While I was wasting my time debating on a political blog, some of us used Yahoo Messenger (it really doens't matter which one) to "gab" about stuff, either personal or about the various topics without wasting the bandwidth of our host. I know people email offline, but what about passing around our screen names (via email for privacy), and we could gab live, whilst still keeping up on the threads? It's just a though so don't hang me for it. Every once in a while someone gets peeved if we are not all business on the threads. This could help minimize that. You either choose to "show yourself" to folks or not, no big deal about whether you want to "talk".
Whatcha think?
Messaging Programs
I talk to Aitch at least once a week on Windows Live Messenger. It's a great way to have a chat.
“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein
"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother" - Albert Einstein
"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother" - Albert Einstein
Well Elys, as far as i am concerned, i do have an icq program installed but it took me a week or so to get "fed up" with it (i admit it was kinda interesting at the very beginning). Now i only connect when there's need to discuss something in "real time" (5-10 minutes), once in a couple of weeks average. 
Nothing will get you dead quicker than being deadly serious about yourself.