hows about a live 'shout box' on the side of the forums instead
that way instead of moving away from the forums page, we can browse
and chat. similiar to i.m.
having a thread for chat, then we'll increase the post counts and do we really need to have every persons reply clogging up the server.

just an idea. and here's a forum board that i hang out at with v-bulletin info.
shoutbox vbulletin forum