Except for her *morbid* love of threaded views;), I have to agree with I've seen Eileen post here.

It would be nice to have the Private Message display show up on very page, but people I want to talk to all the time have my AIM name, anyway.

I've always looked at a private message feature as something to let people know things you don't want to post in public view, not as a chatting function.
If you want chat, it can be tied in as an add-on.

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