You can make the window as large or small as you want. Just click on the word "popout" after you've opened chat.

The friends list is anyone on your friends list who is online anywhere on the site (not necessarily just in chat). You can start one-on-one chats with them from that list quickly and easily.

We cannot go back to the old chat system because it doesn't support mobile. A good 25% of our chatters, as we learned, are on mobile.

Thanks for the suggestions, keep 'em coming!

Best,
DocJohn