i could have sworn their was an area on this site where you could chat to just your friends.

a little pop up window at the bottom under the newest member, which if you activated it, told you how many of your friends were online- then to chat to the one you wanted, you just clicked their name

either i can't find it, or it's been removed.

but their was a live chat between friends at 1 stage

(thanks busy for bringing this to my attention, too!). without your thread, i'd have forgotten about it