As Vernong said with the way the profiles are setup now you can use that as a chat system. It is hard enough for us to Moderate the site let alone have a Mod on at all times to watch the Shoutbox and IRC.
When we get drive by spammers at least 5 times a day how would we not need Moderation of a shoutbox? Come one this site has at least 100 visitors on it at all times. Not to mention the number of members and hidden members.
IRC would have to be Moderated cause without a Mod there the fights that break out in threads would happen in real time.
This has all been discussed before. There is no way to safely do it and to prevent violation of our forum rules on the shoutbox in real time. Same for IRC. It just wouldnt happen. We cant get people to stop violating the Swear rule. How would we prevent that in IRC or a shoutbox? In real time as to not offend a visitor or member? What about spam links posted?
There is no way to actively stop it. We wouldnt put members as Moderators cause we have a set of Mods already. Which our job is already tough enough trying to keep you folks in line.