yeah i'm not denying whether it should be raised...but i think the first thing that should be discussed with any suggestion for the site is whether it's feasible...whether it's something that's either a settings change or if it requires additional, pre-existing, modifications...and then if there's a cost...probably toss that idea out the window cause we know they won't spend a dime here...
Anyways...a settings change is the most likely of any sort of change to occur...because it doesn't require any additional effort or support...adding a mod or a plugin introduces effort, compatibility restrictions, etc. You've probably noticed that there aren't that many things on the forums these days...compared to how it used to be back in the day...each plugin that gets installed has to be maintained, upgraded when there's new versions, has to be ensured that it works with current versions of the forum software...and then risk assessed if a vulnerability for that plugin gets disclosed...keeping the forum vanilla keeps things simple to maintain...is there an update to the forum software? cool, schedule a maintenance...that's it...otherwise it's time consuming. The same goes for the chat...which I don't even know if there's any sort of plugin ecosystem for.
if the feature doesn't exist there is the technical possibility of having it written...but that takes time and money...neither of which they'd be willing to do...and once again introduces the complexity of the above
i'm not downplaying or saying don't suggest things...i'm saying...the debate doesn't really matter if the technical feasibility of it being introduced doesn't exist....or rather the weight of it should be considered...the discussion is still good...to determine group consensus on the topic and get a feel for what the users think about it...but feasibility is ultimately key