[Thor]

That has not been my experience with AOL Instant messanging but I know you are right with other ones. I talk to fellows all the time with AOL IM. I think the fact that ideas can be traded so quickly they are not as concise as a paragraph and there is NO way or recalling the information. The way it works now, if you post something it is saved and if someone needs the info or things you had something valuable to add, they can retrieve it with the search function. If we have a forum chat, that can be lost. I do think the AOL IM function does have a place as there may be things that people DONT want posted on the forum, but people want to convey to each other. Sometimes I can quickly talk to my clients about upcoming Luger projects and this saves both of us a long distance phone bill charge. I think we should not have a forum chat, but I will continue to use AOL IM for those that want to contact me off line, so to speak! Thor