REEFJUNKIE

I am new to this forum. TBH this is the only forum I have actually taken the time to join because I love reef keeping plus I paid to join it because of the perks that go along with the premium membership. I have kept saltwater tanks for going on 20 years, and to be honest I would still consider myself a newbie in the hobby lol. I only had experience from actually failing and learning from my mistakes, I never had the luxury of asking a community. But to this current thread I can understand how some "older" more experienced reefers can get frustrated or "short" with newbies or people with less experience, with their answers or responses coming off as short or rude. I have been stalking/lurking/reading this forum for almost 6 months as a guest prior to joining. So, I have seen a ton of questions and comments from some self proclaimed "newbies" to the hobby that have been asked/answered 100 times. I think a lot of people just throw a question out there because they don't want to do any research on their own and want someone to tell them directly. For myself I always use the search box first to see if other people have run into the same problem or issue, plus the answer might be right there, if it's not then I may PM the poster to see if they resolved their specific problem. I am not sure what the answer is because, if you tell someone "use the search box" then that comes off as rude or not helpful. Maybe it is just me but I understand that not everyone will or can respond to every post on this forum, we all have families, work, etc. I think as a new person in the hobby, the best research is the research you do yourself, different people learn different ways. I am constantly "googling" and researching various topics and issues, I have added ARC to that research and it has been great. Each system or reef is it's own ecosystem and can vary wildly from Round Rock to Buda. There are 1000s of ways to keep a reef or saltwater aquarium, just because one person does it one way doesn't mean that someone else can do it the exact same way and fail. From what I have seen and read, most of the people on here are extremely helpful and patient. I have not had the pleasure to meet anyone in person because I have not been able to make the meetings. I would like to change that in the near future, hopefully. Thank you for providing a local community of people that all love the same hobby.