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I have never once seen the friends display anything but 0 and the individual chat doesn't seem to work.

That number displays how many people that you have friended are online. I'm guessing you've figured that out. It might not be updating properly for the same reason that a chat with PLGuy took forever to pop up.

Basically, as far as I can tell from talking with users, the chat is really screwy with Chrome. I use Firefox for AG-related stuff and I haven't had many issues. With Chrome, there are ongoing issues with the chat room updating, PMs working properly, and general lag. I've been told that either (a) popping out the chat in its own window (use the button on the top-right of the chat window to do this) or (b) opening a separate tab in Chrome seems to fix these issues. I've not tested these things myself.

How do I initiate one of these?

A private message/chat thing? Just click on a user's name (either in the chat window or in the Friends tab) and click 'Private Message'. This will open a separate tab thingy at the bottom, like the one you have there with PLGuy.

And why is Disqus not loading!?!

Because it's a piece of garbage. I've hated Disqus since, like, 2 days after we started using it. There's an ongoing issue with it not loading on new users' profiles. I'm not aware of it not loading for other things, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if that were the case. I'm sure other people have better experiences with Disqus. But for me, it's always been an issue. Messages on my profile don't update properly until weeks or months after the message has been posted. It's super frustrating.

Why is favorite games on the live chat bar?

I don't know the full story, but I thought I'd share something I learned a few weeks ago. Some games have their own chat rooms that aren't listed in the full chat room list. The only way to get to them is to go the game and then click the chat button below the game frame.
That could be part of the motivation. Or maybe it's just a handy way to get to your favourite games in 2 clicks. Well, it's definitely that. I'm guessing that the functionality of the chat bar made adding a favourites game link (outside of your profile) much easier than it putting it elsewhere on the site.

tl;dr - Try Firefox. It's more stable with the chat stuff in my experience.

Thank you so much @Moegreche

(either in the chat window or in the Friends tab)

I found it in the chat window but the Friends tab doesn't work.

Try Firefox

I don't want to, but I might have to. Darn.