Recommend places for intelligent, laid-back online chat.

January 13, 2005 6:41 AM

I'm looking for intelligent conversation. Does anyone have any recommendations for laid-back online chat? [More Inside]

I've never really chatted online before. I'm more of a forum gal, myself. But I was puttering around online the other night and thought I'd check out what sort of chat rooms were available. There are so many to choose from and the few I wandered into seemed awfully close to AOL meatmarket pits. I'm really just looking for a place to gab about nothing in particular without having to worry about being hit on or assaulted with AOLspeak. Anyone have any favorite spots (IRC or otherwise)?

posted by LeeJay to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Response by poster: I should mention, since it isn't really clear from my post, that I don't have AOL. I just remember some really awful chatroom experiences back when I did have it.
posted by LeeJay at 6:46 AM on January 13, 2005

i hear there's a MeFi IRC server and channel.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:51 AM on January 13, 2005

Response by poster: I can't believe I forgot about #mefi! Are the regulars there pretty open to newcomers?
posted by LeeJay at 6:54 AM on January 13, 2005

Response by poster: #mefi is a place to gab about nothing in particular , but the intelligent part isn't so easy.

Well, considering I completely forgot about the IRC channel of the very site I am on at the moment, the "intelligent" part might not be a requirement.
posted by LeeJay at 7:00 AM on January 13, 2005

I don't know about intelligent, but #plastic, available via your browser at http://chat.plastic.com.
posted by Gyan at 7:06 AM on January 13, 2005

Be warned LeeJay, when I was on the mefi IRC this weekend the chat consisted of posting porn links and talking about the women in them. I don't know if you'd consider that "intelligent" "laid back" chat.
posted by Juicylicious at 7:27 AM on January 13, 2005

They were obviously talking about how opressed and degraded they were.
posted by angry modem at 9:24 AM on January 13, 2005

I'm a regular at Everything2.com which is about a laid back and friendly community as I've seen online. It's more of a writing community than a chat group, but if you register (free) you'll get access to the Chatterbox which is where the conversation occurs. Topics range from the news of the day to neat things written for the site to links people share to just about anything else you can think of in a given day.
posted by Servo5678 at 9:25 AM on January 13, 2005

If you're going to be like that...We just finished an enlightining debate about dynamical light fermions and the effects of heavy quark vacuum polarization in regards to the Monte Carlo lattice simulations.

You're welcome anytime. #mefi on irc.metafilter.com
posted by esch at 9:25 AM on January 13, 2005

whoa. everyone is breaking the first rule of #mefi.

leejay: we're nice, but depending on the day and time, don't expect much. #mefi doesn't take well to people who come into the channel and start telling us how to behave.

also, most people on #mefi have no problem with vulgarity, so if you do, it might not be the place for you.

otherwise, we'll see you there.
posted by fishfucker at 10:33 AM on January 13, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions everyone!
posted by LeeJay at 3:31 PM on January 13, 2005