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Original poster

Millennials - can you remember this?

172 replies

Creu · 21/02/2024 20:16

I was watching a TikTok earlier where someone was talking about chat rooms in the early noughties. I'd completely forgotten about the amount of time I spent on these pre-MSN messenger & The Sims.

I'm trying to remember the name of a specific one and I can't and it's really bothering me!

Every time someone logged in they could chose a new name. I think it had a black screen and you chose your font and font colour. There was a main board that people got kicked out for 'flooding' (posting too many messages in a row). The names of everyone in the chat room were on the right hand side of the screen and you clicked on their name to message them. I think swearing was banned.

Something like worldwidechat?

OP posts:
Original poster
Creu · 21/02/2024 21:29

curlycurlymoo · 21/02/2024 21:24

MySpace? A bit like Facebook?

Way before MySpace. It was like 1999/2000.

OP posts:
Original poster
Creu · 21/02/2024 21:30

@DawnBreaks UKfreechat sounds familiar. Do you remember what the webpage looked like?

OP posts:
Neilsfavouritechilli · 21/02/2024 21:32

Lycos is the one I remember in black and green.

Neilsfavouritechilli · 21/02/2024 21:32

And it was always fat pervs with dick pics.

CJDB · 21/02/2024 21:33

Bebo? Was that pre Facebook and my space?
Habbo hotel and aol ?!

Original poster
Creu · 21/02/2024 21:33

Does anyone else remember the email chain letters?

Oh yes, haha. "If you don't forward this email you will have bad luck/skin for 25 years and if you do the boy/girl of your dreams will message you within 5 minutes"

Does anyone remember exchanging the ling quiz emails with friends? "Where did we meet? What's your first memory? What's your favourite thing about me?" Forward this quiz to your 5 best friends. They caused so much drama in my school. If you were excluded it was a very big deal.

OP posts:
NeeNaw12 · 21/02/2024 21:34

I think I know which one you mean? Black with coloured text. You'd join a group chat page with a list of active members in a panel on the left of the screen. You could start private chats with individual members? I think you were on the right lines with worldwidechat as the name. It sounded familiar

Trainstrike · 21/02/2024 21:34

Bebo was post MySpace wasn't it?

Original poster
Creu · 21/02/2024 21:35

Neilsfavouritechilli · 21/02/2024 21:32

And it was always fat pervs with dick pics.

I remember being sent one that looked like the curled sausage from Wendy's and I was only 12 or 13 so assumed that's what they could look like. Was quite unnerving. 🤣

OP posts:
Original poster
Creu · 21/02/2024 21:36

NeeNaw12 · 21/02/2024 21:34

I think I know which one you mean? Black with coloured text. You'd join a group chat page with a list of active members in a panel on the left of the screen. You could start private chats with individual members? I think you were on the right lines with worldwidechat as the name. It sounded familiar

Edited

Exactly like that! I think it had something about it being worldwide in the title

OP posts:
DawnBreaks · 21/02/2024 21:38

Creu · 21/02/2024 21:30

@DawnBreaks UKfreechat sounds familiar. Do you remember what the webpage looked like?

Sorry its all a bit of a blur now. I'm going back 24 years when I was a regular chatter! There is one other chat room in the back of my mind which did have a black screen and all the messages were brightly coloured but the name of it is evading me! I'll keep thinking!

doppelgangermirror · 21/02/2024 21:38

minipie · 21/02/2024 20:36

I’m at the upper age end for a millennial (borderline Gen X) and I was on a very early chat room in about 1996. One run by Compuserve if anyone remembers that. There weren’t that many people who had the internet and it was all at dial up speed so it wasn’t very busy 😂

I'm Gen X (just!) and I remember something similar around the same time - my Com Sci friend introduced me to it at uni and we used to go to the computer block after the Union and chat shit to complete randoms whilst other people were desperately trying to finish essays as hardly anyone actually had their own computer then.

NeeNaw12 · 21/02/2024 21:39

I hope someone remembers what it was called. I used to skive school and spend afternoons on there while my parents were at work.

DontBeAPrickDarren · 21/02/2024 21:40

Creu · 21/02/2024 21:28

~~* ~~ ReAl EyEs ReAliSe rEaL LiEs ~~~~

Show quote history

😂😂😂 were we friends?!

Dogdilemma2000 · 21/02/2024 21:45

Yes I remember- around 1997/1998, similar time to ICQ. You’d go on the website with black screen and chat to randoms, or you could hook up with people on ICQ.

MSN came after, then MySpace, then bebo, Facebook didn’t really take off in the U.K. until around 2006.

Original poster
Creu · 21/02/2024 21:47

FacePic was after MSN, and before Facebook I think.

OP posts:
merryandbrightdelight · 21/02/2024 21:48

Teen chat?!

KindleGirlie · 21/02/2024 21:48

Okay but who remembers Girland?

BertieBotts · 21/02/2024 21:50

We used to go on the Yahoo adult chat rooms at about 13 😬😬😬

I was convinced it was just horny teenage boys on there who were also 13 and pretending to be adults but they were probably all adult pervy men weren't they 🙈 My friend used to do this fake husky voice on mic for them. We thought it was hysterical.

The weirdest thing is that my friend whose computer we used to do this on did it on her own too and ended up having quite a long lasting relationship with one of the blokes, at first online and then they used to meet up. She was 15 and he was 25. He was quite socially awkward, not actually predatory (apart from the age gap) and probably genuinely didn't get on with women his own age but we thought it was totally creepy and wrong. I am still really shocked her mum was fine with him coming over and let him stay in her room etc.

Totalily · 21/02/2024 21:51

I used to go on one called advancedchat.com, they used to have a trivia chat if anyone remembers that one. A bot would ask a new question every 5 mins and count up your points if you answered correctly. Thrilling times, if I fancied a break from being groomed of course😂

BertieBotts · 21/02/2024 21:52

What about Habbo Hotel? I was desperate to get credits on there to buy stupid pixelated furniture and post-it notes??? My mum sensibly wouldn't let me. Friend of the yahoo chat room fame got credits on their fairly regularly and I was so jealous. It had a built in swear filter so all swear words got replaced with "bobba" so you'd constantly have pervs asking you "Wanna bobba? Private room?"

upanddowns · 21/02/2024 21:55

I'm not sure about that one but I remember Compuserve in the mid nineties! Chat rooms for various subjects. I met my ex husband in one of the chat rooms!

Original poster
Creu · 21/02/2024 21:56

"Wanna bobba? Private room?" Has really made me LOL

OP posts:
Beezknees · 21/02/2024 21:56

BertieBotts · 21/02/2024 21:52

What about Habbo Hotel? I was desperate to get credits on there to buy stupid pixelated furniture and post-it notes??? My mum sensibly wouldn't let me. Friend of the yahoo chat room fame got credits on their fairly regularly and I was so jealous. It had a built in swear filter so all swear words got replaced with "bobba" so you'd constantly have pervs asking you "Wanna bobba? Private room?"

I used to love Habbo. I felt like a celeb on there as I was part of a group called the Rainbow Girls and we had a popular party "room" we all had the same hairstyle but in a different colour hence the name. 😭

WensleydaleCrumbs · 21/02/2024 21:59

Ah! Habbo Hotel takes me back. I used to go to the local library with my sister and we used to use our whole hour on the free PC's playing Habbo Hotel. Then we'd queue to get another ticket and go again 😂