I don't agree. A think that a reply like "read this documentation" or "I have an article on that" might be helpful to the community but I often downvote them, especially if a better answer occurs in the thread.

I disagree. I think a reply with a reference link can be just as useful as an answer that reveals and discusses the answer. I downvote unhelpful, flippant answers, and incomplete answers that were obviously dashed off in order to make it to be first post. I don't downvote a reply that's just a link .. sometimes, in order to solve a problem, a link to the right page is all that's necessary.