[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]

I would hate to think that this is just another good ole' boys club where if you aren't somebody nobody cares.


[/ QUOTE ]

This isn't entirely the case, but there's some truth to it. It's not that nobody cares; there are a few other concerns that are at play here.

1) If you're new to this forum and haven't been lurking for a while before posting, it's going to be very hard for you to have a good idea about what people will find interesting. You could be posting situations and concerns that have been addressed hundreds of times and that people aren't that interested in. These don't tend to get good responses.

2) Having posted a fair amount of good material, as others have pointed out before, gives you more credibility, and makes it more likely that others will read threads that you write.

It's frustrating when you take the time to post and don't get any responses. My advice is to occasionally - by which I mean not every post, and definitely not more than once per post - bump your thread back to the top of the page if it got buried without any responses. Post a comment along those lines in the thread. Frequently, you will see a couple of responses after this.

Also, as Soss pointed out, you learn a lot by thinking and critiquing the posts of others, so don't overlook that angle as a source of improvement in itself.