After all, I know you were on Skype when you posted this thread, 'cos you told me you were posting it. But if that's hard to get a bite ANYWHERE, what's the point in having a site resident chat? Is it going to magically spawn chatters (actually, that sounds kinda cool; I wouldn't mind seeing that, from a safe distance )? If it were me (and it ain't) my response would remain, "You'll get a Chat when 1) you convince me you're mature enough to handle it and 2) nothing more urgent needs doing at the site" with a little bit of "and when more than two people will be in it at any given time. " If it's just a couple people, IM or text or something, and if it's not, well, maybe folks should spend less time complaining about RAFO not having a Chat of its own and go chat at any of the other multitude of places where that's already possible. I'm not omniscient or omnipresent, but I'm not the only one who realized we don't have to chat here for all of us to chat, and it seems to boil down to talking to good friends who all happen to be RAFOlk rather than something that spans the community (I understand how some wouldn't be, but frankly, I'm fine with that; I'd rather have a few really close friends than many casual ones, but "casual friend" seems oxymoronic to me. )

Demonstrate a real demand, and a real maturity, and maybe, just possibly maybe, when Ben's sure the site isn't going to combust the moment he shuts his eyes, RAFO'll get a Chat of its own. Alternatively, a few of the die hards can pop in occasionally to remind Ben why there is no Chat and we'll just continue as we began. Again, not that I mean to speak for him in any way, just saying how I'd react; Ben may come in tomorrow and unveil a brand spanking new RAFO Chat months in the making. But I wouldn't bet on it.