Community Chat dead?

IMO there's a certain critical mass of users needed for something like that to work, which this site doesn't have.
If 95% of the time, when you open the chat room, you're the only one there, it doesn't feel like there's much point in being there, or even coming back. Unless you're particularly dedicated to "making it work" on a macro level, and being that guy, who's the only guy in chat all day. I think that's what it takes to get the ball rolling, and most people don't want to do that... if the community here was big enough, there would be more people willing to do that, and there'd be more pop-in traffic, which would make it less boring, and require less personal sacrifice and dedication.

Personally, I don't sit in an empty chat waiting for people to join, because I find it awkward. And I sense that other people may find it awkward too... because it's not a simple hang-out at that point, it's "just the two of us" and it feels rude not to actively engage with the other person. Which is not the optimal atmosphere IMO. I think the optimal atmosphere is being able to read what's going on in chat, and if you're busy with something else, you don't have to jump in right away, or if there's a subject you don't have much interest in, there are other people who'll engage with it. But when there's only two people, there's a sense of forced participation. I think that's why it's really hard to get any momentum started. In a busy chat, if you don't care to discuss something, it's easy to fade into the background and check-out, while other people take up the slack, it's much more relaxed. But in 1-on-1 situations it can become "work" if the other person is off on some whole other shit that you're struggling to relate to.

Aside from that, people have lives, and probably don't even want to spend hours thinking about this stuff, or sitting all day in a chat room dedicated to it, so the critical mass is all the more difficult to achieve. That's why I think Discord is an easier format, because you can browse the chat history, jump into the history and reply at any point, and a slightly more long-form style is worthwhile for people.

@clenchy I agree. No one has that much time to sit around and wait for others to join the chat. It can only work if Chat can show future time and topic so if people want, they can join and if not , they can read it later. Just my 2 cents!!

Agree with @clenchy there’s a lack of critical mass. The forum’s activity level has always varied, sometimes more sometimes less. Community chat is not dead it just shifted to other platforms that are more immediate and easier to use (Aneros Discord, Reddit, etc.). Keep in mind this community is minuscule. Generally, these alternate platforms have multiple topic categories of different interests. They are easier to follow and drop in a comment. The last few site overhauls that Aneros made to the forum have not been helpful, plus the few times the server was down for multiple weeks at a time compounded a drop off of interest and participation. The formality of the forum discussion is not as easy to navigate and has become archaic.