, such as your state, is also appropriate to mention.

3. If you want to address an individual in the room without sending an instant message, introduce your statement or question with the person's screen name and a colon or hyphen (for example, 'SportsFan: What's your favorite football team?').

4. Avoid referring to users by their real names.

5. Allow all users to make comments and ask questions. Don't try to take control of the room by flooding it with your own entries.

6. Avoid direct confrontations with rude users. Report disruptive users to the chat host if a host is available. Otherwise, leave the chat room.

7. Don't harass other users with threats, unwanted sexual comments or anything else that might make them uncomfortable.

Tips & Warnings

• Some chat rooms offer you the option of blocking out messages and chat room entries from specific users. This feature is a good alternative to abandoning the room or getting the chat host involved.

• To get a feel for how a chat room operates, try "lurking" - observing the room without making any entries - for a while before offering your own comments.

• Don't type the same sentence, word or phrase into the chat room over and over again. This is called "scrolling" and is heavily frowned upon by chat room users and hosts.