The way I see it is, you either spoon feed them in chat or in a thread. Essentially shifting it from one place to the other. It appeared to me that while the chat box was down the bottom, the forum itself was getting more use than before and even now.
Asking a question in chat works if someone is on who can answer it, otherwise it'll sit for hours by that time the person has buggered off and won't see it again. Or your one off blow in doesn't bother returning anyway, so it's a waste of time.
All good though if you guys want to keep on like that.
I just believe it detracts from the rest of the forum.