Chat Gem

[omgsoup]

.....

[Jugalator]

I don't think it does anything. Or to be more precise -- it does one thing: displays a purple text.

[Griselda]

...and it's working just fine! :lol:

-Griselda

[Sen]

I think it's a really handy way of marking your place when you go afk.
I don't like to miss any of the begging and advertising and whining if I have to duck out to the washroom for a second.

[Archon_Wing]

It sends your surfing habits, and your system specs to Blizzard. It also sends what programs you are running. How do you think they banned 131,000 accounts for cheating? :)

[Raz]

Click on it 315 times and you gain entrance to the Secret Chicken level!!!

But don't tell anyone :ph34r:

[the Langolier]

It just so happens that on the 315th time it must also display "Perfect Gem Activated" in order to access the Secret Chicken Level. Needless to say, this is quite a rare phenomenon.

[TaMeOlta]

Everytime it is activated , all of your characters get one experience point , everytime it is deactivated , all your characters lose ten experience points . If you activate it more than once per week , one of your weapons (randomly selected) loses 1-3 durability points .

[Sickywicky]

I always thought if you activated the gem you sorta signed a contract where you would be willing to be a life organ donor for the high chaps of Blizzard.... (they have a lot of those now MUWHAHAHAHAHAAA !!!) :lol:

[whereagles]

It opens/closes my garage door. Now pls don't touch it, k? Thx.

[Amaethon]

The biggest most long standing rumor (at least to my knowledge) about what it is for is simply gems. click it three times you get lots of chips click it till it says "perfect gem activated" then make a game and bukoos of perfect gems will fall to the ground. Hell, Ive heard people say that certain morse code type click fests on the thing will increase your chances of rares/uniques. Myself I think its there to make people wonder what it does, and in turn let them make up all kinds of strange theories about what it does. BLizzard is sick that way... :lol:

[Bolty]

It's amazing how well it still works, even to this day.

-Bolty

[Isolde]

Some would say that it's the only thing that Blizzard's ever done that works *PERFECTLY* :lol:

[Smoketest]

As has been pointed out, clicking on it enough times reveals "Perfect Gem Activated" nowadays. Long ago it would display something like "Moooo". I'm not sure if it changed with each patch or not, but the three strings for it are in STRING.TBL in PATCH_D2.MPQ (can't remember what the patch filename is for the expansion.)

As for what it does, well, I always assumed it granted a better chance of finding gem shrines since I'd always activate it and then find a gem shrine in my game more often than not. Of course, there's no factual data to substantiate this. :)

With the latest patch, gem shrines have become as rare as useful item drops (and even shop sales) so I no longer attribute anything to the chat gem other than purple text and the occasional special message.

(Edit: spelling mistake)

[TheRubberDucky]

Actually, it toggles world peace. No one notices it, because it's pressed so often.

[NiteFox]

It opens/closes my garage door. Now pls don't touch it, k? Thx.

That's the best answer I've ever heard :)

[pakman]

Reminds me of when Star Trek producers were asked how the Heisenberg Compensators at a Star Trek convention.....their reply, "They're working well, thank you. Next question please."

[Archon_Wing]

Instantly thinks about Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. The one drawback with making a great fantasy story/game is people keep asking you for those stupid details regular people wouldn't ask. "How do you repair javelins if you throw them all away?" :)

[Baajikiil]

Some would say that it's the only thing that Blizzard's ever done that works *PERFECTLY* 

Well I guess that statement makes its function fairly obvious :)

EDIT:

PS: I do like the world peace answer though.

[Obi2Kenobi]

You are wrong if you didn't say that it is working perfectly/displays the text/changes color.
However, there is another answer. Say there is some guy who is racist against all <your religion/ethinicity here> people. Then your grandma happens to be staying with you, and she starts walking toward you (she needs to be close because she has bad vision). So what do you do? Spam yourself and join a game quickly (the spamming is to compensate for the lag of making the game).