serverfault.com/about Second paragraph - middle. This isn't a question of how to be successful in IT - It's a question of how to keep SF a viable/vibrant community. (I agree there is a relationship at the individual level)

See the about page and FAQ for my response on that. Agreed the system favors good answers, but without the questions it gets real quiet around here... (so we have to move to meta for fun.)

@voretaq7 see my comment above re:google. I think the about page thinks differently about this topic. Which is fine of course, but interesting

@RobMoir - interesting comment - I was voted down in metaSu for suggesting short answers might be OK: meta.superuser.com/questions/3190/…

From the about page: "we can build good answers to every question a system administrator or desktop support professional might have." (emphasis mine). Sounds to me that the creators want to bring content into the site, not push it out to google.

I don't know if it surprises me, but it bothers me because I don't believe this site was created for the answer-ers - it was created for the askers. Surely it gives an incentive to answer questions, but the real value is to the people who come here for help. If the ask-ers stop coming by for help, then we can sit around and stare at our belly-buttons.

I think we ARE getting actively annoyed with new posters. My other concern is we are raising the bar, not holding it steady.

I wouldn't be surprised at all about how many people don't read the FAQ. It's been a fact of internet life since the AOL users first gained internet access. Asking them to read the FAQ and referrring them to a particular point in the faq is one thing. Saying "please, please, please..." with no explanation as to why is another. It sounds to me like "go away you bother me". My larger concern is whether the tone of the site is changing form helpful to annoyed.