They have already said no to setting up a chat thing but I don't ever use them myself. I like forums because I want to reply to something I can if not then I don't have to, with chat you got to carry on a conversation and often I am not in the mood why I never turn msn on and if I do I appear offline lol.
There is a chat thread in the lounge there may be a general chat thread in the anime section not sure I don't use them I can't keep up with the one in the lounge. There is no chat thing like msn or facebook type thing.