Advice columnist Carolyn Hax takes your comments and questions about the strange train we call life. Her answers may appear in an upcoming column.

Here are tips on how to participate.

- How to stay anonymous: You’ll notice there is an input box for your name. Please feel free to use that space to a pseudonym. You can also leave that box empty, and the name will default to ‘guest’ if you haven’t used a name before.

- How to add topics: Write your topic at the top of your question.

- How to respond to others: We are not using threading for Carolyn’s chat for now, so you can respond to others by submitting a post as you usually would, and typing ‘Re:' or ‘To’ at the top of the message. The comments section will also open, as usual, after the chat ends.

- Where to ask questions: The question input box will always be at the bottom of the chat. Click the ‘ask a question’ button to be taken to the bottom.

If you’re new to the chat and wondering about acronyms, here’s a glossary of frequently-used chat terms.

Thanks for joining us!