Do the boards help or hinder success?

[softball]

There is a lot of bad advice on boards. If I had listened to some of the shit that used to be posted on AM, I would not have done as well. Possibly boards work better for traffic guys than small paysite folks. There are not a lot of posters who actually run small paysites who are willing to talk frankly about business when you are new. However, as you settle in for the long haul and have good ideas to exchange, people are more forthcoming. I find that I get more out of private messaging from boards than what is actually out in public. And mostly the resource pages are neglected and kind of useless.