[timwiseman]

I don't think "sparking conversation" in and of itself is a good thing. Most conversation is mundane, boring, and a waste of time.

Agreed, but some is productive, and while I disagree with much of what he says, he often sparks productive conversation.

In most forums I frequent, the majority of questions are from people asking how to get some FOSS project to work, not how to code some particular algorithm or do something hard. True, but that is where most people need help. People working on the hard problems probably both know how to generate the answers themselves and know that they will find little help on those on the forums.