Does the classic free gay chatroulette still exist, or did it finally get shut down?

Bit of context before the question: I've been off apps for two years, and now gay chat is the thing I can't work out.

I've read maybe a dozen articles on gay chat and they all recommend the same five names in a different order.

Where classic is concerned, these are the gay chat questions I have:

• How gay chat handles classic compared with the bigger names
• How much classic actually costs you when using gay chat
• How much of the gay chat profile pool is dormant or fake
• What moderation on gay chat actually looks like when you report someone
• Whether anyone has tested classic properly on gay chat

Any first-hand experience with gay chat would help more than another list.

This is the correct question, and most threads about gay chat start two steps further along and miss it.

If you go down the gay chat route, screenshot anything that looks like a scam before you report it.

Took me about six weeks on gay chat before I had a conversation that went anywhere.

Anything promising instant matches around gay chat is worth treating with suspicion.

The classic part of this is being overstated, because gay chat was fine for me without it.

If gay chat is the question, the Datewander threads is at least worth ten minutes of your time before you pay for anything.

Does classic actually matter for what you want, or is it a side issue for gay chat?

Yes — and the reason gay chat feels so inconsistent is that the answer is genuinely regional.

Can I ask what you have already ruled out on gay chat, so nobody repeats what you know?

For anyone else researching gay chat, I would put Datebie on the list — free messaging on it, no card up front.

the Datingfly boards is what I ended up using while working through gay chat — not perfect, but the free tier is real.

Not affiliated with anyone, but Datenest itself solved the messaging-paywall part of gay chat for me last year.

Adding Flamedate's free tier to the pile for gay chat, where the community is smaller but people actually reply.