Originally Posted by neil0502

As a usually nice guy who also refers people to a forum search, I'm going to jump in here.

If somebody comes to BF looking for answers to a question, then their question can often be well answered with either links or a suggestion (humorously presented or not) to do a forum search, and they should be satisfied.

If the poster is actually seeking something other than answers -- say personal communication ("Wow! They're talking to me!"), then you may be right: only a direct answer suffices.

I give the benefit of the doubt, assuming that people come to BF looking for information. Sometimes, that information is best presented by a link to another site (Sheldon Brown, Park Tool, etc.). Sometimes, it's best presented by letting them know that a forum search will yield tons of info -- possibly more and better info than will surface by re-hashing a topic that has long been beaten to death around here.

People get tired of talking chain lube. Many highly knowledgeable people no longer discuss the subject at all. Others don't go as far toward explaining their opinions as they used to. I would argue that--in many cases--better information can be gleaned from a forum search than from bringing it up again.

My $0.02. YMMV.