Adding a general chat to the game

Quite a few people have said they would like to have a general chat put into the game. Since there isn't one right now, people have started using the novice network as a general chat. This causes some questions to be missed and not answered. Linkshells are not large enough to hold the amount of people a general chat would need. It would need an unlimited capacity or at least large enough that most of a server would fit on it. I'm sure there have been multiple suggestions for a general chat but I think it would have more of an impact if SE could see at a glance just how many people want a general chat. If you would like a general chat please post in this thread.

If the purpose of the Novice Network is to help new players get help and most mentors and sprouts leave because they cannot stand the chatter/chat scrolling filling up their logs/or lack of help, then perhaps a general chat could be helpful. What would motivate players to move to the general chat? Not having to meet the NN conditions?

As a mentor who finds the NN too voluminous to keep in my chat stream most of the time, I feel conflicted inviting sprouts to a channel I myself don't like to frequent, even though the Mentor agreement thing says I should be doing that. I want to help new players and I'm always offering help everywhere else I can, including by inviting players to purpose-made linkshells.