If I'm feeling snarky, I would say read the guidelines and figure out the correct place to post before hijacking a thread.
If I'm feeling nicer, I'd say choose a book to read. There have probably been half a dozen new writers asking for advice in the last week, and we pretty much told all of them to read the same three books. I challenge you to go find out which ones. If you can't do that, you'll never be able to find things like guidelines, email addresses, and sources to be successful at this game.
I know that tone on the internet is hard to determine, and I am want to be clear that I am not being intentionally rude, but we do field this question... a lot. There is a lot of good advice here if you stop to read it instead of asking for the magic formula for success.
I understand that you are not meaning to be rude. I didn't feel that I was hi-jacking the thread. I thought that the purpose for this thread was to create a conversational tone around what we are each accomplishing at the moment. What I am accomplishing at the moment is learning. I have (and will continue) to use the wide range of resources posted on the many threads on this web-site and others to better my knowledge of what I need to accomplish. My question was more rhetorical and conversational in tone (and as you've suggested, an inability to distinguish tone and at times, context, on the internet can make it incredibly easy to fall into that trap). So instead of asking for a blue print or magical formula for success, what I was looking for was more along the lines of general banter, tongue-in-cheek comments, and funny one liners. In other words, I was trying to have some fun.
I'm learning as much from studying what each poster is accomplishing and posting in their posts, and studying the many writer web-sites that are available to review around here.
I do not mean to come off rude as you did not, but, speaking frankly as we are, there is no reason to be so defensive as to my intentions here, or as if this is some sort of precious baby that will be horribly corrupted by my playful inquiry. As it goes, I don't need to be told what you told me, and I didn't realize there was such a feeling of exclusivity in this thread, that perhaps I am overstepping some bounds. But if I am, or if I am not, it is really an unnecessary presumption to say simply because I asked, "Hey gang, any tips for someone looking to get their feet in the mix?" that I required my hand held and have not been doing my homework to begin with. On the contrary.
So that presumption, it made a pre out of u and mpt.
Nevertheless, you said you weren't being rude, and I take your word for it. No hard feelings. Snarky reply forgiven. On the contrary, though, the approaching of reply with the hint of annoyance and contempt is a little below the line of welcoming. In other words, regardless of tone or intent: not very friendly. I won't hold it against you, but in the spirit of mutually not-rude advice, I would suggest that in the future, regardless of the frequency with which you field such questions, you approach people having genuine interest with a greater degree of empathy and/or benevolence, for I am sure there have been or will be situations in your life in which you are new to something or somewhere and privy to mistakes. I don't think you'd care for the snarky response in that instance, even if they didn't mean it.
Thanks. I'll check myself out of the thread, and refer to the posts I have already referred to, to make sure I haven't missed snippets of the wealth of wisdom that exists there, and no where else.