Perhaps it's because I'm not that "into" IRC, but my biggest problem is that they're good to read and to idle in, but are largely unhelpful if you need some hel

Perhaps it's because I'm not that "into" IRC, but my biggest problem is that they're good to read and to idle in, but are largely unhelpful if you need some help right now. Also, perhaps this is just my experience, but a number of communities on IRC are just plain rude. Even the nicer channels I've been in (C# or Python channels) have been snappy or rude if you've asked a question that might be easily available if you know what to Google. On occasion I'll log onto a IRC server and will lurk, but mainly out of boredom instead of anything else. It's a fantastic platform, but I think that you're more likely to get a good response from Stack Overflow than on IRC, and SO will probably be quicker.