> c) To increase their knowledge by asking people who have already done a)
> to get helpful and educational replies.

Right. But most of topic starters here don't want knowledge, they
want ready-to-use solution. For free.

> I think a and c often work in conjunction, and for FB with it's
> scattered and (relatively) difficult-to-find documentation, c) becomes
> more important than a) in many situations.

I don't think that FB documentation is difficult-to-find. All it is
placed on one page: http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=doc.

> So, some extra effort in the documentation area (and who will volonteer
> for that...?) and some extra effort from experts to be helpful rather
> than rude would probably do a lot for FB.

Excellent expression: "do a lot". One question though: "do a lot of
WHAT?"

> Experts who find questions to be stupid would probably do better by just
> ignoring the question rather than replying in a rude way.

It will result in opinion that questions are too smart to be answered.

SY, SD.

PS: This discussion would be better in firebird-general.