What is wrong with reinventing the wheel?

Please note that this is not intended to be rhetorical question.

It is pretty common to see posters respond to questions from (presumably) newbies by telling them to consult old threads.

Some of the responses read like they are intended to be warm and friendly suggestions and sometimes they read like they are intended to be sharp reprimands. My guess is that no matter what the intention, such responses tend to be off-putting to the original poster. Note that this is pure speculation on my part.

One unnamed old timer responded to a question in an unnamed thread by referencing the "links above". Aside from the fact there are no links in a newly created thread, that response finally caused a nickel to drop. I personally don't care how many times a topic has been covered on Mudcat.

Thus, my question. What is wrong with starting a new thread to deal with a topic that has already been dealt with?

What is wrong with giving contributors to old threads a chance to rethink and restate their responses? What is wrong with giving people who did not or could not contribute to the old threads a chance to input their $0.02?

Just curious.

Russ (Unrepentant GUEST)

PS. Its been a dog's age since I started a thread. This will probably remind me why.