I think you should be able to change your online state to the states we have now, so you could click to show that your online and reading the chat, or that your ask for a moment, or that on your computer but not actively reading the chat. The reason I describe them like this is because it seems to be how I and most other peoples way of using it.
PLEASE is it possible to change it so that the chat doesnt scroll down to the bottom each time someone makes a post. its damn near impossible to check out earlier posts if u missed something