This is exactly how I use negative votes. When newbies ask me simple questions elsewhere, usually they're more grateful when I give them a tip on where to find the information they're looking for, rather than just ignoring the question.

Also, some newbies ask simple questions just because they know that more experienced people may have some extra tips and tricks that most likely aren't in the standard documentation (those little gems like "But watch out for ...", "The docs say to do it like this, but ...", "It's simpler to do it like this ...", or "From my experience ..."). This is good. Get them into good habits early on. These kinds of little knowledge nuggets certainly help me save a lot of time when I'm learning something new.

However, there are some people who ask non-stop simple questions forever. Maybe they're social people who prefer human interaction over a manual, or maybe they're truly clueless, I don't know. It's annoying, yes, and that's when I start chastising them. Eventually they either get the point or they go on my list of people to ignore.

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