[robbrown451]

"If someone wants to have a synchronous conversation, I want them to state that."

The people that I would send a "you there?" message understand that my message is shorthand for that. They might respond with "in a meeting" or "gimme a few minutes" or if they are available for a synchronous conversation, "hey" or "what's up?"

I have a couple contacts that are "on the spectrum" and I deal with them a little differently. They seem to need things spelled out a bit more explicitly. But those people tend to get left out of many discussions, and don't seem to do as well careerwise in the long term, because they don't really connect on a human level with people.

[ghaff]

Exactly. I won't send ping or hi to a random person over chat. Frankly, I'd be more likely to send them an email with details, requests, etc.

However, there are people who I work closely with who understand that if I do some sort of "are you there?" it's because I want to have a fairly synchronous conversation over the phone or over chat.