i usually have public chat off because i get annoyed when a bunch of messages cover up my screen (ie why i tell people to whisper me) it gets really hard to pinpoint all those messages for me and usually ends up overwhelming me... plus i normally just talk to my friends or am afk so i'm not necessarily going to want to look at other people's messages!! ^p^ but my public chat is on half the time anyways so it's not really that big of a deal