I've found recently that a nice option for emacs users to get 99.9% of the same functionality is to have two (or more) users ssh into a server, share gnu screen

I've found recently that a nice option for emacs users to get 99.9% of the same functionality is to have two (or more) users ssh into a server, share gnu screen sessions, and start emacs 23 + emacsclient. Everyone has full access to their own emacs, but share buffers with everyone else. You can simultaneously edit the same buffers, etc. I know this isn't the niche that etherpad is aiming for, but there are a number of groups dispersed looking for this kind of functionality. For team coding while separate, this plus ichat provides a very compelling experience.