I agree people will sign up if they have an interest, but if they want an answer, being able to Google it is essential. Surely you understand this.
Forums are among the most indexed pages on the planet, and how most IT folks find their answers. This is a fundamental concept of web 2.0.
Ha, I hope your moderators/admins will keep that in mind and remain patient when new users ask something that has been answered a dozen times over.
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I apologize, this was only a suggestion; apparently folks here are well aware of the implications of this forum configuration and have purposely set it up in such a way.