I honestly don't think I'm increasingly unfriendly.
However it feels some elements of the community are far too keen to start downvoting posts or shut your dialogue down by just posting some link to another question, which actually doesn't really answer your question.
Voting (up and down) is at the core of the mechanism used by the community to value the content. I'm very much aware of its power and it is the key feature that makes that I value the sites in the SE network higher then other sites. You can't have a great site without being strict about the content. Visit Yahoo! Answers to see what happens if you don't do that.
Posting a link to another question is not a way to shutdown dialogue. I often post links to similar questions to verify if I'm on the right track. With a bit of luck my search fu turns out a better result you have had so far. That is not be a shamed of. Just use it to see if you can focus your question with that new information. It is fine to respond with a comment that you're going to edit your post with the new information.
Furthermore the hypocrisy is even greater, because when one searches Stack Overflow, there are many, many questions which are similar to other questions and/or just asking someone to tell them how to do stuff. Admittedly these posts are often a couple of years old, but it sets a tone which then makes it surprising for a newbie when they get aggro for posting questions in a similar fashion.
Yes, the collection of question and answers is growing, many thousands per day. Most of them are repeats of former questions. Unfortunately on SO there are not enough users that can handle all these new posts so it might look indeed that asking without researching is okay. It is not but I have to find ways to deal with all these posts someday. I have a backlog (call it a review queue) to handle. And sometimes I'm called to meta for my actions. I'm sorry.
Consequently a little more patience from some elements of the community would go a long way in helping newbies feel welcome to post.
I've been patient for 6 to 8 weeks to see some new feature being implemented that should help new users in asking their first questions. But let me put this expectation right: I'm not unwelcome to anyone but don't get me started on all these users (not you, you're nice) that have the expectation they are entitled to a tailored answer. I'm not catering for that. I'm catering for those that visit a question and my answer long after we have moved on. The content on an SE site is for the generation to come.
Don't be a newbie. Be someone that cares about posting quality content, be it questions or answers. That is all that matters. Who or what you are is irrelevant for the quality of a post. Let's assume good faith, also from the voters.
