Well perhaps the product was failing from successive updates to supporting software on the server, and that is why the developer just abandoned the product.
I checked back to see how many times someone has brought up issues with the chat system, and from what I can see, not many.
So I guess that this answers my question then: Not enough interest in using a chat to make pursuing a replacement effort worthwhile. Interestingly enough I asked my programmer about a replacement chat program and he said that I am the only one of his clients still using a chat. Everyone else, even on his own sites, has dropped that function.
Sooo, I guess "chat" is just something that has faded into history for the internet. And from the looks of things, probably just a matter of time before the "forum" structure and utilization follows the same route. Participation and Contributor memberships have been steadily falling here, so the writing appears to be on the wall. Facebook (you WILL be assimilated!) is taking over the internet, it appears. But when that happens, I guess I, personally, go offline for good.