Some of us might take IPVM for granted; if you formulate a reasonably well defined question/problem that falls within the expertise of the membership, you have excellent odds of getting help.
Unfortunately, the same can not be said for most free technical forums, in which are erratic in there response to say the least. As an example, I was looking for some Linux help on cross-compiling for embedded devices. Pretty specific questions, ones that I was confident the answers were known by at least several regular mavens.
As has happened on several occasions in the past, I asked my question and... Nothing.
Looking at the questions that DO get answered, I tried something new. I had a buddy log-in and answer my question authoritatively, stating that what I was trying to do was simply impossible because of x and y.
Bingo! Within minutes two ol' timers corrected my friend, which then turned into both of them go all out at showing competing solutions to the problem.
I felt a little guilty at first about having someone put up possibly wrong material, but I would have had them remove it, if it went uncorrected.
Again, not necessary on IPVM, but a useful, if manipulative, technique none the less.