Please, don't ask meta questions in chat!
Meta-question - this is a question that implies other questions like:
May I ask a question?
Is there anyone experienced in N?
Has anyone here taken a course from Google on Coursera? I have a text analysis question...
Guys, I have a question about %framework_name%
— "I see, but what's wrong with these questions and why shouldn't I ask them?"
— They are wasting time! Yours, and other people who are trying to help you! You're trying to be polite by not jumping straight to your problem, as people do in person. But chat is different. People type much slower than they speak. Instead of being polite, you're making the other person wait, whilst you formulate your question, which results in a loss of productivity.
The same applies to messages like this: "Hello", "Hi. Are you here?", "Do you have a minute??", "Ping". Just ask your question!
In addition, when you ask a question right away, the possibility of asynchronous interaction opens up. If the other person is unavailable and you leave before they return, they can still answer the question instead of looking at your "Hi" and wondering what happened.