Public or private, it won't matter to the group. It's just an address.

I have no idea if there are enough people to make this work. I know from checking "Who's online", that the same group of people tend to be on fairly often, and at the same times. I've had replies to posts within minutes of hitting the submit button, then replied to the replies. This starts to look like a conversation. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

As far as the chat module... One advantage a non-ETS IRC channel would have is that we could continue interesting discussions without the need to worry about who's watching. Think of it as an ETS underground, or maybe a back room.