*wonders...* Memory saved by using Clear command vs just refreshing. Would there be some kind of... leak with just using Clear all the time with the page just sitting there or no?
Depends On Your Browser(tm).
Generally, there are two separate things.
First, in all browsers that support this chat that I've seen, the "processing time" necessary to append a new line to the chat window is linear, or linear-plus. So, the more lines there are already, the "slower" the chat works. On my machine, it starts to lag noticeably with a few thousand lines in.
Second, as the nnumber of lines grow, images are posted, etc, amount of memory used expands.
Deleting the lines will probably not cause it shrink, but, at least in most of those cases, will let the browser re-use the memory again for new lines, so make it not grow more until you reach the previous chat's size again, more or less. Of course, crappier browsers may not free any memory and keep growing.
Chrome and IE8/9, which have a separate subprocess for each tab, can be made to free all chat-related memory by closing that tab and opening chat in a fresh one. That kills old process, creates a new one, and makes it start from the beginning again.
