While the chat line thing gets looked at let's take a reality break.

This is a free site, one that happens to be blessed with some techno wizards that volunteer their time and efforts to keep everything running nicely. It's one thing to make a suggestion, quite another to demand it.

The improvements on the message board have been impressive, and the fact that the archives are as close to all-inclusive as Ivory soap is pure is also amazing. I read stuff on mega sites like USAtoday.com or cnn.com, and when I go back three days later it can't be found. And if you really want to see something pathetic, take a look at the crap Lost Highway threw up.

This site probably has a couple hundred regular visitors. I don't see how, with such small numbers, a chat line could ever be efficient. For evidence just look at the tour page, where there are so few show reviews being posted. There is (or was) the yahoogroups thing set up, and that does support real-time chat. To have a bunch of effort go into fixing-up the online chat here would not only be redundant but also way under-appreciated.

It seems to me our collective efforts would be better served in sharing the audio and video available, posting reviews, and in doing what we can to promote the releases and concerts.

I'm sure Pat and probably Dan are looking at this online chat as a challenge, and will probably hammer a way on it until it is "right". Is it really worth the time and effort?