I think we should never direct people to the sidebar in an unkind manner (civility is literally our first rule). However, when similar questions crop up fairly often in this subreddit -- which happens especially as finals time looms, at least in the United States -- I think a polite "not to discourage further discussion but you can find more resources here" is quite alright. For example:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2ksvdd/just_how_devastating_was_the_destruction_of_the/clog6jt?context=3

Hmm. Well I certainly hope my responses - since I'm always digging up links to previous posts or the FAQ - aren't being taken as rude. [edit: here's one from a few minutes ago: link] The intention is to connect the OP with some information to get them started. This isn't to imply that whatever is linked contains some kind of definitive answer: as you suggest, that information may be partial or out-dated, and there are new readers in the sub who may be able to contribute new / deeper / contradictory information. The old posts/FAQ are a starting point.

A few reasons for linking:

• It saves experts from having to respond to the same questions all the time, reducing fatigue/burnout. Of course if they having something more they want to add for the new post, they are welcome to, and often do.

• It provides the OP with something, rather than potentially nothing. Sometimes none of the experts notice a question, or perhaps are burned out: if the question has been answered before in this sub, let's get that to the OP

• Links to other posts typically provide a wider range of responses than the post would get otherwise, because previous posts may have been asking about slightly different aspects of an issue, or different experts answered, or discussions went in different directions. Again, there's absolutely no discouragement for new people to add more / new / more detailed information to the new post.

• It sets the bar for answer quality in the thread. If a post goes unanswered for a while, non-experts tend to jump in, trying to help the OP by linking to Wikipedia, or mentioning something from a book/video/etc, or even outright speculating. So, providing links calms that impulse, and sets a baseline for any additional responses.

Lastly, as for mentioning the sidebar itself, I mention it to advertise it's existence to all new readers. But this is not giving the OP the brush-off: I always link to the specific section(s) of interest to save them having to navigate it themselves. Also, some mobile apps don't show the sidebar, so providing direct links makes it accessible to everyone.

If you hang around this sub long enough you will understand why people direct others to sidebar. Some questions are asked too frequently. Sometimes just hours apart. Literally.

That said, I don't think the rudeness is necessary. Just people frequenting this sub long enough sometimes don't have enough patience.

There is at least one mod here I believe that answers questions appropriately. He says that the question is already answered, but encourages others to post newer information. I forget which mod, but it seems very nice.

I for one would welcome rewriting posts again and again rather than adopt the old culture of "search or gtfo". But of course, we can direct people to existing material AND write new at the same time.

There are some great answers in the FAQ. There are thousands more great answers that can be found with a little searching.

As far as I know posts aren't deleted just because somebody posts "Hey great question, check out the FAQ for some good answers" or "here's a great link to some answers from a previous similar questions." I've posted something similar only to have a great answer be written in the thread.

I'd much rather get a "Check out the FAQ" than be one of the posts that go completely unanswered.

I had a question removed last week - wrongly, in my opinion, because the mod didn't read it properly - without any attempt to get me to improve or clarify my question. When I responded to his "your post has been removed" comment, he didn't bother to respond to my reply disputing his belief.

I've had some good experiences here and I feel that I'm fairly familiar with the rules, but that last experience does make me feel that there are probably some mods here who are more interested in modding than actually helping people who don't have a professional in history.

Unless it's outright inappropriate, shouldn't those of us submitting questions at least be given the opportunity to improve/clarify questions for relevance or allowed to explain why we think our questions are relevant? Just sweeping aside a post that someone has spent time thinking about and going to the trouble of posting is fairly rude.

Have you guys thought about doing a history IAmA like they do for r/science where 3-4 people (experts) answer questions, especially around finals time? I'm sure you do but I'm rather new so I've probably just not witnessed it yet.

Can people just read the sidebar?

Sometimes a rude answer is the only way to send the message that looking at the popular questions section should be done BEFORE posting a new thread. I understand that finding a polite way to reach the result would be better, but patience is a limited virtue and the amount of times the same questions get asked is well beyond those limits. I use RES' functionality to filter out threads with certain words and it's the only way to keep my frontpage from being cluttered from the same threads reposted every week.