It's not that much of an effort, and the reason I say that is because minimal deterrence is usually enough to put me off, but I not only managed, I was even kinda running the show at first. You click "download, " double click your new icon and enter your SN and password. Now you just need people, so click OK when it tries to add your email list, or do it manually; since I don't want to expend any more effort than necessary either, I did the former. Then you click on someone's name and start talking; if they're in an existing conversation you can ask them to add you, but the conversations are very impromptu, so you can just start a new one and bring in who you want.

A monkey could do this; I think one did and now he's posting about it on the CMB. Yes, it requires more work THE FIRST TIME (after that you can stay logged in, and your conversations remain open, so it really is as simple as just clicking, seeing who's in and deciding if you want to join. ) On the other hand, the first time we do a RAFO chat would require a little effort from Ben, too, and a lot more than a two minute download plus typing two strings of text. Skype's so ridiculously easy the only reason I can see NOT to do it is that it's simply not worth even minimal effort. That's fine, but it's not evidence RAFO needs its own chat. The whole thing reminds me of some comments I heard about various things on wotmania that some Admins would start a new project then watch it slowly die from lack of interest. Which, if I'm not mistaken, is pretty much what happened with wotmania Chat a good year or two before the site went down the last time. If people aren't willing to even put in the effort for a one time download and two strings of text, I see no reason to expect they'll put in the effort to maintain a vibrant chat, because that's the one place that, even more than MBs, lives or dies by user (NOT Admin) activity.

I really didn't intend to turn this thread into pro vs. anti Skype or re-open old wounds (though, once again, I think the reasons RAFO has no chat run a lot deeper than just wotmania Chat and who was or wasn't in there at any given time. ) I'll be honest though, from here it looks like interest in any kind of chat is sporadic and intermittent. If there were dozens of people constantly clamoring for a venue in which they could all talk in real time, I'd feel differently, but it seems more like a dozen or two Elders who've been around long enough to remember the old Chat and, when it's late and they're bored, wish they could pop in for an hour or two every few weeks. That incidentally means that every month or two 2-3 more people join one of the Skype conversations, hang around for a week or two, and then leave. That's fine, too; it doesn't cost me a dime to run Skype (part of why I have it) and if there's no conversation to follow it requires no attention. If, however, it were part of an entire website in which I continued to invest no small amount of time, money and energy I might be less indulgent.