Tech_Junkie,
Everyone did start somewhere, as a noob typically. For instance, Dave started here less than a year ago (at least started posting, I have no idea about previous lurking though) and is now one of the pre-eminent posters. The "best" posters and contributors, those that go from noob to pro and start to help out other members most all start the same way. They read TONS, they read everything. Every sticky, many threads, especially the many threads that get linked to most. Not that I'm a pro or anything, but I read every thread on this forum for 3 months before ever even posting.
99% of questions asked on this forum have already been answered, so reading is the first step. It's also the activity that MOST noobs do the least. Most people join this forum, see one video or thread, and go crazy asking questions and wanting to be spoon-fed answers on how to do such and such (most often "omg-zors, how do I make my cheap laser/CD player/toaster oven into a super leet burning death lazor?!?!?" or some variation there of). So, the pros all got to where they are by reading, and then are asked 100 times a week to answer asinine questions that are already answered, and the answers can be found with less than an hour of reading, most often just the sticky topics in each section. I'm sure you can understand the frustration of the pros when 100 new posters ask the same little questions over and over. If it doesn't appear that you did the little requisite reading necessary to understand, then the pros are much less inclined to help you (help those who help themselves, I've heard).
But that still leaves that 1% of questions, and that's why the pros are still here and still post answers. Those people who come and read and learn inevitably come up with questions or don't understand something, and that's the exact reason that the pros answer questions. That good question does come up, and incites discussions, and it's great. But those only come about when someone has put in the leg work to learn what the pros have already offered up for the noobs to learn from, in stickies, tutorials, FAQs, etc. And the pros only want to help you when you are respectful of them and their experience. There are some GREAT people here, with great knowledge and experience in every kind of laser you can imagine. We are lucky enough to have, literally, experts in most every aspect of lasers, and people smart enough to tell you that they don't know but telling you where you can look to find it. When someone is offering up their expertise for free, I'm inclined to be as respectful and thankful as I can be.
This forum HIGHLY values reading and learning, and THEN asking when you don't understand something. The members here also look quite lowly upon those who wish to be spoon-fed, and haven't done any work on their own to try to find their own answers. As much as anything else, the pros (the ones most likely able to help) highly value the respectfulness of new members who are, after all, asking others for free help and charity. Some may seem snippy, but remember that droves of noobs come into this site looking for a cheap fix or free answers to questions that are already in the FAQ, and at times, even noobs with the best of intentions can look like the freeloaders.
Maybe that helps as far as the understanding of why some posters have responded the way they have. Maybe not, but I tried.
