BBC - h2g2 - Yahoo Trivia Madness!

The advent of the Internet has seen many wonderful innovations and developments. Online book-buying (thanks, Mr Bezos), instant news reports and, of course, freely available pornography just about everywhere you look.

Chatrooms are seen by a large sector of the population as rather sad, by a smaller number as a hunting ground for paedophiles, and by a select few as a pretty cool thing. They are hamstrung by a violent minority of people who insist on entering and then spouting abuse, vitriol and swearing to all and sundry from the safety of their living room. Finding a chatroom free of this element is a tricky business.

Trivia Madness comes close. Of course the idiot contingent are present (the Web is and always will be a favoured haunt of the lowest common denominator) but bad elements are usually ignored or pilloried and removed quickly. The room's raison d'etre is simple: one chatter asks a question (differentiating him/herself by capitalising text: chatrooms can get chaotic so this measure helps all concerned) and whoever answers it first becomes the next questioner.

The remarkable thing is the affability and intelligence of the regular users. Frequent topics are mythology, literature, and art, and generally the conversations remain good-humoured (with one or two exceptions). Political tirades are frowned on and persistent abusers are ignored (part of the Chat software allows you to "turn off" another user, so that you don't see their text). The exception is Nigel.

Nigel (username strider_22uk) is, it would appear, a tolerated eccentric. His execrable right-wing rants are given short shrift by the other chatters, and yet he still turns up regularly to berate his peers. Unfortunately, he does not appear to be particularly intelligent, but as with so many people with strong opinions and low IQs, find this hard to accept. In my short time in the chatroom he managed to infuriate me, and prostrate me with helpless laughter, in equal measure. Another good example, perhaps, of those people who randomly distribute the dregs of their brain to anyone that will listen, safe in the knowledge that no one can find them in the flesh!