User blog comment:Ohmyn0/Chat is Now in Wikia Labs/@comment-1066636-20110706174512/@comment-10370-20110706184755

Oh, the user preference idea is new; we haven't heard that before! We'll check that out and see if it's possible.

Sorry that some folks are still having disconnect issues -- we're going to continue to work on stability. Just so I know -- are the people you're talking about actually disconnected, as in: they don't see chat messages anymore? Or are you just seeing messages that say "X has left / X has joined" and the person is still participating in chat normally?

For the Special:Chat links -- there's a little js hack that makes the link open in a properly sized window. We're hoping to make this an actual feature, but right now the hack works. :) Put this into your Common.js:

$(".openchat a").click(function {  window.open('/wiki/Special:Chat', 'wikiachat', 'width=600,height=600,menubar=no,status=no,location=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes');   return false; });

And then put this span around the link: Special:Chat

It might take a day for Common.js to clear the cache and actually make the link work. I hope that helps; it's awesome to see people promoting the chat on their wikis!