Couple other forums I've been a part of over the years have had a chatbox available on the main page, access limited to users above a certain permission level (to prevent botspam), with a history no older than 72 hours or so (to prevent space issues). Talking in the ARMA thread with Skwi about loadouts seemed like the perfect type of thing to take place in a chatbox, as it's not really worthwhile consumption to clog up that thread with.
I think this has been talked about but Chris had an objection about security. Don't remember specifics right now.
My point was to have an unsaved communication option that didn't require additional software...My work PC has about everything locked down except this forum and youtube, so installing mIRC and opening a port would be out of the question.
There are web applications for it, but there are also security issues involved. The RSI forums has a chat client built in if you are a Star Citizen backer, the unit has its own chat channel. We had an IRC channel somewhere at one point I thought...
I for one support our potentially new chat box overlord. Before I joined the Borg, if I was looking to join a community one of the first things I did was scroll through their chat box to try and gauge the attitude and style of the community.