To add to what everyone else has said, I'm sorry that's been your experience. We strive to prevent rudeness, inaccuracy and also we try to help everyone we can. We're all humans trying our best and doing this for free, and I don't think it's fair to expect things to be perfect. That being said, I believe we have a better community than any other.
However, we want to keep it getting better and better, and I need everyone's help. No one can make a great community alone. Please always flag a post you think is being unnecessarily unhelpful or rude. I look at every flag post. I try to look at as many posts as I can to offer help and see what people are saying. People who are being rude or mean get 2 warnings and then they get banned.
If you haven't gotten a response to your question after 12 hours or a day, or just want more opinions, I encourage you to post again to your original thread, especially with more details or pics, as that will bump it back to the top of the list and hopefully get more exposure. People are waaaay more likely to answer a post with lots of details and pictures. Especially if you demonstrate you've made some effort to figure it out on your own. Sometimes a post gets too far off the main page and it gets lost. We've made a new plant problem forum to try to prevent immediate problems from getting lost, but it helps us see you if you get pushed off the first few pages. But there may be times when no one has an answer to your question, because they just don't know, or otherwise aren't able to help.
When it comes to helping new growers, I can see both sides. You have to understand that some people put a seed in some muddy dirt from outside, don't provide pictures, and then complain that people won't help them. Imagine if you were a programmer trying to help new people for free on a forum, and someone came and basically said, "Teach Me Everything." When people have put so much time into learning and making resources, it's frustrating when a new grower refuses to read a simple, beginner level article that will explain everything. Especially when they want you to basically type it out again completely customized to their situation.
People feel insulted if you want to take a lot of their time, but obviously haven't invested any time of your own.
To throw another wrench into the whole aspect of helping new growers, a lot of new growers have gotten inaccurate information from somewhere or another that's sabotaging them and they don't know it. They often defend that knowledge to the death, which is frustrating, but it's almost always because they got it from a friend or someone else they trust. I think it's important for all the more experienced growers to remember they were a beginner once, and some things which seem very simple and obvious now were initially really confusing when you didn't have the right information.
On the flip side, the truth is most posts are going to be by beginners who have no idea what they're doing, and have run into simple and common problems. Most forum users come in with questions, get their questions answered, and never come again because their plants are doing great. That's a success in my book. Not everyone is looking for a community or to become a master grower, and a lot of people want some simple answers and be able to leave. There's nothing wrong with that.
So I just hope that newbies appreciate the time and effort we put in for free, and I also encourage everyone to remember that the majority of posts are going to be by newbies and that's a good thing because it means more people are getting started in this wonderful world of growing!
you're always spreading love no matter what
