Chat Etiquette

I don't know very much about chat etiquette.  I can hold a normal conversation just fine.  Email is easy enough.  But the chat, that's something all new to me. Instant messaging is a great tool.  It serves as a nice half-way point between email and phone call.  I use it a lot for Overpass business.  If I need to send you a message to say something like "Feel like going to lunch?" or "Are you watching the news right now?" then text chats are great.  I don't want to interrupt you with a phone call if your busy, but I don't want to wait for you to check your email when it's too late. But when someone starts a chat message through Skype, MSN, or Yahoo and talks forever--I want to ask them for a voice conversation.  I don't like typing something and watching the "So-and-So is typing reply . . ." in the status bar.  I start to get overly critical of their typing speed. I often answer questions while they are typing new questions, which gets confusing. There also seems to be no clear way to end a chat.

OtherpersonMe(I think it should end here, right?  Close the chat window, but it pops up again)OtherpersonMeOtherpersonMeOtherpersonMeexasperated

You see what I mean?  It just goes on and on.  I've spent twenty minutes in a chat conversation where my mind starts to wander and I surf while waiting for the other person to type a message before seeing "Otherperson:  Are you still there?" The needs to be chat rules.  Anyone know of any?