Linking the servers.
So, you're going to give people their free software to run on their servers, and somehow get them to link servers, then get other people to connect to yours? I don't see that working out at all.
Think of it like IRC networks... that's the best I can think of.
Except we can add circle links, whereas IRC can't. 
That's how it seemed to me, where you could run the server for yourself, or 'linked' (accepting unknown connections), like IRC. However, such a system would begin to become rather complicated, and supremely hard for the end user to establish. I just don't see the idea catching on with a ton of people. It's a very small niche market.
Do me a favor: stop putting people down because you can't think up anything original.
This was totally uncalled-for. Insulting me personally because of my creativity issues is not really the topic at hand here, I was just trying to give you real-world insite into the future of your wild hair. That, and trying to encourage you to come up with more ideas, since one new feature isn't something to base an entire [complicated] project from, especially in an old, dead subject as IM clients/servers.
