Hum. I believe my post was germane as its main point to the OP was that he had no right to complain about how he was treated since he already knew it was going to happen.

I read the IRC thread, and have had several experiences that are identical. The OP there asked a question and got the ubiquitous guru/troll's classic scornful and derogatory put-down. There was no falsification. If people respond to questioners like that here they are reprimanded; in IRC that is not the case(*), for whatever reason (I guess because the guru/troll's company hosts the IRC server?) and it is most definitely a hostile environment even if you can get answers there.

(*) In fact I have more than once been contacted off-line by another IRC poster apologizing for the guru/troll's behaviour, including e.g. by the lead maintainer of a major Perl framework (to which the guru/troll had in the past been a contributor) which publishes the IRC channel as the helpline. Now if such a senior developer feels that he cannot stand up publicly to the guru/troll's haranguing, what chance does a n00b have? Not many have skin thick enough to run the gauntlet of scorn in order to get an answer, and why should they have to?