I was taught many years ago that every reply should be as clear and complete as possible. The reason is that for every active member, there are potentially many times greater the number of visitors who found their way via a search engine — the non-users. I Admin a site where I have been active for 7 years and have seen, out of the blue, where a person will register and post a thank you for all the help they have received from the site over the years. I wouldn’t categorize this type of visitor as a lurker or non-user. Then again, I am less interested in categorizing than knowing that someone else found the help they were seeking.

A strong team will lead by example. When “staff” provides clear, concise, friendly help, others will emulate them, including the “elite”.

If non-users can easily navigate your site and find the solution they are seeking, then they are almost as important as the rest of your community. They are likely to bookmark your site for return visits, quote the response with a link at another site, refer friends, etc. They will help your community grow.

One thing that I believe sets the wrong “tone” is a reply stating the poster’s question has been asked and answered before and to use search. IMO, that nothing is the worst type of hand-slap a new member can receive. A successful site will understand that the wrong search criteria could have been used, the results were overwhelming or the poster still did not understand the answer. There are many variables. Not only would it would most likely be faster for that experienced person to provide links or quotes of a possible solution than to scold the poster for not searching first but those results would end up indexed in the search engines for the next person who comes along.

People come and go. It is not often sites maintain a strong regular following (staff as well as members) over a long period of time. For that reason, I see maintaining consistency, freshness and a friendly atmosphere more important than categorizing.