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I've talked to a few SE users and everyone agrees that chat is a useful feature, that should be easily available. The site blogs are also deserving of promotion. Can't they both find a home in the header links?

The current situation, where the chat link is replaced by the blog link whenever there is a blog post < 24 hours old, is not a good solution:

  • The chat link disappears and reappears for a reason that has absolutely nothing to do with chat. This is confusing.
  • On some sites, there may be a blog post every couple of days - or at times (e.g. when a related conference is happening) every day. This means that the chat link is permanently or nearly-permanently hidden.

It seems like there is plenty of room in the header, even if you have a long username, vast amounts of rep and numbers of badges, and access to the mod tools. If more space is required, perhaps the search box could give up some space for its chat friend? (The size of the search box only effects the click/tap target area, since the box expands when it has focus).

There's a chat link in the meta header, but chat isn't just a place for those that participate in meta. Indeed, encouraging users to take part in chat is a great way to get them more involved so that they eventually do end up taking part in meta.

The chat links in the sidebar of some question pages (I'm guessing it's questions that have multiple answers?) are prominent, but this isn't as useful as having the link at the top of every page.

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  • Uh-oh.... This feature request threatens the mere existence of the "review" and/or "tools" links in the header. For some reason, Jeff is adamantly opposed to ever having more than 4 or 5 links in there. (See here for related discussion.) And I'd definitely rather high-rep users have permanent links to "review" and "tools" than either "chat" or "faq".
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Aug 19, 2011 at 6:54
  • It's almost forcing your arm with a threat: view the blog, or don't get yer chat link back! My appeal would also align with this post, so, please don't hold decent links hostage. As an aside, my presence in normally frequented chat rooms since this change has been made has dramatically reduced (though not intentionally, I just don't find myself there - I would usually use the convenient link.) Out of 'site' out of...
    – Grant Thomas
    Aug 19, 2011 at 7:42
  • Someone on another thread suggested remove the header FAQ link for 10k users since it's in the footer anyway. That way adding tools is zero-sum. That means adding a permanent blog link is just +1 item for all users.
    – agf
    Aug 19, 2011 at 10:58
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    I agree with this. If a site has regular blog posts, new users aren't going to know a chat exists unless they search for it.
    – OghmaOsiris
    Aug 19, 2011 at 14:35
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    @Mr viewing the blog doesn't get the chat link back (it gets rid of the "new" flag). The only way to get the link back is to wait 24 hours (assuming that there is no new blog post during that time).
    – Tony Meyer
    Aug 20, 2011 at 6:36
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    I really think this subject needs to be revisited. I was just thinking again because, when I was done reading a question on Gaming, I was going to head to chat to talk about it. I couldn't get their directly, but had to go to the main page first because the question sidebar doesn't list chat rooms, and the blog link replaced the chat link yet again.
    – Powerlord
    Nov 2, 2011 at 18:10
  • possible dupe: Make the chat link one click away in the new top bar
    – John Locke
    Oct 8, 2018 at 21:27

1 Answer 1

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The chat rooms and blogs used to be hard to find, but now it is very easy.

From any site (Main or Meta), simply click on StackExchange at top left and then next to the site name you will see chat and blog buttons.

enter image description here

Once you have a reputation of 20 or more you will have the Talk In Chat privilege.

Click on blog from Meta SE and you are taken to the main company blog of Stack Overflow. On other sites, if they have a blog, then you are taken to it. If not, then you default back to the main company blog of Stack Overflow which appears to be the behaviour exhibited by Meta SE.

enter image description here

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