Bill, I agree with you. I've never minded those long posts or those old posts that "came back to life". As for someone asking a question that's already been asked, especially a new member, I personally don't mind taking the time to type out the answer if I know the answer. I might suggest to them to refer to a past post for more info and I might even list the link to that post, but I will usually answer the main part of their question prior to suggesting that they go do a search or refer to another thread. I don't know, maybe it's just me but I just think it's kind of rude to simply answer someones question only with a link to another post. At least answer with some dialogue and info and then if you want to give them the link that's great. If I were to make a post asking a question and someone replied simply by giving me a link and telling me to go read the answer there I would kind of feel like the person replying really didn't want to be bothered with my question. Like I said, it's just how I feel.
Jeff