[crayboff]

That's the opposite of my experience even to this day. As long as you follow question asking etiquette (do research before you ask, don't ask to ask, explain what you've tried so far, etc), people are usually good at answering questions when they can.

[hombre_fatal]

Funnily enough your comment describes SO just the same. How many people complaining about SO here have really just asked poor questions, hadn't explained what they tried, didn't do enough research first to ask a good question, etc.

[ceejayoz]

You may both be right. Chances are this varies wildly from IRC channel to IRC channel.