SWF.com was pretty adamant about not re-starting the Aquarium again, but I think a lot of poeple would prefer to have the OT forum rather than have OTs in the hobby forums. I'm sure that SWF.com is keeping abreast of this Thread and is following the opinions stated here. I liked the Aquarium, if only we could have kept off the few "bad apples" hell-bent on ruining a good thing for everyone else. That forum took up more mod time to monitor than the rest of the forums put together!
If you want Instant Messaging you can get it for Free via AOL, MSN or Yahoo. Personally, I believe that most members here do not want to be IMing or constantly recieving emails. Being able to pick and choose the level of participation you have on a BB and discuss thinks that you want to without having interuptions or distractions from instant messaging is a real plus IMO. If some of you become friendly to the exent that you want to speak privately, then share your IM usernames with each other.