From Shog9's post on If you can Google it - don't ask it here:
If followed strictly, such a policy would effectively kill the site: anything you can't google won't be found by folks who could benefit from answers.
Should we consider rewording the "If you can Google it, don't ask it here" part of the FAQ and utilize more of the "General Reference" concept used on English Language and Usage SE?:
Here are two posts from English Language and Usage SE's Meta:
From EL&U Meta - Discourage General Reference Questions More Prominently in the FAQ:
“General reference” — questions that are too basic. If a single query in a well-known freely-available reference completely answers your question (for instance, searching for your question or a key word from it in Google, Wikipedia, or Dictionary.com), then you don’t need to ask it here. If you want more details than such sources give, then say so — make clear, in your question, what you want to know. Some guidelines.
General Reference close post notice, from EL&U Meta - Google is not a General Reference:
EL&U adds an additional close reason to handle questions that are "too basic":
general reference:
This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information.
What do you think? Here is a link to the current revision of the FAQ.
Note that I'm not suggesting lowering quality standards, just rewording the FAQ to address the issue of how welcoming we appear to new users.