The Forum General Chat Topics are really a long term chat ( bulletin ).
IM'ing a memeber is fine if you know who it's for ?
And the Chat room ... well I don't think it's worth it, there's only a couple of memeber on-line at any one time so they can chat on a FGCT ?
Now we have a SHOUT means that all memeber can see if a message is for them and it could also be called bulletin chat room !?
If the scoll puts you off reading topics just close the box or better still move your mouse over it to stop the scroll