Speaking as a newbie... there are sites out there that love to chew up and spit out newbies, so we tend to lurk a while before we post or join. And as a site administrator for a jeep site, there are a TON of bots out there getting info for google and other search engines, along with the spambots that try to get in and leave their junk in our sites.. A look at recent error logs may give a better idea of just what is happening.