a long time ago and far, far away, we arrived at a concensus (as much as we ever do here) that chatting was to be <ahem> tolerated so long as it was relegated to Miscellany (or was it Wordplay (or both)?). but [the chorus intones] why so? it was felt by a plurality, or more, that chattiness tended to decimate threads about words leaving only remnants of wordy threads.
-joe (amanuensis) friday(!)

p.s. - hooray for a faster server... praise anu and pass the amunition.