If these new members are so concerned about their privacy that they don't want to be on the member's list...why are they using their real names and email addresses as usernames? If they don't want people knowing their names and email addresses, not having them at the top of every post might help. :confused:
As far as the chat, it must have been monitored extremely occasionaly if for the past year you didn't see anybody in there. Maybe for a while people haven't been in there for the same reason as me: they've been busy. But I used to be in there all the time, and I was rarely alone for long.
I've been reading a lot of posting about the topic, and lots of people said that we should get the chat back, newbies included. Exactly one person disagrees.
Granted, that one is the person in charge of the site. But I don't see why the person in charge of the site wants to make the members unhappy, and from what I can see, that seems to be exactly what you're doing.
You go outside and practice screaming. We'll play music while you're gone.