Okay, so lemme throw this idea out that just popped into my head:
Grandfathered and Premium Members get unlimited access to it.
Free Members get limited access to it based on the number of public posts they make. Say, 15 minutes for each public post.
The mechanics of it likely wouldn't be too much of an issue, and really that'd be my problem anyway.
How would you feel about that kind of limitation.
iChat is pure cost, no revenue as it stands. It arguably gives other revenue streams (ads and subscriptions) a little more "Ooomph", but I'd like to enhance that affect either by making it available only to subscribers, make it a separate subscribable feature, or make it contribute to other revenue streams via posts (which non-subscribers will read, along with the ads).
I'd like to see iHub bring it in-house so we have more control over it and can provide as much power as it needs. I was also wanting to make archives publicly available and am a bit surprised it's that unpopular an idea. I can understand, although the stronger argument for me is that chat has no permanence to it, and permanence is one of the things I find attractive about message boards.
As you can tell, I haven't made up my mind yet about *any* aspect of iChat, and plan to spend quite a bit of time getting feedback on it before doing anything.
The only thing I'm really leaning strongly toward at this point is making it a Premium feature so that only Subscribers and Grandfathered folks can use it. And I'm nowhere near 100% convinced on that one yet.
