Well, the FAQ simply can't cover everything and various problems often come and go with software versions. Another problem is the way the search of the FAQ works, it is exact substring only (unless someone changed it recently), making it hard to enter a few keywords together - with a single word you often get a lot of hits, with more than one you often get no hit (unless you are aware of just how the thing you're looking for has been described earlier - which is unlikely for a new member). And then there's the specific lingo thing - you might search using a perfectly reasonable word - but the FAQ or BBS uses another to describe the same thing...

In your case I was far from sure that the problem was multiplying Favorite Visuals entries in the config.ini. But I did know that there was an existing problem with them and combined with you saying that that part of the sync took longer and longer time... I don't think that anyone previously had mentioned that it took a long time to do that part of the sync - probably because people had caught it before the size of the file had become so large that it noticeably slowed down the sync.
Which again is why the FAQ entry Tony pointed you to didn't mention that it could cause your symptoms...

The point is that we have a (very good) FAQ, unfortunately not with the best of search features. We also have a quite good search feature on the BBS. If a new user tries to use them and fails because of the technical limitations or from lack of empeg lingo familiarity, no one is going to rip their head off for posting a question which has a FAQ answer or is easily retrieved from the BBS if you know the lingo.
But a new user would probably get a less terse answer than "FAQ" or "Search the BBS" if he/she in the post showed that he had indeed tried to find the answer on his own. "I tried these search terms, found nothing that looks applicable" would probably yield a reply with more appropriate search terms, a pointer to the proper FAQ entry or to a thread where the issue has been discussed, if not the answer outright.

Not that a "FAQ" answer with a link is an evil thing - for many things the FAQ is the best thing to point to. If the user can't understand/use the FAQ answer he'd be perfectly welcome to state that and he'd get help from that point, in the same way a "I found this FAQ entry (or post), but am not sure if/how it applies" would probably get a longer, more descriptive, reply than a "How do I" post.

I think that if we see no (evidence of) effort expended, we tend to give back the minimum possible while still helpful. Sometimes, if in a good mood, we give the answer anyway, if in a less good mood the reply might be testier but still point to the answer, or a way to find the answer. It is quite rare to get a totally unhelpful answer here.

/Michael