I'm mostly in smaller channels, max 120 nicks. If someone joins a channel this size or smaller, it can take a while before someone comes around to answer a question. But when they do you will probably get your answer, and you are able to quickly ask some follow up questions if needed. And in the end I believe this often is a quicker way to solve a problem than asking on some forum or mailing list. And there is the room to be social with like minded people in every time zone.

I think it works great this way. And if people leave the smaller channels when they are not around I'm afraid many of them would just die.