Absolutely come in! I know one member here who sat and "lurked" for maybe a year or more... and then only began making small talk through chat PM... that isn't what we were discussing I think...

It's not even greeting someone when they come into the chat room.

But certainly you can say Hi! There are smileys in the chat room too... click on the smiley face at the bottom of the text window...and choose one, then hit send. I'll take that for a hello!