Just thought I'd add my 2 cents (or what currency you have locally).
Similar to Kevin's opinion that many users may have a "fear of RTFM response", I honestly don't want to waste anyone's time. If it's a question I think is probably answered on the net somewhere I will gladly spend the effort to find it. I basically use the forums as a last resort, because I understand that reading the messages and replying (even to say rtfm) takes time and I do not want to waste anyone's time. Besides, in general if I take the time to do a thorough search I generally learn even more than I set out for (as Johnny9ball pointed out).
From my "other life" as a programmer, I know I get rather annoyed quickly reading newsgroup postings that are constantly the same basic questions, where if the user had spent half the time searching google as they did posting they would have the answer already. It is for this reason I am rather slow to start posting to a new group.
And I agree, the PDF help file is awesome, much better than the print version. Although I tend not to use print reference material very often.
As for contributing to the site, I plan to start contributing as soon as I have something worth viewing
Working on a rather ambitious (especially considering it is my first) scene right now that if I pull it off will definetly be uploaded for review.
I will probably start asking for some pointers about specific issues as I encounter them, right now I spend most of my time absorbing as much as I can from the tutorials.
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