Feo: Microsoft is to Shut down all its Chat Rooms
Posted by Feo Amante on Sep 24, 2003 at 10:55
(206.72.67.158)Re: Microsoft is to Shut down all its Chat Rooms (Mike Kremer)
I have to applaud MS on this one. And I have never seen the reason for an "anonymous" chatroom. While most people will behave in a respectful manner, anonymity lends boldness to the petty. These petty cowards can trash a room and run away without reprecussion. I don't see a problem with chatrooms where everyone knows your name. What do folks need to be protected from? Maniacs with enough wealth and resource to track various folks down on the list?
Registration ensures a clearly trackable ID. Folks can use whatever nom they prefer yet other chat room netizens can tag a person who comes in to wreck, rant, and flame: Like IMs. Eventually you get sick of the jack asses and their ignorance fecklessly coming in to crap all over everything.
Of course, with the popularity of IMs, there seems to be less need for chatrooms in the first place.
As far as technology's use introducing a new form of linguistics, I'm all for it. Language has always been evolving and no one in the times of Babylon could be understood by by anyone speaking a living language today.
A fascinating book relating to this subject is THE VICTORIAN INTERNET
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0425171698/ref=lib_dp_TFCV/002-4705124-9043207?v=glance&s=books&vi=reader#reader-link
Cheers, yall!