Earl's right about the chat room not being the answer to a maiden's prayer. And no chat room I've seen is. They're all as dull as a weekend in Salt Lake City. Forums are better, because people have time and space to develop their ideas. The problem appears to be intrinsic to the chat concept itself. Of course, I'm sure it could be improved with better, faster software, but it'll never be as good as forums for people who actually want to discuss something, as opposed to exchanging witty one-liners or (more often) not-so-witty ones.