Just noticed a bar at the bottom of the browser page where things come and go -- "Online Friends (<n>)", "Setting", and then one or more names of people apparently posting something (?).

"Online Friends" -- is that who's on-line at the moment?

Under "Settings" -- "play a sound when I receive a new message in a hidden window." It does beep (more like "blurb"), and then there's apparantly a new item on that bottom-of-page bar. This doesn't appear to be the same as the "Messages" subsystem that's on the main / top menubar. This is just monitoring posting activity going on in general? (The messages don't appear to be individually relevant.)

Any documentation somewhere as to what this bottom menu-bar (or whatever it is) is all about, how to use it?

Thanks -- it's always one or another adventure on DhO

You can just click on the Online Friends, and those who are logged in will shot up, and you can just click on one of the names and you can open an immediate chat window with them.

Two things: it is buggy, so don't expect it to always work, and consider shifting the conversation to Skype or a Google Hangout or whatever.
Also, they may be logged in but not actually there, so if they don't answer, don't sweat it, they might just be asleep or away somewhere.

this is kinda related so I'll just put it here, but is there any scope to get better support for reading the website on mobile devices? Its pretty unreadable for me on my iphone5. How do others find it on other phones?

Looks great on iPad, except the menu bar with Recent Posts doesn't appear, so I have to bookmark that link.

i agree, extremely difficult to read on iPhone (5).  Ever harder to post 

If you press the button next to the search button you'll get a drop-down menu with Recent Posts.

Oh, that's where it's hidden! Thanks!