Totally true about chatting in local chat sometimes feeling uncomfortable. Many times in SL crowds you see a lot of chat going on in local, and it is hard to step in and join the string of chat. On the other hand, however, if you are a male and send an IM to a female, this sometimes is misconstrued as hitting on them. As a male in SL it is very rare indeed to be IM'd by a female So just like in junior high school as a guy, you choose carefully who to send a random IM in a public place. Some of the responses are scary!