i went to chat and i saw this light blue screen. but it wont let me in, did i miss anything?

works fine for me...although i did get that 'blue screen' you're talking about, i waited a few seconds and was about to click the 'x' but the chat came up...so its all good.

The Chat system has been updated, now using Flash rather than Java/DHTML...

New Features:

Support for multiple open chat rooms in one chat window
You can use tabs to access multiple open chat rooms from the same browser window.

Improved Private Conversations
Previously, the "whisper" feature displayed private conversations that you were having with person interspersed with the postings of a public chat room. This was occassionally confusing. In the new version, you invite a user to a private room, where your conversation is always separate from public chat rooms.

Chat Room List Viewable in Chat Window
Now you can see the complete list of available chat rooms while in the chat window.

New Content Indicators
When new content is posted to a chat room that does not have focus (that you are not looking at), the tab for that room will flash and a sound will play. Sounds can be disabled by the user.

Enhanced User Profiles
Clicking on a user name in the chat room list provides more detailed information about the user, and display's the member's avatar.

User-Customizable Text Size and Colors
Users can now customize the color of the color of the text used for their postings. This color is seen by all users. A users can also customize the size of the font used in the chat posting frame for all postings, as seen by the particular user. Changing the font size does not change the font size appearance for others.

Now we just have to get people in there...

can we see who is in the chat rooms, or how many people are already chatting?

If you mean an indicator on the main forums page, we've asked them to add that feature..may take a while...

yea ok.

brett im getting an "unable to authenticate with server" warning and its really annoying, whats up with that?