I know with some forums, they have an instant messaging service so when someone is online they can get the message without navigating to another page (ex. if they're browsing a thread a notification will pop up saying they received a message). Is that something that would be possible here? I know I've had some trouble communicating in the past because of timezone differences and this would be something that's helpful if it's at all possible. If it's not, I suppose I can try to get into contact with them via Skype/other IM services.

Just a thought