I'm having a fine time using the features already. I think it'll cut down some of the spamming that goes on in threads that we now have to delete, so that's a positive. I don't think it's going to affect community that much. The people who are going to form separate groups have already done so on IM, Skype, etc. This just keeps it all in one place instead of scattering it all over the internet. I think it's useful in that respect--when I get a new message, PM, etc, I get a popup and can click that instead of having to leave the forum entirely to go to MSN/IRC/etc. From a business standpoint, keeping people on the forums is an intelligent business move....
I don't know about teens elsewhere, but the ones I work with are very active on Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites. Making this site friendly for them for networking can only be a good thing.
Welcome to the 21st century of computing life.
