To offer but pre-empt one 'benefit' that might come up, I know that ideas/criticisms and their subsequent discussion come up on OOC-chat sometimes, including staff input, and I see it referenced here on the forums not uncommonly, e.g. "This was brought up on OOC-Chat and Slither was saying...", etc.
But I actually see this is as a negative, because I feel those discussions should really only be happening in their proper threads on the Ideas (or Game Problems) forums where they are accessible / searchable / archived for everyone, and not just whoever might have been around at the time on OOC-Chat, especially when staff input is being offered. Not only because obviously not everyone is on the game 24/7, but there are folks that avoid the channel completely. I feel that if people want to have those conversations they should have them in the appropriate place, and it's particularly important to have staff feedback / guidance on ideas and critiques in a central and consistent form so everyone is on as much of the same page as possible.