Thanks, coderus. It's not just the 24/7 presence, I find IRC generally a pain to use. It's kinda OK for an immediate interaction but otherwise... Too much irrelevant info ("XY has joined/left"), no threading, no easy search... Basically if I have a question that has been already asked and answered 200 times, the only way to get the answer is to get online and ask again, hoping that someone who knows the answer is also online. It's just way too much effort. Mailing lists are only marginally better. The best medium for getting answers are Usenet newsgroups, but very few youngsters even know such a thing exists.