Originally Posted by gemac

The question I asked:

is not answered in that thread, but in an article linked in that thread, so of course you can search that thread until you turn blue in the face and not find the answer.

My criteria for suggesting that somebody search for the answer to a question they have asked is as follows:
1. I have done the search myself, in this forum, normally using as search terms the key words they themselves used in their question, and found the answer in under 60 seconds.
2. The thread where the answer is located should be obvious by reading the thread title.
3. The thread containing the answer should be on the first two pages of search results.

I often suggest someone search if they are a new poster who has started 8 threads in two days, all to ask questions that are asked here all the time. The reason why I do so is that I find out a lot more information when I search than when I just ask a question and get an answer, and I would like them to use search (and the Wiki, the FAQ, and the User's Guide) so that they too get the benefit of the information already here. Also, starting new threads to ask the same questions over and over scatters information, causes information to be repeated, and bogs down the FT indexing function.

If I suggested someone search without following the guidelines above, I would risk looking like a jackass who is just trying to be a jerk if search didn't readily locate the answer to their question.

I will admit that my guidelines used to be a little looser, but I learned that suggesting that people read the thread titles on the third page of search results, for example, is tilting at windmills, people won't do that.

If I find that the search is tricky, and not something that anybody could find their answer quite easily, I will link the thread and explain that I found it using search and the search terms I used.