When you want to test out Etherpad and don't already have text you want to edit, you tend to use it like chat. But even then you can do things you can't do with chat, because you can see what the other person is typing and start responding before they finish (like in a real conversation). I've suggested to the Appjets that they might want to make a variant of Etherpad aimed at chat.

Like in the old unix talk :-)

I used to prefer this mode, but some of my friends hated it.

Does it scale well past 2 people talking? Seems like that could get difficult to show on screen.

It's certainly quite fun, but not sure if it's more useful.

That would be great. Plenty times we are required to quickly chat with someone, but we dont want to add them as IM contacts (think interviews). This would be a great solution for one time chats.

No and no. Chat is linear. EtherPad bends the space time continuum.

I agree with you. (Although I've just had a chat-like experience on it.) (And somehow it reminds me of the unix talk command)