why is "who is the lead singer of radiohead?" not a question suited for fluther?

Because you can trivially find the answer in WIkipedia or with a Google search.

Ditto

“who is the lead singer of radiohead” isn’t the best, these would be:
“Where can I find interesting articles about the history of Radiohead?”
“I’m trying to find the lead singer of Radiohead, but I’m not sure where to look…”
“Does OK Computer deserve to be called the best album of the 90’s?”

See http://www.fluther.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/10/how-can-we-make-fluther-better-as-we-grow/
for some context.

Let’s make a website open to users and then criticize them for actually using the service. I think everyone can agree there may very well be easier and even better places to go, but do you really want to send potential users somewhere else?

Yes, Fluther should send potential users to Google and Wikipedia for stuff that they can easily find on Google and Wikipedia.

Why? Not just because it’s annoying to answer their questions. They’ll find their answers more quickly if they use Google directly. So that makes their lives easier, and if/when they decide they have some questions that can’t be answered on Google, they’re more than welcome to come here.

Andrew was polite and helpful, and even answered the original question. Seems like a good model for encouraging people to 1. use Fluther and 2. make Fluther good.

@shawndaddy: yes, you do want to send potential users who want answers to factual questions somewhere else.

Fluther’s greatest asset is its pool of people willing to answer questions and discuss the results. As has been established in multiple threads here, the people who contribute the most to discussions get rather annoyed at simple factual questions.

Allow factual questions here, and watch the valuable Fluther userbase erode in favor of people who are too lazy to go to Google.