Hi! I discussed the idea with the rest of the staff, but we don't feel a real-time chat feature would be a good fit with the rest of the forums, especially when there's already lots of places to talk to others. You're welcome to create a thread in general discussion to talk about anything off topic, post on someone's profile, or start a direct conversation with one or more people.
As
@Uzzlegorf mentioned, if you're looking for a real-time chat, I'd recommend checking out the
stardew discord. And if you have any other ideas for the forums, please don't hesitate to post them! While we won't implement everything, we always want to hear what forum changes or additions people would like to see :)