LOL Gen, I still have the poodle image in my bloody head...bahahah

You are right, there are lurkers etc but why they dont jump in I dont know.

As a noob I found this site good for me, as you said Gen the elitism and basic coldness of the other sites is bad for noobs and people in general.

I get disheartened quite a bit with my noob skills, especially as I have good background on Survey modeeling, I thought the transition would be easy, its not. That said when I have been to the others, I get discouraged and tend to close up and not want to do it. At SM there is none of that, critiques are funny, tongue in cheek, serious and helpful.

Yes the front page and pages there-in need a spruce, definitley. Your #2 is again spot on...why do people think champagne society is any better??? Sometimes I think folks like difficulty???

Lets hope something comes of this eh?

cheers bullet