Chatroulette: creeps, characters and occasional cocks

   It’s an online bar, with quirks.

   Thousands of college students are logging on to Chatroulette, a new popular Web site that allows users to video chat with random strangers.
 

  The site instantly brings people together from around the world to communicate with each other through video, audio and text.

   It’s like digging for a diamond in a mud pit. After going through a great number of bored males, creepy people and disturbing live video of men masturbating, you might finally find someone worth talking to.
 

  When you do get a gem, it’s a beauty. If you can tolerate clicking “next” every time you see a naked male, or someone who seems incapable of carrying interesting conversation, you’ll eventually be rewarded.

   Imagine chatting with a student in Spain who speaks little English. You try to remember the Spanish you learned in high school, filling in the gaps with hand gestures or drawings. This is Chatroulette at its best: a lesson in communication beyond vocal conversation while discussing differences (and similarities) between cultures and ways of life.

   With one click you can be talking to someone an hour away and with the next making funny faces with college students in Paris. You can talk to a U.S. soldier in Kuwait, and immediately after ask a Canadian how their health care system is working out for them.

   “I have always wanted Chatroulette to be an international thing. That’s why I chose Germany for hosting, because it is in the middle between Russia and U.S.A,” creator Andrey Ternovskiy said in an e-mail to the New York Times. “I think this is a good place for hosting a project which connects people around the world with each other.”

   Ternovskiy, 17, is a Russian high school student who created the site as a way for his friends to video chat with new people.
 

  What he created was both a haven for the internet’s creepiest patrons and an undeniably entertaining pastime.
 

  “Everyone starts at five. Do something to get point and try to get to ten,” a stranger saysenergetically, holding up a piece of paper marked with a number 5. “Talk, sing, dance, joke. Do something to entertain me, and you might get a 10.”

   One kind stranger turns their webcam to their television, on which a movie is playing, and types “Enjoy watching Jaws between all the penises.”

   Like the “Jersey Shore,” any college fad inevitably turns into a drinking game. Chatroulette hasn’t managed to avoid this, as some young men surf the site while holding up a sign, “We take a shot every time we see boobs.”

   The world has perhaps been made smaller by Chatroulette. It isn’t rare to see groups of college students crowded around a web cam on this site, laughing at whatever bizarre and repulsing things they might find. It’s also fairly common to be asked to share in a smoke with a young fellow chatter.

   “Two groups of teenagers can party together. That’s just great in my opinion,” continued Ternovskiy in the article.

   You might even find a few musicians, a one-on-one version of YouTube, as some Chatrouletters search through the site looking for an audience for a short performance.

   Here, you can be anyone you want to be. There is no registration, no log-in, no profiles or usernames. While chatting, dialogue is between “You” and “Stranger.” This complete anonymity makes Chatroulette safe and much more interesting.

   With a lack of identity, you can create your own. You might find yourself video chatting with a ninja turtle, a guy pretending to be a cat, Freddy, Jason or even Jesus Christ himself.

   Females are a rarity of Chatroulette, and will seldom face the disappointment of their partner disconnecting. They may very well, however, be asked to take their shirts off.

   “Chatroulette does not tolerate broadcasting obscene, offending, pornographic material and we will have to block users who violate these rules from using our service,” according to the Web site.

   That said, it’s quite impossible for the site to be monitored well. Despite their policy, if you go through 20 chat partners, chances are you are going to see at least one pantless male.

   If you do come across a bothersome sight, you can click a “Report” button, which will kick your partner off the site for 10 minutes.

   The site has been in operation for less than a year. Currently a simple, minimalist site, there seems to be endless possibilities for this popular growing craze.

   “I am working on crazy new features. Stay tuned,” Ternovskiy has posted on the site.