Shoutbox

There is already an option to show tabs on the left, however it shows them to the left of the display pictures, because as you've pointed out, hiding the display pictures would cause the tabs to be hidden too.

Also, the way they are currently means that they are outside the chat window, where as your suggestion means that they would be inside the chat window and it doesn't have quite the right aesthetics....it would be like using the middle of a book to turn a page, instead of the edge