This forum has always been very respectful, yet free, which is a hard balance to keep. These are the issues I see with new posters:

1.They post something like, Where do I eat in Memphis?

They then get a nasty reply to use the search function.

I think the search needs to be larger, with a box for typing in the search words on the main page. People often miss it. We get tired of having the same conversation again, so people get snappy.

2.They ask for a recipe, or opinions on pie, and someone links them to google. Well, I don’t want google’s recipe. I know you guys know good food and I want your grandmother’s recipe. I want to know how you fix a cracked pie crust, not how Martha Stewart does it. There is a wealth of info to share here.

3. They may post something praising some place they love, and are immediately treated as an advertiser. Sometimes these guys don’t know etiquette is to comment on a few other posts before posting a new post. It doesn;t occur to them that there are professional advertising internet posters. Some people have been harsh to people they saw as hawkers who may not have been.

Maybe when they sign up, we need a "welcome to roadfood" email (Is one sent out already?) Explaining to please search before posting a query. To please leave a few other comments before heavily promoting their fave. Then all that other stuff in the rules about respect.

Suspicion of lurkers and annoyance at repeated topics seem to be the biggest problems here.

When I first saw Dude111 I thought he was paid to hawk on sites. But now I see he just likes tests and posting vids and games. It’s all about variety.