I agree with the OP's feelings, in that it is nice to be asked how one is doing, and to give a person a chance to respond before just continuing on or ignoring the person who just entered.

I imagine chat rooms much like a cocktail party where each room is a different group of people. When you go up to a new group of people, you expect them to pause their conversation, and say, "Why, hello there! How's it going?" and the new person to respond.

In most cases, it only takes two seconds to be kind like this. And while there are exceptions -- for instance, in my hosted chats, the format is different and is Q&A based -- I hope most of our members will take this as a reminder to be supportive and kind to fellow members when in chat.

Thanks,
DocJohn