It’s where I found my ‘home’; the first place online where I felt truly comfortable. And back in the mid/late 2000’s it was a rockin’ room. I made several friends there that I’ve got together with in person and who I’ve stayed in touch with. Oh sure, there was drama .. many lost site of the fact that Alt dot com is a site for alternative lifestyles and would seem insulted or behave in a condescending way when kink was brought into discussions. But it was a hoot. Me, and several others, would live webcam while chatting. I met a fabulous couple from the desert southwest here and became friends for life! I also met the infamous “Man in Black” (from my video) there; we’ve dated, he’s visited me at Casa Seleena and we still stay in touch.

Sadly, the Gender Exchange room is but a shadow of it’s former self now. The interface is still crappy but the cohesive group is gone.

Urnotalone

This was the first chatroom I ever experienced. Although it was fun to watch all the outgoing girls chat like they owned the world, I never really found a mexicancupid dating site way into their clique. I deleted my profile and never returned for, like, a decade. And when I did, it felt much better.

But within a year of my return, the site was in peril and the founder announced it would be shut down. It was rescued in the 11th hour by someone who professed to have business experience but it’s been all downhill ever since.

It’s a shame because the Urnotalone name was known far and wide from retailers to surgeons and from newbies to the experienced to the working girls. But recently, discussion of URNA at trans events is met with scowls and frowns.

The chat interface on this site is one of the better ones but the user turnaround seems high and the ability to retain a core group of quality people seems elusive. Traffic moves between extremely slow and “I can barely keep up” busy. In my opinion, this one should have been allowed to die a dignified death instead of the slow, painful one it’s experiencing now.

tvchix

A UK-based site where, unlike the others, it’s okay to be a non-full time, non-surgery seeking trans person. Overall, the girls here care more about their presentation, appearance wise, than many on the US-based sites where there’s a mindset that you can’t appear pretty and be a real trans woman. There’s only a handful on this site who are not from the UK and it seems we foreigners are all looking for an alternative to the aggressive, often mean-spirited demeanor common on “this side of the pond”.

My only complaint with ‘Chix” is the interface. Tiny text on my high rez screen and not easily resizable, eye strain is a problem for me. Oh, and time zones. I love chatting for a couple hours before bed at night and only the extreme night owls are still awake in the UK.

This is my current favourite. Although almost everyone seems to prefer conversing in private over publicly chatting in the chat room, and although the small screen text hurts my eyes, the kinder, gentler, sexier and the less judgmental UK crowd makes this one very cool. Side note: I need to attend a trans event in the UK in the near future. Maybe Sparkle.

Pink Essence

My time on this one was very short-lived. The site that professes “We Are One” just felt so divisive, so wrong on many levels and the chatroom was Deadsville. The site is owned and managed by someone who, in their own reality, feels they’re a compassionate (“I’ve been there”) ally but who’s behavior and demeanor comes across as arrogant and controlling.