Having tried out ChatRoulette with friends in the past (out of curiosity created from other friends), and after talking more about other aspects of the site today in class, I have realized that the whether the 'serious participants' are being sexual or are looking to talk with people, one thing that I connected them all with was a feeling of how lonely they all seemed. The people that really wanted to talk seemed almost ecstatic that they found someone legitimate to talk to (or maybe they were just happy to not get skipped right away or come face to face with a penis...)
Another thing that I found interesting was the minimal advertising that I came across. After hearing Danny talk about how ChatRoulette tried to filter out the penises by rerouting people to Penthouse, I remembered seeing, every three clicks or so, that I was 'chatting' with an advertisement for some sexual thing, usually for another ChatRoulette site that specialized in sexual things (which is what I think I gathered from them). When we talked about reinforcing the discourse of Chatroulette as getting the reputation of penises and more penises, this addition of sexual advertising is only gonna reinforce the reputation. Unless ChatRoulette does find a way to update and heavily filter, I think it will be destined to become a world of penises...
I think the loneliness factor that you bring up is really interesting. I've only ever heard of people going on ChatRoulette as a joke, but I guess the site could also draw individuals who have very few social skills or little means with which to communicate face-to-face with others. This seems especially true because ChatRoulette offers a unique, random, real-time, face-to-face communications experience that most networking sites don't offer. Do you think this is really the only means of communication that some people feel comfortable experiencing?
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