When you first get a server going and try to say anything in chat you'll notice that it blocks you. It's highly frustrating as a very new dev to
experience this, and when I first started I had no idea how to fix it. The rule values table is extremely important and my advice to new devs
is get to know it back and fourth.
That picture above shows what you need to look for in the Rule Values table in your Database. Make sure you set Karma to 0 so all players can
talk on your server without any worries. If you want to use a Karma system later that's up to you, but I wouldn't recommend cutting chat off for
players at all. It makes players feel lonely and will prove to be more detrimental to your server than beneficial.
When you get further into development, I highly recommend using the EoC (EQ Operations Center), because it's a very user friendly editor.
Akkadius has put together a great tutorial on how to get started. Just click on his signature.
I hope that helps a bit. Good luck on your new developer journey!