User blog comment:Shadowmaster/Stats/@comment-5072107-20160827224825/@comment-5072107-20160828164427

The problem at this point is, at least in my eyes, no longer about the effect having chat has on activity, but rather the feelings of the general community towards chat. I myself have never been a fan and stand by my belief that it is distracting to the userbase. If the time users spent chatting was focused completely on editing instead, the number of edits and general mainspace activity. However, the fact is that users spend more time on the wiki with chat up than without, and would not spend all the time they do chatting on editing. All other factors aside, '''chat makes people spend more time on the wiki. And the more time you spend on the wiki, the more likely you are to edit.''' The conclusion that I take from these stats is that, as SM said, the vast majority of users want there to be a chat. While I don't think we can use these to tell us the effect chat has on activity by itself, it does tell us that users care enough about chat to affect activity. Essentially, chat has become a part of the wiki on the same level as any other feature, such as blogs or the featured content on the main page.

At this point I would say that the issue of chat needs to be reassessed in light of the repercussions of its deactivation. And this time around, the community needs a voice in the matter, and we need to address sll aspects of chat, not just the activity. Because there is a problem now, as evidenced by these statistics and the four users who have left in the wake of this change.