I've been using etherpad for collaborating on documents. I've found that live conversation often breaks out in the middle of the document itself. I love this, a

I've been using etherpad for collaborating on documents. I've found that live conversation often breaks out in the middle of the document itself. I love this, and prefer it to the normal chat area offered on the right side. (The only problem is that the in-document conversation often ends up deleted.) I'm no longer worried if I'll sound stupid, though this did bother me when I used this feature on ICQ many years ago. I do worry about accidentally typing something rude, but I think I'm getting over this too. Communication really is much faster and more engaging this way. (It's also edifying to see how others compose their messages). We have a similar problem with letting others see our code. The trick to getting over this is to just put it out there. In that spirit, I've made my writing of this message public at the link below; feel free to watch me stutter and change things. You can also try out live chat there, if you've never tried it before. http://etherpad.com/hackernews http://etherpad.com/hackernews