It’s a good question. If I was choosing, it would be chat.
I’ve thought about the archiving to the topic solution. Would really prefer the two working together as really one conversation.
Right now chat is much lighter population wise for me and that’s because I lost people in the community to a discord community that started up during the time babble was having issues and before chat was added.
I see the two interfaces to one conversation as a way to also potentially help me get back some of what I lost as well.
There aren’t any plans to do exactly what you’re asking for. I’d strongly recommend experimenting workflows like the above that encourage people to use chat during the game and to use topics before and after.
Happy to kick ideas around for what might work in that sense, and hear your feedback about what does and doesn’t work well. After going through that loop a few times together, maybe some ideas will come out of it that’d help us polish that flow with you.