[hhjjkkll]

They may have had bad experiences with asking questions before, it's not that unnormal for certain communities to have a culture around shaming newbies for asking questions. They feel like they have to ask to test the waters before jumping into it. I don't blame them.

[pointytrees]

I'm hesitant to agree with you because it happens so frequently. I'll admit that I've had my share of receiving newbie bashing.

More often than not, I feel like talking with those folks and explaining to them that they should just ask and not ask if they can ask it seems like they just don't recognize what they're doing. Thus, it's usually good to tell them they don't need to ask and to just ask now and in the future.