> Feeling like a newbie just *has* to be an
internal matter depending on one's own
personality.

I am sure you're right about that. I am the type
of personality that is very reserved and slow to
make friendships, close or otherwise. On-line
I'm slightly more outgoing than in person, but
it still took me at least a month of chatting and
forum posting before I began to feel like a real
member of the community here. No one here
was to blame for this; it's just the way I form
relationships. Everybody is different and that's
as it should be.