I've been a regular on Paltalk for several months now, and have been a Channel Moderator for just about as long. Unlike IRC, when someone is causing a problem in a room, you can't just boot them, you have strict guidelines to follow before taking this step. If a rooms' moderators kick too many out, or if they don't follow the specific reasons why someone can be kicked out, Paltalk reserves the right to delete the channel, and not allow the channel creator to ever open another room on their system.

Luckily MOST people have a fairly fast connection to the Internet, but those of us who have to suffer at slower speed due to distance from our ISP, or old telephone lines, are subjected to other problems with the program. Paltalk is both FREEWARE and Updateable to a paid subscription. The paid version is unlike Shareware, where you pay a specific amount and the program is yours, void of advertisements, but a subscription for the service. So in essence if you buy a 1 year subscription, after 1 year you have to buy another year, or you are once again bombarded by Ad Banners. The Ad Banners themselves cause a problem at slower speed connections, either distorting audio, video, or even causing systems to lock up momentarily.

The good thing about Paltalk, is unlike IRC Chat Clients, you have a choice of methods of communication, either Text, Audio, Computer-To-Computer Video or any combination of these. Some of the rooms you enter, will be TEXT ONLY rooms, some will support any of the 3 modes. The rooms are also Rated, G=General Audiences, all ages are allowed, R=Adult Rooms but no sexually explicit conversations allowed, and A=Adult Rooms where anything goes.

Of the other chat clients I've used, that allow both Audio and Video Connections, the quality available through Paltalk seems to be considerably better. Paltalk is not an extremely easy program to set up, especially for beginners, and luckily the Paltalk Administration has set up several rooms to specifically help beginners get their program running right.

The Biggest Problems I've seen with the Paltalk Program for users is, problems running it behind firewalls, audio problems (Usually Microphone Related), and the biggest problem is SOME USERS. The software related problems have been considerably reduced by the Paltalk Production Team supplying numerous upgrades as problems arise, they do keep on top of it. The CERTAIN USER PROBLEM I've seen numerous times, is that some people figure if a cam is available, the only thing it should be used for is displaying themselves in the nude to other users. These people simply need to grow up, and if the subject matter is NOT MUTUALLY AGREED UPON by BOTH parties, it simply just shouldn't be done.



Recommended: Yes