The chat here is a really awesome feature! Though it could use a little doctoring. I have a few suggestions for it!

-Soft Refresh.
>Say you're just sitting around, waiting for your lion to recharge. And you're enjoying talking in the chat to the lovely members here on the site. Well, you'll notice quickly that when you want to see more replies, you have to refresh the page. This takes you back to the top, and you have to scroll down to the bottom again to see the chat. What's more, if you have typed into the box, you cannot refresh, but rather have to click a new link, or it will send your previous message again. Or, say you're doing something where you DON'T want to leave the page or refresh, you just have to wait it out or open a new tab.

Suggestion:
Put in a refresh feature for JUST the chat. It would be a simple little button that allows the chat, and only the chat to refresh. No more having to scroll down, no more worrying about reposting the same thing again, and no more needing to work around it to do things. A small button at the top or bottom that is simply a 'refresh' icon, or even the words 'refresh chat' would be incredibly useful.

-Chat box
>If you enjoy using the chat feature a lot, you'll soon notice something; you will get a drop-down option for everything you've ever said! This can get annoying and also is a possible invasion of privacy for people who share computers. I do not, but I know it's hardly uncommon for people to share with family members, and some might even share computers to use this site! The drop-down suggestions is an easy fix in the coding, and perhaps by turning the chat type-in box into a text box instead of a search-like or login-like bar, it would give more room for seeing what's been typed before sending it, and also prevent the drop-down of old messages.

-Colors!
>A lot of times, when chat allow people to use colors it can get REALLY annoying, especially when there are custom themes for a site on different people's pages. However, I think that it should be built into the theme, and that things like @username should be highlighted. Say someone replies to me, with @Zed and I don't see it because it's all the same color text, and there's already the @ symbol in every message to display the time in which it was posted. Merely making a code to color @username [using it as any word combined with the @ symbol with no space should do it trick] so that it sticks out. I know the DeviantART uses something in their chat that highlights it whenever someone uses YOUR username, but I don't know how they do it or if it's viable for this particular setup.

-Placements!
>Now, I think where the chat is, is actually really nice. My only problem is that it sort of squishes it all up, but that's fine. BUT, for people who are used to/prefer their chats for these kinds of sites at the top or bottom of the window, stretched out across, it could be an option in settings.

Suggestion: An option to have the chat at the top or bottom of the window, instead of at the side bar.

I hope some of these strike with people! I also hope that I'm doing this right; it didn't really seem to make sense to me to make a post for EACH of them, but if I have to I will. Thanks everyone!