As spring arrives in the Northern Hemisphere we are starting to see questions from first time users that have, in many respects, been asked and answered before.

The choices are to answer the question by repeating the fundamentals, vote to close the question as a duplicate or....

For first time users we want them to come back so closing the question would not be perceived as very friendly. Yet what I see as a virtue of Stack Overflow: having one really good answer to a question can be overwhelmed by having numerous answers to the same question.

Unlike our technically minded forums the pace of horticulture is much slower. The key to a good lawn today is the same as last year or ten years ago.

What is the best solution to providing a good answer without repeating yourself and respecting a new users question?

As spring arrives in the Northern Hemisphere we are starting to see questions from first time users that have, in many respects, been asked and answered before.

The choices are to answer the question by repeating the fundamentals, vote to close the question as a duplicate or....

For first time users we want them to come back so closing the question would not be perceived as very friendly. Yet what I see as a virtue of Stack Overflow: having one really good answer to a question can be overwhelmed by having numerous answers to the same question.

Unlike our technically minded forums the pace of horticulture is much slower. The key to a good lawn today is the same as last year or ten years ago.

What is the best solution to providing a good answer without repeating yourself and respecting a new users question?