I just listened to Ep4 of the stackexchange podcast. I think Joel made a crucial point.

Having been around here a while I've come to take certain things for granted, like assuming that everybody knows what a good question is.

If I physically came into your office and just started spewing details without any ritual first, you'd probably consider me to be at least *forward*, maybe even *rude*, for imposing like that. 
With all the traffic on the "new questions" list, it might also feel like you're kinda lost and want to "grab somebody" to just be given a signal that it is OK to simply ask the question.

The "ask a question" page asks you to present an answerable problem. give details and be specific, but the fact that at this site we would like all this to be compiled into the first "post" of the "thread" may not be obvious. The SO style of a disconnect between the "root post" (the question) and the following posts is something you learn after sticking around for a while.

I would suggest that the "ask a page" would contain at least one example of a well asked question. At least until you have 30 reps or something.