A recent conversation on IRC caused me to realize I should have pointed out a couple of things. These are obvious to me but may not be obvious to others.
IRC is not email. I may ignore IRC when busy. I do not have a permanent IRC presence. I may lose messages in various ways, and my IRC client doesn't track which messages I've responded to. If you happen to get a response from me on IRC (including #debian-dpl) that's great. If you don't get a response and you wish you did, send email. IRC and IM in general is not something I treat as a reliable communications channel.