In my view, having an IRC channel(maybe even a server) could be a great way for users to communicate and they could get help faster. you could have say… #Lounge as a place for the users to relax and have off topic discussions etc, and another channel #support where users can lend a hand to each other.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat
I’m sure a chat would be faster response times but I prefer forum since a good portion of issues are already here and you just need to search for them. And say we do get this help chat? What happens when we get 150 people in there where it’s just terrible to try and read a single line… Kinda like the Ubuntu support chat >:(