Whirlygig, thank you for filling-in some gaps!
Although I find it difficult to believe that you are a "grumpy old git" I do understand that there are many preferences among users but imagined that these could be catered for by modern mechanisms whereby it is possible to select whether one is 'visible' or indeed to simply ignore unwanted chats!
Chatting aside there is forum software which seems to be progressing beyond that which PPRuNe currently offers; the search software is wanting in my view and it is often more expedient to run the search on Google or Yahoo with the word pprune typed in!
There is still no facility to create 'draft' posts which one can work on at one's leisure and then post when ready, the spell-checker is not especially user-friendly, the mailbox limits are quite low and there are doubtless other areas in which improvements could be introduced.
Its just that my understanding is that PPRuNe's owners are the architects of vBulletin and one would have thought that they would want to showcase the latest in forum software advancements on their own sites!