I don't remember a chat room here pre-launch, must've missed it. I know there is a way to get certain chat programs to tie into the STO chat server. Then you can chat with the people in game, but I can't seem to find the thread that showed how to do it. Anyone else? I'll look again.
The IRC server and chatroom at Coldfront are still there (accessible with a client like mIRC), and there are plenty of people in it, but no one speaks a single word.
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EDIT: Here's a link to what I was thinking of. I don't know if that's what you're looking for but that's alll I got.
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=159864
Chat shows up every now and then. She is quite interesting and Swedish.
It was removed a few months ago. Not many people frequented it, anyway.