I think this is a great idea! Were we only talking about the existing trilogy, I would not be so enthusiastic, but I would still be supportive.

I would like there to be a place where questions could be discussed, without necessarily answering the question. It would be nice to be able to throw out tangents, or ask ancillary questions, etc..

The existing non-answer discussion methods won't scale to lots of sites, and won't be easily adopted by the non-technical target users of StackExchange 2.0. This isn't about the trilogy, it is about SE 2.0.

I suspect that for most SE 2.0 sites, chat will remove the need for a separate meta site. Discussion about the sites itself can be done in the chat module, but feature discussions could be directed to meta.stackexchange. The last thing you want is a discussion about features and functions on the meta site for every topic site.

My recommendations ...

• Have a "room" for each question, with the feed visible on the question screen. Have an easy way to make a chat item point to a specific answer or comment.

• Have "rooms" (as Jeff mentioned) for general discussion and for specifics.

• Perhaps have "rooms" for each tag, or for each tag with over n questions.

• Enforce a (relatively small) message size restriction in the chat module, especially for newbies. The chat message size restriction could be increased as rep grows.

• Thread the chat .. allowing (and nesting) replies to existing items.

• Have the same kind of control tools (flag, close, etc.) for chat as already exist for questions, answers and comments.

• Connect chat into rep and badges. Perhaps have voting on chat items, at smaller numbers (perhaps up vote +1 rep, down -0.5), or rep awarded for quantity of chat posts.

• Include chat items in the search results.

• Perhaps show status (controlled via user setting).

• Perhaps allow (controlled via user settings and/or rep) a user to "poke" an offline or inactive user, which might IM or send a note asking the target user to join a conversation.

• Some integration with Twitter or Facebook .. perhaps allow a user to choose notification of activity via a twitter DM or a Facebook message rather than through email.

I think this is a great idea! Were we only talking about the existing trilogy, I would not be so enthusiastic, but I would still be supportive.

I would like there to be a place where questions could be discussed, without necessarily answering the question. It would be nice to be able to throw out tangents, or ask ancillary questions, etc..

People, this isn't about US, it is about everyone else.

The existing non-answer discussion methods won't scale to lots of sites, and won't be easily adopted by the non-technical target users of StackExchange 2.0. This isn't about improving the trilogy, it is about making SE 2.0 work.

SO and the trilogy were made for US, but SE 2.0 is for everyone else. We are strange. For regular folks, there must be some sort of social component for the community to form.

I suspect that for most SE 2.0 sites, chat will remove the need for a separate meta site. Discussion about the sites itself can be done in the chat module, but feature discussions could be directed to meta.stackexchange. The last thing you want is a discussion about features and functions on the meta site for every topic site.

My recommendations ...

• Have a "room" for each question, with the feed visible on the question screen. Have an easy way to make a chat item point to a specific answer or comment.

• Have "rooms" (as Jeff mentioned) for general discussion and for specifics.

• Perhaps have "rooms" for each tag, or for each tag with over n questions.

• Enforce a (relatively small) message size restriction in the chat module, especially for newbies. The chat message size restriction could be increased as rep grows.

• Thread the chat .. allowing (and nesting) replies to existing items.

• Have the same kind of control tools (flag, close, etc.) for chat as already exist for questions, answers and comments.

• Connect chat into rep and badges. Perhaps have voting on chat items, at smaller numbers (perhaps up vote +1 rep, down -0.5), or rep awarded for quantity of chat posts.

• Include chat items in the search results.

• Perhaps show status (controlled via user setting).

• Perhaps allow (controlled via user settings and/or rep) a user to "poke" an offline or inactive user, which might IM or send a note asking the target user to join a conversation.

• Some integration with Twitter or Facebook .. perhaps allow a user to choose notification of activity via a twitter DM or a Facebook message rather than through email.