Advice to newbies

Hi there. Isn't this a great place? I've been doing online work since 1989, believe it or not, and in all that time, I have seldom found a more useful, friendly support forum than this one. Flynn has created a marvelous set of themes, and while they are works in progress, they blow away the competition. That's why we're all here. We're also here because, even though Atahualpa is terrific, most of us need help making full use of all the features.

Flynn brought in Juggledad to help moderate the forum, and JD has been a real boon to all of us. He knows his stuff, but he also wants all of us to keep helping each other, too. He can't do it all by himself!

The fact is, he could easily become overwhelmed if he answered every question. Personally, I think he should try to concentrate on the more complex problems people come up with, rather than spending time on what I'd call "newbie" questions. Folks, Wordpress is a great platform for web publishing, and it lets non-techy people do great things online. But it does require some study in order to use it properly, and you can't expect Flynn and Juggledad to teach you the ABC's of Wordpress. Go to wordpress.org and start with the Getting Started information. Teach yourself how all this works, at a very basic level, so when you do ask a question in here, it will be about how to use this theme, not about how Wordpress itself works. Understand what's a Wordpress issue and what's a theme (Atahualpa) issue. For instance, and I don't mean to pick on anybody, "How do I add Adsense?" Now, adding ad code will be the same with any theme, basically. So that's a Wordpress.org question, and you can find answers by doing a search there. In fact, do a search here too, before you post a question. Chances are it's been asked and answered, often in great detail, already.

However, "How would I put Adsense code into a new widget area?" is an Atahualpa question, but you could probably find the answer just by doing a search here. And by all means, read the instructions when you're in the theme options! Many times, the answer to a question I had was right there in front of my nose all the time, but I wasn't paying attention.

If I ever get over to Munich, I'm buying Flynn a beer or three. :-) It will be easier for me to do the same for Juggledad, since he's only a couple of states away. We should have an Atahualpa Camp at some point, like the famous WordCamps. What do you think??