I agree with many of the points that John brings up regarding the desired form of Archipelago. For me a session with Archipelago is like a story telling session - even though I know that we don't all sit down to Archipelago at the same time, it gives me the feeling that I'm sitting around a story teller (Archipelago) with all the other members and there are stories for us to listen to and respond to. And the stories are created by us, and we don't have to miss anything when we have to go to the bathroom or get something to eat.

I think I have the fear that the distant links concept would remove that feeling of being together with the story teller, taking one page and one chapter at a time together.