I actually find chat one of the most valuable parts of Stack Exchange in some ways. I wholeheartedly think chat should be implemented along with the rest of the site. Here’s my reasoning:
- It’s critical for moderation issues happening in real time, and also provides a private space for moderators to vent/deal with issues. This is absolutely critical for running the site.
- We want a Q/A site geared toward creating a community just as much as an encyclopedia of knowledge. Chat helps create that because it encourages more casual conversation that helps users connect. (It also helps encourage really fantastic mentorships and discussion that can’t happen in comments.)
- Comments can’t do everything. It’s inconvenient to have long discussions in comments - it gets much harder to keep track of and detracts from their main purpose on posts. Enter chat.
- It seems a major detractor from chat currently is its moderation (or rather, that SE never did anything about it). We’re building a new site; we can do something about it. I think it needs to be fleshed out, sure, but it’ll add a lot to the site.
- Human connection makes support and explanation easier.
- Not gonna lie, relying on third parties to provide chat is gross. I love discord, but it’s not optimized for the sort of stuff that would happen on a codidact chat.
Happy to respond to criticisms/questions for clarification on this, but I think chat is absolutely vital to build a thriving community around the site.