Searched and doesn't seems this has come up before. The forum works exceedingly well except for the rare occasion when two members are on at the same time and discussing the same topic. In that case an IRC channel would be better suited for real time communication between the members. It could also give information if the forum is down. Of course the admins and mods would be the same as they are here and the forum always supersedes the IRC channel.
Pros:

• faster communication
• communication when the forum is down

Cons:

• Users may see the IRC as an alternative to the forum not a supplement.
• Answers may not be transferred to the forum and thus asked twice.
• Admins and mod may become overworked.

Comments?<

IRC, Chat or any "online" communication means ...

"what th'a hell u need a forum 4 mate?"

that's why I never implemented a Chat Mod (there are several around for Snitz) cause... user will stop using it, my users (GAPE) love to wait and see what other post, so, all I did was set up a meta tag to refresh the main page and put there one of my mods to show the last 10 posts...
<