Ask HN: What Is The Status of HN Office Hours?

What is the status of HN office hours? The only two times I have tried to use it, I click a profile that clearly says available, and then the person is not on AIM and not available for chat. The other option is to send an email, which doesn't feel right, and seems drawn out. I have seen available profiles with zero contact information. When HN Office Hours was introduced it seemed like a lot of people were into it. Is there an alternative that I am missing? My issue isn't a complicated one, but it is something I wanted to ask a rather n00bish question about. (Installing mysql on my mac has been worse than the time I had Windows ME, yes I google).... I am curious to know peoples thoughts on hn office hours. Maybe a free model isn't the best way to do it. Maybe, you should be able to earn tokens helping people, spend tokens getting help, and cash tokens in if you are the ultimate helper. I don't know, what do you think?