Way back around 2001, I started coming to this site. I had been using the Dom and the Viper for my main MSN Chat room, and for my Group. MSN made lame ass changes to keep personal bots/scripts out. Even back then, if I remember right, err0r was running his own servers. I may be wrong. WOW! I am OLD! This was before MSN went subscription, and WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY before they gave the owner of a Group "Hammies".
The fine people here got me hooked on mIRC! Let me tell you, it was a batttle! I had Ozzy yelling at me that Kenobi was the best, I had people telling me Hybrid was the best and had it all, it was one after another back then. Oh crap, sorry. I was on a nastalgia trip.
Anyway........
Even back then, i do believe err0r was on his own server.
Chat is dieing because it was/is more or less designed for lonely/sick/married people to "hook-up". Now thay other social medias to get that job done, and they don't have to sift through "porn-bots" to fing a real person. It was/is a place to meet people to get some. Argue all you like on this one, it's true!
Then, there's the other chatters. Scripters/coders. They didn't test code in their own rooms all the time. They would invade user created rooms and even at times, prove they could even "Take" any room. Let me tell ya, not everyone in this site was always all goody-goody! LOL.
It's the way life flows! Not everyone wants to spend hours a day in a chat room any more. Big people have better things to do.