People are using the screwed up chat as a place of solitary confinement to escape the banality of the forums.

I've seen 4 or 5 members in there at a time, happily unable to communicate with anyone else, just thankful for the peace and quiet and lack of moderation.

Fauxie said:

errr

I agree with your point but not this particular argument for it. A lot of times one person will go into chat, see no one there but decide to leave the window open in case someone else comes. Then they forget about it. Then someone else comes in, maybe says hi in the conversationless space if they're not shy, gets no response because the first person forgot they were in chat, and the second person decides to leave their window open in case someone comes in, but forgets about it...

sweetserene said:

No. The chat is down. They couldn't see each others' comments, hence the solitary confinement reference.

...
[Edited 1/2/05 17:42pm]

I see now

sweetserene said:

I'm confused! Did the second person stay or leave?

althom said:

They stay and then a third person comes in and does the same thing. Minimizes the window with the intention of checking back to see if someone else has come but they get involved in doing something else, and it continues

sweetserene said:

I have seen this happen several times in the chatroom myself.