Some of what I have to say has been addressed, somewhat, by other replies to this thread. Still some of it bears repeating, and some of it is different, so...

I am guilty of pulling away from the Rinkworks Forum and Chat towards both LiveJournal and AIM. My reasons for both of these were, at the outset, about needing time away -- I had put myself on the recklessly stupid path of reading EVERY post to the Forum, including the hints forum, and I couldn't seem to break away. With regards to Chat, I first discovered RinkChat at a previous job, and frankly, I spent too much time logged in from work. I refused to do that at this job, and while I'm here, I don't use AIM at all, and I use RinkChat very little.

The move to a LiveJournal was, for me, connected in a big way to the things the Gahalia mentioned. I wanted to post a lot more personal stuff that I knew most people wouldn't be interested in, and I knew that I would feel guilty about taking up server space on Rinkworks for something that maybe two or three people would care about. The problem is, in the time since then, it has become something else. Things that would once have been posted to this forum without a second thought now get into my LiveJournal because it's convenient and easy, and I now have friends who read my writing there and not here. Some examples: In February, I spent a week doing missionary work at the Los Angeles Dream Center. Then I spent four days in San Jose (with a day trip to San Francisco) staying with Sosiqui and her family, and meeting Ellmyruh. Right now, I'm in the middle of the process of buying a house. (No offers have been made yet, but I'm getting close!)

Now, these things are worth posting about here, no question. However, my LiveJournal also accumulates a number of smaller posts related to these larger subjects which I don't feel would be appropriate here. If I double-post the good posts, and skip the less interesting ones, I run into problems later on where I refer to something I mentioned in a crappy little post, and the good ones don't make sense without the info. The problem doesn't seem to have any easy solution.

Unfortunately, I don't know where to draw the line between these extremes. I am finding myself gravitating back to RinkChat more and more, and I think that other old regulars are doing the same, even for short visits. I love logging into the lobby and seeing certain names on the list, but I'll often log in anyway, and I'm starting to like people I hardly knew before thanks to this habit. I'm finding more occasions where Chat reminds me of "the good ol' days", and it makes me want to keep coming back.

So where am I going with all this? I don't really know. I'm gradually gravitating back to the Forum, especially since I've learned to curb the urge to read every post, and I'm falling in love with Chat all over again. I know that I would miss both immensely if they were gone, and I know that if I could spare more time for each, I would. I do log into AIM at night and carrying on one-on-one conversations with some people, but those conversations tend to be the sort that would be held in private rooms or strings of green text in RinkChat anyway.

I have a lot more that I could say on this subject, because it has been on my mind a lot lately. Unfortunately, I am at work, and have spent enough time on this post already. I think I'd like to say more later, but I'm already questioning the value of what more I have to say... But I will say that as much as I want Chat and the Forum to stick around, I don't think that I could put myself in your shoes enough to even hope to help you make any kind of a decision. I will, however, pray for you to have wisdom and peace with whatever decision you do make. Goodness knows you've given me plenty of both over the last couple of years.