Well if they feel it is unfair they could always PM me or if they don't trust my opinion, another CL. I try to personally reply to every topic but I usually just multi- mod the ones that are easily answered by reading the rules.
Sure I can see your logic, but from a point of view of someone who hasn't had one locked, all I see is a bunch of topics that are multimodded. It seems to me like perhaps 1/10 has a closing message with it that is personalized.
I understand that members should be expected to read the rules, and shouldn't be spoon fed the right answers, but in this case I think the most common situation is a newer member to General Discussion coming to make a post that they have thought about and finding out that it breaks the rules. Instead of reading the rules they get frustrated and end up leaving GD to find a different section that is more welcoming I guess.
I think you guys as CLs and mods do a great job, but by personalizing your replies you are taking a total of ONE extra minute per thread to completely change the image from kind of a robotic approach to a warm, welcoming one that invites people to improve upon their thread and try again.
I know if I were knew I would have different opinions when I heard:
-This breaks the rules, read them.
-This topic doesn't offer enough discussion. You are asking a question that is basically yes or no and we are looking for a bit more than that here in GD. Try a topic that doesn't restrict posters so much. Good luck!
The 2nd one took me like 30 seconds to type and in my opinion would definitely cause the poster to try again in comparison to the multimodded version.