[Maritime Q-Scout]

just some advice from my viewpoint:

I'm not from Calgary I've spend a total of less than a week in the city my entire life. So I definately don't have the came background as the majority of posters here.

I'm from the East Coast, again politically a completely different background

I'm surrounded by Habs and Leafs fans, I've been surrounded by Habs fans my entire life, been surrounded by Leafs fans techincally all my life, but I didn't know there were so many of them until about '93. There are no Flames fans here, I'm the only one.

When I first came to this board it was big, lots of posters, but it didn't take me long (maybe a day or two of lurking) to see who the top posters were, who's advice and opinions to respect (even if I disagree with) and which threads to not read, which ones interest me.

In the begining I litterally read every thread (not saying evey post but every thread). The only new posts I made were on a Flames prospect that was playing in my hometown. I'd try and answer questions on his progress as well as junior hockey in general with reagards to the QMJHL. As you can probably tell it's the inspiration of my handle.

I have rarely made a douplicate thread, infact I try my hardest to avoid them, often times looking back over 3 pages to ensure that what I want to talk about or find information on hasn't been already discussed.

I must admit I hate the "search" feature. I think it's great, I just don't like using it on forums and don't know why. Hence me sifting through pages despite the fact it's longer.

If it's old news, like you didn't realize a player was traded away, or came here - don't make a thread about it, it's already been discussed at length. If you want to know who our favourite players are, your best bet is to read, get a feel for the posters and see who they refer to often, as well as on the side where they're from might be an indication (ie: my favourite Flame of all time is Al MacInnis, any suprise seeing as how I'm from Sydney NS a mere 40mins - an hour from Al's hometown?). Most people don't really like those threads on the main forum as they don't really bring any contribution to the discussion overall.

As said before, people here don't hate you because you're new, they hate you because you're acting like a noob. The best way to go about these boards is to read a bit, take your time, and reply where you think is appropriate, after a while start making threads. I've had some threads that have had like 2 replies in them, man you feel like dirt as well it's like you're not good enough. I've had others go on for pages, again a great feeling as people are acknowleging your contribution, often in a positive way.

If people disagree with you, it doesn't mean they don't like you it means... they disagree with you. For example, short of showing me a video that you somehow have but no one else on earth has managed to find that CLEARLY shows the puck cross the line, you'll never convince me that the puck crossed the line in Game 6 of the SCF. NOTHING. I was in the building (flew out from the East Coast for the game) saw it happen, and actually think if it was in they'd call it back due to how Gelinas was stopping he made a distinct kicking motion (not intentionally mind you) thus no goal (mind you those skate rules have a tendancy to be overlooked in the SCF *cough*Hull*cough*

Don't take people not liking you personally, pick your battles as remember you're not only choose the hill you want to fight on, you're choosing the hill you're willing to die on.