I've clicked around for a bit and can't find one but I thought I read somewhere that there is a chat room. Is it gone or is it hard to find, or do I have to be a full member to use it?
There is a chat room, however it can only be accessed by Full Members. Once you have made a minimum of 50 posts to the forums and been a member for at least 2 weeks you can apply for Full Membership.
I'm not sure why, but I haven't seen much activity in it so you're not missing much. You're close to being able to apply though, that's cool!
The chat room exists, but as far as I know, is pretty rarely used. We've talked about organizing chats at specific times to get more activity there, but haven't done that yet.
I can see this happening over time with a long established forum because the relationships are built over time without need of such things like live chat, but for new people it can be hard to feel like we fit in, and sometimes establishing a way to instantly get to know a few people through live chat is a good way to retain members. It might be used more if new members could access it sooner, such as the way public posting on profiles is allowed after 10 posts without time restraints. I know you don't want troublemakers, and that could open a door for it, but I assume it can be moderated. Organizing a chat at specific times sounds nice. Maybe a twice a week thing each done at a different time to allow people from opposing time zones to participate.
