Because apparently it's a rite of passage / hazing ritual to go on IRC / stackoverflow and be flamed for asking simple questions. It's been that way since the dawn of time.
The ritual isn't really complete until someone has complained about the people complaining about people asking simple questions and someone else has posted the ESR document about how to ask smart questions, a document so astonishingly, vastly patronising that it probably ought to be compulsory reading for every developer starting out, with the addendum, "If you've made it all the way through this soul-crushing drivel, congratulations! It can't get worse than this!"
Some rituals are meant to die.
Not quite the dawn of time - it took a while for that attitude to prevail. Maybe the first 6 months were OK. Unfortunately it only takes one person to show the attitude before the experience turns negative, and I've been guilty of it myself even though I try not to. Possibly even today.