I'm not a frequent SO poster, but I've asked and answered a couple of questions. Personally, it's a combination of: 1) I find IRC completely unusable - I've be

I'm not a frequent SO poster, but I've asked and answered a couple of questions. Personally, it's a combination of: 1) I find IRC completely unusable - I've been on the net since 1994, I've tried IRC multiple times, and it just doesn't gel with my head, sorry. 2) I don't use SO when I need an immediate answer. At the very least I'll put a query in, then wander off and google some more in the hope of finding an answer, then come back in half an hour. More usually I'll leave it overnight while i get on with something I do know how to do. It feels like the same sort of dialogue timescale as a mailing list query, but for where there isn't an appropriate mailing list. But I may not be typical.