Remembering Chunite, the chat community that vanished.

About this project

For many people, Chunite was one of their first online communities. It sat somewhere between a chat room hub, a light social network and a casual dating space. When the site went offline, it quietly slipped through the cracks of internet history.

This version of chunite.com is maintained by a former user who wanted to make sure it wasn’t erased completely. The goal is to document:

• What Chunite was like to use
• Rough dates of operation and shutdown
• Any screenshots, stories or artifacts that still exist

If you remember Chunite, your memories are part of this story. Scroll down to learn how to share them.

History & timeline (reconstructed)

Because the original site was not widely archived, much of Chunite’s history has to be pieced together from surviving directory entries, third-party reviews and user memories.

• Early 2000s: Chunite appears in online chat & dating directories as a “free online chat community” at www.chunite.com.
• Mid-2000s: Users remember active chat rooms, profiles, and private messaging being popular around 2004–2006.
• January 2009: At least one listing site flags Chunite as “No longer available”, suggesting the service had shut down by then.
• 2010s–2020s: The domain lapses. Almost all public references to Chunite fall out of search results, leaving it mostly remembered only by former users.
• 2025: chunite.com is re-registered by a former user and repurposed as a memorial and archive.

If you have older emails, screenshots or saved pages that reference Chunite, they may help refine this timeline.

Modern Chunite: a tiny, cozy community

Long-term, the plan is to host a small, invite-only community space inspired by the original Chunite vibe—less “big social network,” more “small late-night chatroom with friends.”

Ideas on the table:

• A lightweight forum or message board for former Chunite users
• A private Discord or similar chat space linked from this site
• Occasional posts or zine-style articles about early-2000s internet culture

This section will update once the new space is live. For now, this site is read-only.

Share your Chunite memories

Were you on Chunite back in the day? Did you make friends there, hang out in specific rooms or remember any of the site’s design or features?

You can contribute to this archive by sending:

• A short written memory or story
• Any screenshots you might still have
• Saved emails, profile text, or other artifacts

For now, you can share your story by emailing:

[email protected]

Sources we’ve found so far

A few surviving references helped confirm Chunite’s existence and features:

• Online dating & chat review listings describing Chunite as an “online chat community” with profiles, blogs, chat rooms and one-to-one chat.
• Old web directories that linked to the old site with the tagline “Are you looking for free online chat? Join the online chat community at Chunite!”
• A personal homepage from the era listing Chunite alongside other popular sites of the time.

Direct links to these sources will be added here as a proper bibliography once the archive is fully organized.