i used their chatrooms super often personally!! i rped on them LMAO, the chatrooms r almost completely bare now tho :'/
i used to use deviantart literally everyday, so i definitely relate. my all time fav feature was their chatrooms, which is where i met a ton of my earliest best friends. im glad u like my layout!! if ud like to sample anything from it u can feel free!! :)) i pulled the main code from the wayback machine and largely customized it based off my own preferences. if u have any questions im more than happy to help!!
the old chat.deviantart DOES still work, but is largely unsupported now. i still have my own chatroom linked on my site actually!! its just that they no longer support it, so you cant look at an emoticon list (it wont connect) or form that much of a community, like you used to be able to :( i havent used deviantart actively since probably 2012?