It took me a long time and lots of 'dipping my toes in to test the water,' but eventually I became a frequent poster. I do contribute to threads, but for whatever reason, only infrequently begin one of my own. It takes a special kind of courage to start a thread because it's one thing to contribute something to a thread like "has anybody dived with XYZ Charters" and quite another to post a question about training or technique. I remember once, years ago, asking how to use a double ender to clip a finger spool so that it wouldn't unwind. The first response to that question was "why do you want to know?" I found this terribly intimidating because it seemed to indicate that only the "chosen" could have access to particular kinds of information. Fortunately somebody posted an image for me, and that response taught me that not everybody believes that "knowledge is power" and tries to wield this power through forum responses.