Hey Frank, Sorry I missed this post. I'll try to answer briefly.
The chatroom is a collapsible sidebar / popup if you like. Indeed if you go back to the "main" part of the page, then it hides the popup again. However, the contents don't disappear, it's just hidden and you can open it at any time. This cannot be changed. Sorry but it's a fundamental part of the design.
The emoticons things are now integrated into the browser. Each browser will display them differently and each browser will also have a different way to insert them. They are standard unicode icons. Is that enough to help you? You can basically copy and paste them from other pages. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticons_(Unicode_block)
![Another Chatroom Question - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8mobileLQ.jpg)
![Another Chatroom Question - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8desktopLQ.jpg)
