Hey. Some people find the chatroom to be a source of support.
Other people find the chatroom to be a source of hurt.

Sometimes people go into the chatroom and say 'hello' and nobody says 'hi' to them. That can happen for a variety of reasons (e.g., sometimes the members are away from their computer). Or sometimes people go into the chatroom and say 'hey I've been wondering about this - what do you guys think?' and the other members continue on with a conversation that is in progress and don't respond to the posters query / comment.

There is of course a risk... But there wouldn't be anything to be gained if there wasn't a risk.

Chats can be wonderful, but it depends very much on what else is going on. THe best thing to do (IMHO) is to try ones best not to take the above kinds of things personally. If it doesn't work out then just leave... And try back later. I've had some great conversations :-) After a while you get to know the people who you have great conversations with and you can decide to go to chat when those people are there (for example). Similarly not going in there when there are people there who one can't really communicate with.

Takes a little time, yeah.

One thing to do might be to get to know a couple people on the boards first, and try and go into chat when those people are in there.