Sorry, but from the little I saw of Ventrilo it looked like literally anyone could show, and people none of us knew repeatedly changing the channel got annoying REALLY fast. Skype conversations are persistent, too, though; technically, they even endure when NO ONE is present. Large group conversations seem to get a little wonky after a few months though; I have not tried that in a while, but last time I did there were periodic problems with major lag in old conversations (and by "major" I mean it took hours or even days for some peoples chat to update.) From the sound of things, Google Hangout eliminates most inconveniences of both Skype and Ventrilo, so thanks for the tip.