There will always be folks that ask questions that they could have
easily found in the FAQ or elsewhere. They may do this out of
laziness or ignorance (and here I mean to imply NO negative
connotation).

For folks that are lazy, we should not reinforce their behavior by
directly answering the question. For folks that are ignorant, we
should educate/guide.

Fortunatly there is no need to determine which crowd the question
asker is in as a proper response for both is simply to point the
person to the FAQ or google or wherever appropriate.

For example:

Q: What is a hitchhiker?
A: The answer to that, and many other questions can be found in the
FAQ: http://www.letterboxing.org/faq/faq.html

We must strive as a group to respond this way. Even one well meaning
person who directly answers such simple questions reinforces the
undesired behavior.

Word from my mouth,
Dr Everett Whiney Roth