It's hard not to notice the amount of newcomers to the IM field which posted here with the mention "I'm a newbie IM". It would be interesting to see the proportion of newcomers versus old veterans. But then I guess veterans have better things to do than hang out here? I'm very new here also, so this thought just came to mind... So how about this suggestion: putting a data-point in the user profile with something like "IM or JV experience: 1yr/2/3/5 ..." then publishing the average (so everyone's will remain private, but the average of the group can be public) ...

Cheers,
Bryan