It is what it is for now folks:
QJ's host has never supported and no longer offers that particular chat applet or any flavor of chat for any price these days. The old applet is still there and works OK for most but it looks to me like the host has blocked all access to the port required to cache the count. I expect they had a reason for doing so. I don't have root access to the server, and they have no interest in supporting chats so...

BTW - I recently discovered a similar problem with the site search that they corrected while I was on hold. The difference was they had an interest in making the search work as it's pretty speedy resource wise. The chat is too but I expect no one's paying the creators. Shhhh.

That said:
Displaying the names of everyone chatting is certainly do-able, as is archiving transcripts depending... In both cases, every visitor would share a bit of weight depending...

I'm basically clueless and learn by doing but the two eyes and three typing fingers I know best still prevent me from chatting. (Could be my brain's fault too I guess.) So, perhaps I don't quite understand why if someone felt like it, they wouldn't just log on and if they found themselves in there all alone, wouldn't keep the window open in the background and listen for the drip or ding or whatever sound it makes when someone logs in like the first person does on other sites.

If there was enough support for it, great, but I'm just not seeing it. I expect those that do/did, kinda know when to? I've not poked my head in there for a very long time so feel free to enlighten me.