In particular, we think HN's low quality comment problem is partly caused by trying to fit all discussions into a comment form. We hope adding chat to comment sections helps improve the overall quality of discussion on HN.
We have created a script for Chrome and FF (with Greasemonkey) that adds chat to HN discussion pages:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/101484
You can also fork or contribute desired changes at:
https://github.com/danielbeardsley/wompt_grease_monkey