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OuterNet
by
Anthony Bures
Personal
Computers
The
rules of dating have changed (thank God!)
Dating
in the new millennium is producing some untraditional
ways of meeting. But then there’s never been anything
all that traditional about the gay community (thank
God). E-dating, cyber dating, or whatever this new type
of meeting will be called is certainly sneaking into
our lives as the stigma and computerphobia is disappearing.
It’s not for losers! We know several happy and
well-balanced couples who met through their PCs. Three
of the many ways of meeting on the net are the online
personals, live chat rooms, and even digital camera
feeds.
Online
Personals: The online personals range from
high-class to sleazy. Some have one liners saying explicitly
what a person wants. A few of the more reliable ones
are at www.planetout.com, loveataol.com, and www.gaymuscle.org.
Most of these go in-depth with profiles and photos.
Searches can be based on location, age, hobbies, as
well as those old personal ad standbys, physical and
personality characteristics. As far as cost goes, they
are free and supported by advertising.
REWORKING
Chat Rooms: A second
way of meeting is the chat rooms: talking (typing) to
people in real time. To get started, invent a snazzy
name. Think in terms of a personalized license plate;
although people may not be able to see you through your
tinted car windows, they can get a clue about you if
you have personalized plates. Logging into a room, you
can get a gist of who’s on the other end of the
keyboard when they sport such names as HoustonM4M, PrepTex2000,
CollegeFun, TravelMates. For example, TXTornado says,
“I chose my name from a song that describes me.”
After you choose a name, you need to pick a room, which
are usually specialized by topic, such as HoustonM4M,
CollegeFun, TravelMates. So depending on what you’d
like to talk about or who you’d like to meet, choose
a chat room based on your interests. A couple of busy
chat room systems are America Online and www.gay.com.
Gay.com chat room area is divided into “floors,”
and then specifically into room names. For instance,
the women’s floor has rooms such as “lookingforgirlfriends,”
“bikesanddykes,” “femmes,” etc.
The men have four floors, each for a different region
of the country; the Central Region’s floor then
has rooms like “Houston1,” “CollegeMen,”
“TravelCompanions,” etc.
Live
video: Lastly, if you have a digital video
camera (you can get a good one for as low as $99 these
days), you can see who you are chatting with in real
time. The cameras are basically plug and play these
days (plug them in and you can play). The faster your
modem, the better the transmission will be. If you have
a cable modem or DSL (digital subscriber line), the
motion is quite smooth. A couple of video rooms are
at www.icuii.com and www.cuseeme.com. Some of the topic
rooms are “couples only,” “main gateway
G rated,” “women only,” and “gay
male room I.”
TxTornado
says, “The biggest hurdle to meeting someone is
taking that first step and overcoming the fear. But
be careful because people sometimes exaggerate who they
are or are not always quite honest about their characteristics
on the chat lines.” So when making that step to
actually meeting someone in real time you’ve come
across in a chat room, bring a friend, at least let
someone know where you are going, and make sure your
meeting is in a well-lit public place. A few safety
measures and an open mind can give you a world of new
people to meet!
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