Dee, the open-heartedness of your post is striking, and IMO a clear indication of the reasons of the success of RFF.
Before RFF I wandered around on P.nut. That did not help my enjoyment of photography. Then, somehow, I ran into a little newsletter called CVUG (through IIRC some other newsletter on FSU cameras). Boy, was I interested in them odd rangefinder thingies! You can't read the CVUG newsletter and NOT get in touch with Mr Gandy, and there was also mentionings of a forum. I checked it out, checked in and never left. I don't know why. 😀