I think if the chat line was a scheduled event it might actually work.  You could take a poll and find out a time which would be of interest to the majority of people.  I can't imagine spending any time there waiting for someone to show up out of the blue. 

I know we did this a few weeks ago and I'm not sure it went over all that well.  For me there was quite a delay between what I typed and when it appeared, sort of throwing a wet rag on the whole thing.  That may have been a problem on my end, I'm not sure.

I think that if a chat session does come about, it may make for some interesting reading if the dialogue could be made available for those who couldn't make it but may be interested in what was said.

Also, if db ever did decide to show up I imagine your interest would increase substantially.

Kevin g