This is Skype, if you don’t have it… you need to get it. All you need is a microphone (it’s free). My handle is brightsmite
Why?
because it’s a great, free and easy way to talk to people from all over the world. The audio quality is fantastic, all you need is a microphone… just post your name
You really sound like you work for them.
Why would I want to talk to the upstarts and dipshits who frequent this board? 
And as dnooman said, your post sounds like a sales-pitch. :rolleyes:
Internet based voice chatting has been around for quite a while, and there’s one thing I’ve never understood, really… I have used Yahoo Voice and Googletalk a lot for talking to people I already know, but the idea of having a voice conversation with a complete stranger has always struck me as really odd. I guess, in my addled mind, it’s akin to picking up the phone, calling a random number and saying “Hey, wanna talk?” Yes, I realize, you’re only going to get other Skype users who have listed their names, but still…
Maybe I’m just weird, but I really can’t see myself just randomly connecting with some person and striking up a spoken conversation. (And, oddly enough, I’ve enjoyed hanging out in chat rooms. It’s the actual speaking thing that makes it unusual for me.)
How is this different than say, a ham radio ?
HAH and their Skype Out Global rate is .17 a minute. Our calls to Germany with whatever service we have is only .10 a minute.
That is .17 euro. Which is, what, about .25 USD?
I still win!
Skype is, in fact, a phone service. There is an interesting article about it in this month’s Discover.
Does it double as an internet voice service? Because I hear a lot of people talking about just chatting with people on the net using Skype…
I guess you could just pick someone at random and call them. Like you, I don’t much see the point of that.
So you just dial (or whatever it’s called) random people and start talking? Doesn’t their computer and program have to be on? Or do people just leave it “on” all the time just in case some stranger calls them?
No no. I am just a fan and a semi-regular user. I wouldn’t dare try to solicite some money making scheme to you folk
I am a member of another type of messege board. Someone on that site posted a similar question to mine. I have made a couple of friends through skype. I may talk to one or two of them once or twice a week.
That’s really the fun of it all. Skype allows you to talk real-time and/or text chat, send files and now even Video chat…For Free
I’m not trying to make a buck off you people…I’m just trying to spread the love :smack:
I guess it’s not all that different from IM-ing but it just sounds weird to me . . . to call up random strangers and talk - actually talk, with a voice, not “talk” via IM. Well IM-ing is weird to me too, actually; I’ve never understood the idea of texting random strangers. I am probably too old-fogyish for it. Hey, if you’re having fun, more power to you!
Somehow a message board doesn’t seem so weird. Not sure why. It’s still “talking” to random strangers.
#1 Yes. You double click a name to make a call (random people or friends)
#2 Yes
#3 Yes. some people do
Think about how relatively popular all the Dopefests are! Cleveland, Atlanta, Montana, Miami, Tampa, Toronto, Vegas, Boston, San Diego, Dallas, Austin, SanFran, NYC… Their meeting people face to face… that’s several steps further than chatting online. Granted these people have probably had some kind of conversation or interaction (IM, chat, Straightdope.com) before they met face to face.
Bringing me to another point, I never call up someone unless I have a reason to. The other site mentioned that I frequent has a pretty fair amount of it’s members who are skype users. As I said earlier I don’t talk to them regularly, but at least we have something in common to talk about.
My ex-girlfiend has it. We talk everyonce a while (she lives 200 miles away)
I have a skype friend in Germany, England and one in Japan
My skype handle is in the beginning of this thread… If your scared of skype but are interested in it, call me & I’ll tell you about it…
Skype is to me, in this point in my life, %70 fun, %20 practical, %10 novelty
Not that I’m trying to argue that you shouldn’t do it - if it’s fun for you, by all means, enjoy. Yet there’s a difference, IMHO, between going to a Dopefest and talking to random strangers.
If I chat with someone in a chat room, and get along with them, we’ll probably exchange IM addresses, and take it to IM. I’ve never had just a random IM conversation with someone.
If, after a while, we become decent friends over IM, then the possibility of taking it to voice chat is certainly there. It’s wouldn’t be likely for me to voice chat with someone I only recently started IMing with.
And, for the Dopefest analogy, if I didn’t belong to the board, it’s not as if I’d hear that there was a Dopefest and show up. I would only go because I have “talked” to these people before and we have a shared interest.
Anyway, my point is, in my opinion, there’s a vast difference between going into a chat room and getting to know people in a fairly casual, low-pressure environment that I could easily bail out of, and picking a name out of a list and actually speaking to someone without any idea if I’m going to have anything to talk to them about. I guess it just seems like a lot more pressure to actually carry a conversation. And, it seems a lot more personal and, well, intimate, I guess than just chatting in a room full of 30 other people.
OOPS! (i really didn’t mean to bump this)
Call me, I’ll be up for the next 90 minutes
One bump is enough. I think this thread’s done.