Is there any way right now to use the hotkeys to control the up and down movements of the log and not have it reset to the bottom each time a new message is received? I understand it probably can't update and scroll at the same time, but even just waiting to update until I'm finished reading would be  what I want.

Hm...

It's possible to disable the autoscrolling when new messages arrive, but I expect some problems when someone is using smileyadd. Smileyadd messes with the scrolling position while inserting the emoticons - disabling autoscrolling may result in a "jumpy" message log or in a completely screwed up scrolling position.

I could give it a try, but I don't expect the result to be desireable...