Disheartened Newbie; read-only status?

[KathyK]

Judy Serenity:

Now, I have a question for you, and for everyone else here. Several
people have suggested that new members be placed on "read only" status
for a certain amount of time.  Think back to when you first joined
HPfGU.  Would you have been upset if we had had this policy?  Would
you have left, or would you have stayed and waited to be able to
post? 

KathyK:

I just checked to see when I made my first post as compared to when I 
joined.  I joined on June 5.  I made my first response on June 13.  I 
then made two on June 19, with a bunch more after the OOP release.  
Those first weren't of much substance.  If I hadn't been so geared up 
for OOP, I think I would have lurked much longer than a week before 
posting.  I usually like to get the hang of things before plunging in 
headfirst.  

While I had a general grasp of the rules I think hanging around and 
watching a while longer would have been beneficial.  I spent some 
time reading some of the Fantastic Posts and learning what ESE!Lupin 
was all about, but if I didn't have anything to do but read, I would 
have spent more time with these areas rather than eagerly looking for 
a thread I could add something to.  

And in reading the current messages I tried to absorb how people 
wrote and responded to posts.  Sometimes it sunk in with my own 
responses and sometimes it didn't.  I've been looking through some of 
my previous messages to see if I've been breaking the rules (I think 
I'm getting paranoid <g>).  While I make an effort to snip and clean 
up my posts, I can see that I still need to be more ruthless and more 
careful in that area.  

Reading more neat and tidy messages, without my own excitement 
pushing me to throw my thoughts out there, I think I might have 
learned this lesson more quickly and I might have been more 
consistent with my posting format. 

I am a patient, easygoing person so I wouldn't have minded waiting a 
couple weeks to begin posting.   Besides, couldn't new members, in 
the interim, check out what's happening on the OT and Movie lists, 
something I did not do for at least a month?  Even then it was only a 
cursory look.   

KathyK (coming out firmly in favor of read-only status for new 
members) 

...and because I just can't shut up tonight...

On a separate note, I want to thank everyone who responded so kindly 
to my concerns.  I appreciate the time you took to listen, help me 
out, and explain a few things.  I also want to apologize to everyone 
for panicking and overreacting a bit.

Have a great ni--er, morning!  How do I always manage to stay up 
three hours later than I intended to?