“Help” Forums

The fundamental problem with a lot of help forums is the shills who are trying to sell you something.

Especially, the ones who are not identifying themselves as such. Even more especially: the ones who are targeting what they view as hobbyist forums.

The bigger players are relatively easy to spot. But the small operators are often running little shops or businesses of their own and frequently work together.

Regardless, they are pushy little bastards who are very quick to manufacture personality friction (pick a fight) in order to appeal to some sort of community consensus against you. That would most likely be: The moment that you refuse to be easily led (like one of the helpless idiots that they are typically portraying all customers as being).

Either way, you will usually not get any real help from these tinkerers. They essentially hijack all such forums. But, some of them really turn it into their own turf.