I am ok with the Skype chat as long as it doesn't drop the activity on the forums.
As for the war suggestion, I think the older war squad can still take care of the wars when they are online, as they used to do. However, the other members could still start wars by their own whenever they want. It won't be a problem if the war leaders are online, since the members will mostly ask whoever they see online to help them out on the war, especially the 'war squad'. I don't see benefits that this ideia will bring up, it will be the same that we were doing, just with a reduction of people having war privileges.