I think WLM was still a thing while I was around so Skype wasn't in the picture yet. I kinda wish it had been, though. :( Sounds nice to be able to stay closer to the staff. I can't stand most of Skype's IMing features but it does static group chats a lot better than WLM ever did.
I tinkered with plugins here and there but never really went into code at all so I never knew anything about hooks and stuff like that. It still seems really complicated to me, haha. I think it's great that limitations of vB aren't really a thing for PC anymore, though, since enough people have the know-how to just go in and change what doesn't work for the forum.