In case I am talking with someone using the informal form but we are not close friends yet (perhaps a close acquaintance or someone I'm chatting with online) and I want to ask him a personal question (what is his occupation, something about his family ,etc.), should I proceed with the informal form or should I switch to polite (or even honorific) language to ask him the question?
Answer
This heavily depends on your character, your age, the relationship between you and him, and how personal the information you're trying to get is. In general, using honorific forms is probably an overkill, but temporarily switching to the です/ます style will not harm.
Personally, I am relatively slow to start dropping です/ます, and I am unlikely to talk with someone using the informal language if I don't even know his occupation.
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