Why, when I try to use the search function in the chat room, does it tell me that I can't because I need a rep of 20 (I have a rep a bit higher than that)?
@BruceJames that's weird. Chat (and SE in general) occasionally loses my login state; is it possible that you were logged out when you did the search? Does this happen consistently? If so, please write up a bug report on meta (or MSE if you prefer).
@MonicaCellio I think it was just a matter of an introductory panel popping up and I had to tell it to go away forever. Doing that revealed a better search panel.