What would be wrong with an IRC room. There is (or perhaps wass, I haven't checked in a while) one on TSR. That was set up with a bot that had moderator stauts and automaticllay a) kept the chat room open, and b) gave mod status to any of the forum mods that signed in. The only reason it died down over there was a lack of regular posters.
I'm sure if you talk to Bardan and Reeka about that, they could point you in the right direction about starting it.
I obviously know nothing about the previous trouble... but I'm all for the chat room idea.