Gay Chat and Gay Social Networking

Chat rooms are becoming ever more popular. As we spend more and more time at our computers communicating to each other through the written word it becomes easy to see why the ‘older generation’ used to think that one day the art of conversation will be lost. We won’t need to leave our homes as everything you could ever want can be found on the internet now. Well, that’s not completely true; you can’t get physical human contact through your monitor and modem. But you can arrange it and you can get close.

And the starting point is often chat rooms. But what are Gay Chat rooms and what are they like? Here is some information about two out of hundreds that are available to you.

First up on a Google search was www.gay.com Chat.
As far as I can see this one has been around for some time. The chat area is actually only one part of a bigger site that also caters for gay news, entertainment, shopping and much more. Think of it as an on-line community. When I clicked on the chat link there were over 14,000 folk on line and although you could enter for free you need to register first. Here’s a tip: when you are registering for a chat room you create a name and profile but think about your name, also called a ‘handle’, carefully. I’ve seen long names like “andy_123_sexy_boys*babe-wantsyou” and although you’re guaranteed that no one else would have thought of it, no one else is going to remember it! On the other hand if you simply put ‘Ben’ for example the chances are it will have already been taken. Think of something that describes you and that you won’t regret using later.

At Gay.com you can customise the site to suit you, including changing the language, and you can search for possible friends or partners by location, gender, age and so on. You will also find helpful information about how everything works and there is good customer care. It’s a good quality, well put together site and fun to use.

Another one you may have heard of is www.gaydar.co.uk
(Not to be confused with Gaydar.com) This is a pretty huge chat site that I have used before so I can tell you about it first hand. You can enter for free, after registering, but your free membership only gets you a limited service. You can see who else is around and you can chat but you won’t be able to send many private messages or upload as many photos. When you join you create a profile. Here’s another tip: think carefully about your profile and be honest. The information you make public can and will be seen by thousands of people over time and it’s best to let everyone know true things about you. There’s no point saying you are drop dead gorgeous, 21 and passive if you’re not – you will only meet the wrong kind of guys or disappoint them.

At Gaydar.co.uk you can search the membership to find guys in your area or in your preferred age range and you can cross-reference with their preferences so you can find guys looking to meet someone like you. There are loads of different chat rooms, they are arranged by country and in some cases by town or city or area of a city and there are also specialist rooms for guys into anything from exhibitionism to learning languages. You can view member’s pics (some, if not most, involve nudity some of it pretty hard-core) and you can chat privately or in public.

Some others you might want to look at are:
http://www.ukchatterbox.co.uk/chat/ukgays
http://guyslink.com/
http://www.guys4men.com/
http://www.mand8.com/

Most chat rooms I have come across will offer a free membership to start with but, like Gaydar, to get the full benefit you will probably need to sign up and pay. They are a good way of getting in touch with other gay guys (and girls) around the world but if you do decided to meet anyone via a chat room please be careful. A good chat room site should offer you safety tips for meeting an on-line date. There is also good advice here: http://datingmuse.com/online-dating/tips-advice/meeting-date.htm