• How (are you, old are you, was your day, is everyone today)?
• What are you/What am I (doing, thinking of, wearing, etc.)?
• Guess my/Can you guess my/What's your (name, age, sex, weight, birthday, location, etc.)?
• Do you like my (avatar, web site, poem, etc.)?*

We also consider questions that call out other users by name to be chatting. If the intent is to ask a follow-up question in response to someone else’s question and that person is not available via email or IM, post a new question that’s open to everyone in the community to answer – there might be someone else who’s better equipped to answer it.

* Please note that exceptions to this rule would have to satisfy two criteria: The question would have to be 1) advice-seeking and 2) knowledge-worthy. For example, it would be OK to ask, "How can I improve my poem?" or "How do I make my avatar look more attractive?"