People go to an effort to download an install and secure skype. I don't think effort is the problem. The problem is adoption. People already have a chat platform of choice (skype) and that's what their chat partners/trade partners also have.
Sythechat was a Jabber server setup to interface with the sythe database. Any Jabber client could connect and I made efforts to encourage people to use it in this way. The web chat interface was just that: a web client.
No one used it because no one wants or needs it. They have one or more chat solutions already that they are happy with such as: skype, facebook messenger, discord, etc. We were trying to launch an unneeded product into an over-serviced / saturated market. You can always say the implementation could have been cleaner, faster, better, etc. but this is just another way of saying that it's not really needed. In other words it would have to be so amazing that it would pull people away from their established and familiar chat solutions.
As far as what people really want when they say they want sythe chat: They want a stupid IRC with Sythe users but not Sythe rules to muck around in and call each-other faggots. We can't provide this because people will naturally complain that Sythe rules aren't being enforced, and that XYZ who was banned is still on chat and then they insinuate that if we let them remain on chat when they are banned then we are corrupt.
It's not a problem that needs a solution from us. If you want a group chat to dick around in you have 100,000 options available including the unofficial discord Ryan just set up.