The GameDev chat could be a great extension to the site, but only if people are going to utilize it. Earlier today a few of us were talking about ways to spread the word, and possibly have a big push for a chat meetup later in the week.
How do you feel about the idea? Would you be interested in such an event? How could we spread the word to get people interested?
Without an agenda a meeting is a waste of time. Unless your goal is just to shoot the shit.
The best thing we can do is what I did earlier today and make it a system message at the top of the page. That, and if you like the idea of a chat room either idle in there or keep coming back. Beyond that any additional pushing is probably not sustainable.
Would it be possible to have a button labelled 'Chat Room' or similar along the main navigation bar? That would certainly spread the word.
As for a meetup, I'm sure there could be a time that is accessible to most users.
The main reason people don't visit a chatroom is because they are often somewhat empty. So how about adding a tracker that displays total number of people chatting, biggest chatroom and number of people in that chatroom?