Crap.
I also saw it on the official announcement channel.
That was the only way to interact with the team as they don't really come here unless to post a link to a new story but actually participating in a conversation on bitcointalk doesn't happen.
Or am I wrong about that?
I am pretty sure they respond to every query via twitter, faceboook, telegram or email so ..... no, open chats are actually the worse way of interacting with the team. There is too much "noise".
If I had a question I would just ask them.