With the current state of the workplace, many companies now run things from a 'work from home' perspective. My current workplace is similar, with everyone working from home, so there is no way to ask questions in person.
I have read the responses to a similar question, about asking for responses from coworkers for responses to emails, but our company uses Instant Messaging (IM), and many answers on the post also focus on asking in person. Thus, I have decided to post a question here.
I have been primarily using the common Slack-like IM tool of our company, but several times where I message colleagues about some questions regarding job-related concerns, they read it and either ignore it to talk about an unrelated issue, or don't answer completely. Edit: this occasionally happens in one on one direct messages as well.
I was somewhat offended by the lack of response to my questions, but I understand that this is common in workplace messaging. They are also ultimately very helpful colleagues in general. As such, I hold no hard feelings.
I am, however, asking these questions in a work environment, so I want to ask, what is a good way to bring up the question again in a polite and professional manner? I don't want to risk re-asking the question in a way that seems aggressive, but I do desire their input for these questions.
Of note, I realize that if people are ignoring my questions, a potential issue is certainly with how I phrase them. I will look into online resources on digital communication and question phrasing on my own time. However, the current question is more specifically looking for a way to re-ask them about an initial question in a polite way.