!------------------| This is NOT an advertisement, merely a suggestion based upon nostalgia and the lack of a official or unofficial home assistant related IRC chat server / channel |------------------!
Back in the day (let’s say… Prior to 2010, lol) IRC (Internet Relay Chat) was the way, the means and the “super coolest” 
way to form a forum-adjacent real-time chat community within a community, official or unofficial.
One of the eldest, highest reputation IRC Chat servers on the internet, dating back to 1995, is Freenode.
Freenode is a large IRC Chat network, comprised of dozens of servers, it isn’t quite as active as it once was, but basically every major open source project worth its salt HAS a channel established, officially or otherwise on Freenode, and #homeassistant is no different, with just fewer users, 6 including myself.
IRC can be used even via HOME ASSISTANT, with this addon!
That’s just the first one I found, there are more, many more.
Perhaps there’s a more populous IRC server or channel on an existing server out there, but I wanted to let the OG fellas and ladies know, our 90s and 00s era chat go to, despite loss of popularity, STILL exists!
For those who know IRC, you already know how to connect, if unfamiliar with Freenode, irc.freenode.net, channel #homeassistant.
I won’t go into any more detail about how to connect or which apps to use or anything like that because I don’t want this to come across as an advertisement, I would just love to see some people benefit from help available in real time, on topic discussion and general IRC fun-ness.
So I hope perhaps some of you will join the 6 of us who hold out hope that the Freenode IRC (unofficial) #homeassistant channel may see some good use, as is Freenode’s entire purpose, free for all, just help offered by strangers who just like to help for the sake of doing good.
Much Love,
RickB
Home Assistant Fan & Enthusiast as well as IRC chat proponent