Have you ever felt like this?

As a newbie, you spend all your time trying to learn, searching out like minded people and seeking answers. You inevitably approach the forums in the hope that you can glean some more information and find some help just by reading what's there.

You spend hours reading the posts but nothing seems to answer the question that you have been struggling with for days. It might be something so simple, but as a newbie it can seem impossible to figure out for yourself. So you take the plunge and post a question. You sit and wait and stare at the screen, refreshing it every minute waiting for a response.

Nothing happens. Your heart sinks and you think that everybody is ignoring you. "Maybe it's because I'm a newbie", you think." Did I write it properly?" You check your post again to see if it reads ok. Then you check it for spelling mistakes even though it has been spellchecked before posting. You come to the conclusion that most users are in the US and you're in the UK on a different time zone. You give up and go to bed.

You awake the next day and head straight for the PC. Someone must have responded by now, you think. Whoo Hoo! You see a few responses and your heart pounds with excitement as you think you may have an answer to the thing that has been burning your brain out for the past few days.

You start to read the first response......Something about "go and find out for yourself". You feel puzzled. You read the next reply, admonishing you for even daring to ask such a stupid question. Your heart sinks. You read on in the hope that there is some soul out there who has been there before - even though they all have - and might sympathize with you and actually take the time out to answer your seemingly irrelevant question.

No. More derisive comments. No-one answers your silly question. Instead, you suffer a barrage of slight-handed insults from people who think they know better. You sit back and wonder in disbelief. "I thought this was a forum for people who are trying their best to achieve something", you think. "Why won't they help me?" You remember the kid in school who got ignored by the teachers because they thought he was a bit slow. You understand how he felt now. You ponder for a while, feeling sorry for yourself.

" If the question was so easy to answer, why haven't you bothered to answer? Why take up so much of your precious time to bother reading it and then replying in such a conceited way? Aren't you too busy making millions with your vast knowledge? And if you're so clever, why are you still in this forum? Oh, I guess it's because you're not as clever as you think you are."

Smug. Ignorant. Unhelpful. Insulting. Now you're seething with anger.

"I'm not stupid - I recognize all these traits in people. I just happen to be having trouble with something I don't understand properly. Thanks for your help in getting me nowhere, even more slowly than I already am. I just hope you're not a school teacher - I certainly wouldn't want you teaching my children - I doubt you even could". You sit there for a while wondering whether to hit the post button, but you come to the conclusion you'd best not start throwing insults over the forum. That's only a minority. The majority are there to help you.

So you struggle on trying to find out how to overcome the problem that's stopped you in your tracks. It takes hours, sometimes days. But you finally get there. All by yourself.

" Now who's smug?" You smile in self-satisfaction. It might be the simplest of things but you worked out how to do it all by yourself through trial and error, through endless hours of frustration, but you never gave up on yourself. It's something you'll never forget, and looking back on it - your glad - it was all worth it eventually.

"Next time I'm in a forum, and I can help someone struggling with something like I did, I'm going to help them." you decide.

AND THAT'S WHY I LOVE THIS FORUM