While I completely understand and agree with the rationale behind restricting certain forums based on post count, I wanted to explain why I, perhaps among others, don't post very often. I'm typically a lurker, and I've learned a tremendous amount from my time here at FT reading members' posts. I've been a member for over 3 years, and yet I've only posted a handful of times. The main reason I'm reluctant to post is because of the harsh responses I've seen others receive from longtime members. A few members in particular seem to act as the FT police, telling newbies to search or not ask such inane questions. I do search before I post, although it's possible I've missed previous posts relevant to my questions. Many times I'd rather not deal with the hassle of being criticized for not being an expert here, and so I often don't post and thus my questions go unanswered. I would like to be a contributing member of these boards, and help people in the way I've been helped by the information here. I would be more willing to do so if there was an atmosphere of welcoming questions from newbies and encouraging them in kind ways to find information that may already be available in other threads. I say that recognizing that many here already do that. But there are other vocal longtime members who don't, and I believe there are others, like me, who are scared off from posting because of them.

Thanks for providing a great resource in FT. I will continue to lurk and hopefully post when I feel I have something of value to add.

Peggy J.