1) Such an answer doesn't help the original poster. Period. And the purpose of a resource like this is to help, right? Even a "RTFM" or "search Google" at least gives the user __something__ to work with (and the lesson there being that if they read the manual or search Google, they'll quickly find answers). If your argument for answering "Yes" is that you're teaching the user to ask questions the smart way, then why not answer their intended question AND refer them to the smart questions page? Do you honestly think people are learning __anything__ when you reply with a "Yes"? Moreover...
2) It's commonplace in human discourse to attempt to address the *intent* of a person's question rather than the literal question itself. If you were helping a friend re-shingle a roof and they said "Can you hand me that hammer?", hopefully you would actually hand them the hammer, not say "Yes". They are many colloquialisms in languages--like when someone says "What's up?"--and it's just obstinate not to recognize them as such and respond accordingly.
Finally, if you don't agree that "Yes" isn't helpful and that it's an inappropriate answer anyway, how about this: such emails are a waste of resources. It's a waste of the time (.1 nanoseconds or whatever) it took you to write. It's a waste of bandwidth (at a few bits a pop). It's a waste of everyone's time in reading and deleting such emails (another second). And it tends to start a sequence of even longer, off topic threads such as this one.
So, seriously, if you don't feel like helping or you don't believe that a message should be posted here because it's off topic or you don't believe that a question was phrased properly, wouldn't it be better for everyone if you just didn't respond? It'd certainly be easier.
Oy vay! Larry
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