On behalf of the memory challenged - I will add that it just isn't newbies! I admit I don't check to see if things have been posted before on every question or idea I have - it would simply take too long. Sometimes I just forget that it was raised in the past few months - usually because it didn't have meaning to me then, but does now. On issues I'm certain somebody MUST have talked about before, I take the trouble to look. Sometimes, I'm aware of old threads and want to see if there is anything new to add.. I should be more clear when this is the case.

It doesn't bother me now when I get a link - it's the information I'm after. But I will admit that when I was first participating here, to get a link and nothing else seemed a bit like getting rebuffed.

So I would come down on the side of effort when a new participant asks a question about an old subject - maybe a few encouraging words to go along with the link? Or just a "let us know if this doesn't answer your question" ?