Answering the General Forum

I think often newcomers are over-optimistic about how many of us read the forums, compared to general visitor numbers, and then when you add to that a general reluctance to make comments outside our area of expertise (although you may have noticed that I, for one, don't look before I leap as often as I should), it's not surprising postings sometimes go unanswered.
Personally I resent the occasional forum questions that seem to be an impatient person's way to shortcut the ID request, which is admittedly pretty crowded these days.
I agree with you it is nice to politely point them in another direction if none of our members can help, but what is a reasonable period to wait for expert response before doing so? Maybe a week? Some posters get impatient if they don't get a response within a couple of days!
I'm certainly happy to do my bit in this regard, even though my main tool is an aptitude with Google. It doesn't seem fair to put more of a burden on the true experts among us. On the other hand, maybe some users would find me presumptous given my own lack of bug credentials. However, I have just followed your example and replied to one of those zero-reply postings. See here.