1. It was founded by a seventeen year-old Russian programmer called Andrey Ternovskiy, who started it for him and his friends to chat on.
2. You get blocked for 10 minutes if you use the term "asl" in the text chat (as in the age/sex/location question favoured by gay men in the aol chatrooms of the 90s, don't ask me how I know). Saying "fuck" is fine though. I don't know what the reasoning behind that is. I tried - it's true: look:
3. You get blocked for posting pornographic images. Yes, you may well look surprised. "Chatroulette does not tolerate broadcasting obscene, offending, pornographic material and we will have to block users who violate these rules from using our service" these are the terms of use of the site- at least 50% of users certainly haven't read these. Or just had taken their underwear off already and then couldn't be bothered to put it back on again.
4. French Connection ie the clothing brand have got into Chatroulette, for advertising purposes. They're offering £250 FCUK vouchers for any guy who gets a date through the site. How do you prove you got a date through the site? I don't know. Presumably they do. [shiny]
5. Web academics predict that the penises will go and be replaced by celebrities: "After ChatRoulette users become more acquainted with the system (ie., do not browse solely to explore), we predict a decrease in explicit content, an increase in the consolidation of content genres, and an increase in the formation of celebrity figures." say the webecology team, an interdisciplinary research group based in Boston, USA.
I would like to report that people have been seen masturbating with lettuce and "real" raccoons and - but I doubt that would surprise anyone.