>Use email or something else for more permanent discussions. That assumes that every discussion which eventually is important enough to be made permanent start

>Use email or something else for more permanent discussions. That assumes that every discussion which eventually is important enough to be made permanent starts out that way. One of the nice things about a history-keeping chat is that the barrier to starting conversation is low, and the barrier for preserving that conversation is also low (i.e. nil). That has a double benefit - anything that becomes important is automatically preserved, so you could have tuned it out at the time and later be able to come back to it. There's no need to always focus on a chat if it's guaranteed to saved for later, unlike with IRC, which you can't always risk tuning out.