The old chat room was removed because the code was outdated, was no longer being updated, and was vulnerable to being exploited by hackers as a result.
I added a Facebook style footer chat bar that wasn't used much and ended up removing it as I felt it was noticeably affecting site performance and wasn't being used enough to justify the impact it was having on site speed.
I am open to reintroducing some kind of live chat functionality but I would need to be convinced that it would be something that would be used enough to justify reintroducing it.
Please feel free to post any feedback or opinions in this thread.