Online chat and discussion groups have been around since the days of bulletin boards, Usenet, IRC, and The Well, but they're really catching on as technology makes it easier for the less techie among us to chat the night away. Chat and discussion communities aren't just part of America Online, nor are they restricted to steamy cybersex cafes and Trek fans who chat in costume. Every group from classic car collectors to diabetes sufferers have online chat and discussion groups. While many sites such as WebMD and Amazon, along with most Web portals such as Excite and Yahoo!, have their own chat groups, I've listed some of the more generalized sites and providers. Believe me, there are many, many more. (Careful about the restrictions, some chat communities have their quirks. And then there's MSN's Web Communities, which refuse to allow Netscape users to access their sites. Gee, I forgot to include their URLs...jerks.)

AllExperts.com (free Q&A site)
www.allexperts.com/

AOL Instant Messenger (not a site, but an instant-messaging client whose users have formed innumerable groups; AOL IM is also becoming a popular business tool)
www.aol.com/aim/

AskMe.com (site that brings together volunteer experts on a plethora of topics who share their advice for free; users rate their reliability)
www.askme.com/

Blogger (make your own Web-based journal entries, or logs -- blogs -- and share them with other Bloggers or create your own private network to keep your blogs to yourself and your friends; the kicker is that you need a Web site of your own to go blogging)
www.blogger.com/. Go to www.blogskins.com for some neat ways to spruce up your blog pages.

Delphi (one of the biggest and oldest Web communities -- forums of every sort are here. Delphi has recently gone to a pay version that restricts free users to extremely minimal access)
www.delphiforums.com/

Epinions.com (site which collects people's opinions about the things they read, buy, see, play with, etc. etc., and compiles them for browsing)
www.epinions.com/

ExpertCentral (fee-based expert advice on just about any topic you like)
www.expertcentral.com/

Forum One (central site for Web-based forums of all kinds)
www.forumone.com/

Google Groups (freewheeling Usenet-based group of communities driven by competing opinions on everything from movies to software; formerly Deja.com)
groups.google.com/

ICQ (an AOL-owned instant messaging client originally developed in Israel; its AOL ownership hasn't affected its core clientele too much; like AOL IM, it has a huge and diverse clientele, and is popular with businesses)
www.icq.com/

The Palace (a popular, avatar-based network of chat communities)
www.thepalace.com/

PowWow (a multi-platform IM client that supports AOL and ICQ input also)
www.linksplace.com/powwow/index.htm

Productopia
www.productopia.com/

RemarQ (huge collection of discussion forums on virtually every subject imaginable)
www.remarq.com/

Talk City (large, diverse network of chat communities that provides the client for Amazon, NBC, and other sites)
www.talkcity.com/

Topica (site which brings together special-interest mailing lists and allows subscribers to start their own)
www.topica.com/

Webhelp.com (chat-based expert advice site)
www.webhelp.com/home/