I have been clicking "New Posts" every day and answering newcomer's questions that don't have any replies to their topics. I'd say that 95% of my posts are simply used to tell people the basics and a bit of advanced growing - stuff that is stickied and easily found by searching. My question is: How long have you helped newcomers before simply telling them to search the forums, or when do you just start ignoring the posts completely.
I ignore their posts 8 times out of 10. I find that it would be better for them to learn the information themselves instead of always relying on others.
If it's a post that has a few people on it and no "real" answers I'll help them out. Honestly you have to remember what it was like being a newcomer and not knowing your way around. It's hard to get used to a forum when you've never used one so I'm generally nice to them, then again I'm a generally nice person.