You guys, I think this would be a really good idea and at least worth more discussion - just a little IRC chatbox at the top of the forums for people who want to chat with like-minded people but don't necessarily have thoughts that they feel would contribute to the forum in a permanent manner and still maintains anonymity by using our usernames on the forum (because the internet isn't safe, y'all!). I've seen this done with many forums for private servers of online games with much success.
