Editing Talker (section)

{{short description|Internet chat system}}
A '''talker''' is a chat system that people use to talk to each other over the [[Internet]].<ref name="hahn">{{Cite book |last=Hahn |first=Harley |title=The Internet Complete Reference |publisher=Osborne McGraw-Hill |year=1996 |isbn=0-07-882138-X |edition=2nd |pages=[https://archive.org/details/harleyhahnsinter00hahn/page/498 498] |quote=A TALKER is a multiuser talk facility that is easy to use and is devoted primarily to conversation.  You connect to a talker by using telnet ... The word 'talker' is a descriptive  term. For example, some talkers are muds, while others are BBSs; there is no strict definition. If it's easy to use, and you connect in order to talk to other people, it is a talker.
 | url-access = registration
 | url = https://archive.org/details/harleyhahnsinter00hahn/page/498
 }}</ref> Dating back to the 1980s, they were a predecessor of [[instant messaging]].
A talker is a [[communication system]] precursor to [[MMORPG]]s and other [[virtual world]]s such as ''[[Second Life]]''. Talkers are a form of online [[virtual world]]s in which multiple [[user (computing)|user]]s are connected at the same time to [[online chat|chat]] in real-time. People [[Login|log in]] to the talkers remotely (usually via [[Telnet]]), and have a basic text [[Interface (computer science)|interface]] with which to communicate with each other.

The early talkers were similar to [[Multi-user dungeon|MUD]]s with most of the complex game machinery stripped away, leaving just the communication level commands – hence the name "talker".<ref name="internetculture">{{Cite book |last=Ito |first=Mizuko |title=Internet Culture |publisher=Routledge |year=1997 |isbn=0-415-91684-4 |editor-last=Porter |editor-first=David |edition=pbk. |pages=89–90 |chapter=Virtually Embodied: The Reality of Fantasy in a Multi-User Dungeon |quote=These combat-oriented MUDs stand in contrast to non-gaming 'talker' MUDs or educational or professional MUDs. |author-link=Mizuko Ito}}</ref> ew-too was, in fact, a [[LPMud|MUD server]] with the game elements removed.

Most talkers are free and based on [[Open-source software|open source]] software.

Many of the online [[metaphor]]s used on talkers, such as "rooms"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levine |first=John R. |title=More Internet for Dummies |publisher=IDG Books |year=1997 |isbn=0-7645-0135-6 |pages=197 |quote='''Talkers''' are for talk only, with no games, no monsters to fight, no quests, and no bizarre rules to learn. All you do is talk and make new friends. Talkers are much like IRC, except that rather than join a channel, you move into a room. |author-link=John R. Levine}}</ref> and "residency", were established by these early pioneering services and remain in use by modern [[3D computer graphics|3D]] interfaces such as ''[[Second Life]]''.