[Mojave]

Ironic. AOL chat rooms were notorious hangouts for pedophiles.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Ironic. AOL chat rooms were notorious hangouts for pedophiles."

No less than Scott Ritter, IIRC. My memory might be faulty, but I seem to recall he set up his infamous Burger King rendezvous in an AOL chat.

[Aut Pax Aut Bellum]

AOL is still around? Huh. They sucked so bad I celebrated the day I left them and never looked back. AOL=Almost On Line..

[supremedoctrine]

You’re right: in the mid 90s, I was new to computers, and AOL was new to the internet, and the chatrooms on AOL were like a test run for what Craigslist was later to become.
I used the name ‘willcerv’ (first four letters of first and last names) in chatrooms ,for the first few months of when I’d even bother to go onto chatrooms, just for the novelty of it, and I’d get IMs from people asking things like “willcerv”......who will you serve?.....then questions like “how are you dressed?”. I’d answer something like
“raspberry vinaigrette”, and they’d say something like, “OH! Yummy!”, then it would be clear to me who I was talking to , and I’d have to end it, saying, “Uhhhh.... I’m not built that way.....Nice ‘doing business’ with you”.