I'm just guessing; I have no insight into the forums back office, and I'm not that smart.
I think the most likely scenario is that there is a lot of work being done on the back end, and the chat feature is probably being tested both front-facing and maybe behind the scenes, maybe to make sure that chat can handle a full load or maybe to make sure that feature does not affect server load.
I would just advise trying to be patient and giving the forum team time to find system bugs and make corrections to any settings or code they are dealing with.
If I am misspeaking, I am sure one of the staffers will correct this post.