An IRC Chat Room for the AAVSO has existed for decades, but is not well known. This can be a useful tool for meeting with other observers and members as well as potentially providing participants with a quick option to get answers to questions. I find it far more dynamic than forums, and something that is always on and open for participation, as opposed to the more formal zoom sessions. At the same time, it doesn't have video or audio, so some real-time aspects are missing.
I'm on the AAVSO chat every day from 0900-2400UT and often a few hours either side. Others sometimes extend this to 24hrs/day (astronomers never sleep!). We typically have 3-6 participants on any given day.
Most of us sign in by using a "nickname", which means using the "/nick <name>" IRC command. to yield a first name and an obscode. For example, I sign in as "/nick ArneHQA". However, you can do it any way you want. I'm happy to answer any technical/photometric/stellar question that I can, or talk about our new kittens - your choice!
The quick way to get on the chat room for most of us is this link (you do not need to have a
password, just enter a nickname and select Start):
https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.aavso.org/#aavso
There are many other IRC apps if you don't like kiwi. Feel free to join in on our daily conversations!
Arne