As a fairly newbie, I have to make mention that I have seen the remark many times about something already being discussed. Now please don't bite my head off, and this may just be me being sensetive, but the way I have seen it put, it does tend to come off as shutting the person down and telling them to do a search first.
I have done searches for things before posting about them and I have to tell you, unless you know exactly what the wording is for a particular post you will spend half the day going through post to find what you are looking for.
Maybe I don't know how to do the search right or something but you could spend a lot of time searching for something when it is much easier to just ask again. Espcially when you are new. They have no idea what has or has not been talked about.

On the other side of it, I do like being directed to some of the other post when I don't know how to search or what to search for. I think it just needs to be maybe worded differently so the newbie's don't think "jeez, I guess I am pesky newbie who doesn't know anything".

Mind you not everyone would feel this way, but you have to remember you have all different personality types out there and being sensetive to others isn't a bad thing just in general.