"Watching most of these threads decay..."

the commonest causes of "decay" are probably:

1. A lazy questioner has not even bothered to do a 'Search', or review the FAQs/Tutorials/Manuals/Datasheets, or even think about the problem for themselves, but just wants to be handed a free, ready-made solution on a plate - naturally this just degenerates to "RTFM" and "do your own homework" responses

2. The question is so vague as to be impossible to answer; the original poster does not reply in a timely manner (if at all) to requests for clarification and so the thread degenerates into speculation and idle banter