Garuda is already up to #24 on distrowatch. I wish to revise my top 10 prediction to early Spring or late Winter. Linux nerds are swarming to Garuda like bugs to a light. I don't blame them!
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Referring to the title...depends if the newbie wants to beg fish constantly, or would rather learn - with assistance - how to catch fish for themselves... for life!!
I've had 'problems', have re-installed a few times, but have asked for nada as most of these issues were self-induced.
I am personally delighted by this forum and have a new home where I will be supported and nurtured only if I am prepared to first respect myself and my abilities (albeit unknown) by reading, learning, using methodical ways and, as a last resort, ask.
Thanks one and all for the garlic which keeps away the help vamps.
S_F
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OMG., so nice to hear from someone who "gets us" and isn't offended by the idea of self accountability.
Really feels good to find at least some people appreciate the way we moderate the Garuda forum.
Cheers mate. 
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Hah, I was also aware of what happens when the distro gets more popular, but I'm seeing it through new lights these days, as I'm a distro-hopper, I browse forums on many distros. It's enlightening? or shocking? or disturbing? to see the same help vampires on many forums at once. I would normally have thought that they're flailing and going everywhere, but I think the above comments are right, I think they're almost a botnet (well no, I think they're human...but you probably understand) trying to see what sort of reactions they get on different forums.
I know that if I were moderator, I'd be locking, kicking, etc frantically, so I applaud what I think is moderator control (lol).
I've always tended to brief replies, and what I've seen has made me abandon replies many times, and get very terse when I do actually post comments (usually).
I feel bad about it sometimes, but then I think...nope nope, even if I wrote a mini-book, they wouldn't understand. It's either a troll or someone WAY over their head and it's not my job to rescue them..move on now. I literally have no compassion for those that don't even try to help themselves (which is most people these days..they want spoon feeding, don't have time for it).
Truly, the good questions are few and far between.
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If you want my two cents I say have a discord server rather than a telegram for a more live discussion/help environment. And you can assign users who are Linux vets special roles that can be pinged when assistance is required. While the forum format is great for concise and condensed information I have noticed that most people don't think very deeply, some by choice, but also new people who genuinely do want to learn but don't know where to start fall into this category. For them a more open and active environment will be more helpful. The diy nature of Arch usually filters people who are new but when you have a distro that makes arch accessible you cannot have the usual arch diy mindset. Some tolerance I believe is necessary.
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We can always use helpful people here to teach beginners from scratch, but we don't need a channel that disregards privacy.
So they take over the beginners, and we have more time for family, sports and improving the distribution.
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Yeah. I canāt disagree with anything you said. The only way to really learn Linux (or anything) is to tinker with it, fail, read about it, research old posts, tinker with it some more. Every now & then reaching out for help can save some time, but not very often. If thereās a shortcut I havenāt found it. I still think help forums are worthwhile though.
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Discord is being purchased by microsoft so nope!
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Feel free to set up that discord channel and pay all the support staff to answer all the poor helpless noobs questions. Just letās ponder what exactly you have contributed to the distro to date. Obviously nothing financially, because the distro volunteers pay all the distroās expenses out of their own pockets. So far from your profile it seems youāve managed a help request every other day since you joined the forum, and apparently thatās not enough support for you.
The forum is the only approved support channel for Garuda. Telegram is not an official support channel and is only designed for social chat. That is the way things are going to stay for now, because we have very few support volunteers as it is. So unless you want to pay these Linux vets you speak of this is unlikely to happen.
Frankly, I find your comments reek of an attitude of self entitlement coming from a user whoās been with the distro only a short period of time and whoās taking from the distro a whole lot more than theyāre giving back.
Users are free to go to any other support channel they prefer if the Garuda forum does not meet their needs. Garuda has no plans to set up alternate support channels in the near future as our support resources are stretched too thin as it is already. However, feel free to recruit these Linux vets you speak of, and when you have 20-25 of them secured let us know. After you have all of the support staff lined up perhaps we may feel inclined to implement your suggestion.
The distro is free, users are expected to be competent enough to resolve their own issues. We are only here to assist users resolve their own issues. If you are not happy with our level of support you are always free to go elsewhere.
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Well this response is unnecessarily charged. I get that you deal with a lot of unruly people in the forums. I never demanded or anything. I only suggested the use of discord because its easier for live discussions and for clarification of certain things where making a forum post is overkill. For example:- What part of this address is GVT_ID and what part is GVT_DOM 0000:00:02.0? This is from arch wiki on setting up iGPU for your optimus gpu vm.
I do my research and due diligence to the best of my ability (which wasn't much before now but its grown quite a bit since I started using arch based distros). I even tried to "help out"(more like suggest a solution though) in some cases. And I never said the help I got was unsatisfactory, that was entirely your assumption. I greatly appreciated the quick responses I got and the help with the psd problem I had. I will admit sometimes I post without thinking too much but I have deleted those after realizing what I did. I'm learning.
As for telegram, I wasn't aware of the telegram being community run instead of maintainer run because I see new forum posts pop up on it all the time. However I find that discussions can get messy since many people will be using the same channel to discuss. Having multiple help channels present would mitigate that. As for the short hands, I don't see a forum post anywhere that is indicating that the team is looking for volunteers.
If you're gonna lash out like that then of course the community will get a bad name.
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My apologies if my post seemed overly harsh to you.
The fact is I do bring up the fact that any users that would like to help out on the forum would be greatly appreciated on a fairly regular basis.
There is starting to be a few more users helping out on a regular basis, but the bulk of the forum support falls to the mods and Devs.
Expanding support channels is kind of putting the cart before the horse if we don't have the hands on deck to respond on a completely separate platform.
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Consider the call for volunteers post. I would apply to be a volunteer but I am not experienced enough to be a guaranteed help. I try to input what I can where I think I can.
Edit: Because the need for more hands so far I have only seen been expressed inline under a broader topic. If you need more hands I think an explicit post for help would be more helpful.
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I have been using Garuda for nearly 8 weeks and am a Linux noob, myself.
I am so passionate about Garuda, I try to help as much as I can, to ease the lot of the team. Not successfully every time and I often get it embarrassingly wrong, but I try.
I have never been pulled up on this, only ever encouraged to learn/help more.
As a noob, I have only ever felt welcome here and never hesitate to say so!
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Sign me up then. I always see these things from a "official" (idk if thats the right word) pov where you must have some sort of expertise in it. Only been using garuda maybe 3 weeks now. Though I have spent a good part of last year distro hopping and messing with arch based distros.
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Nike says it best - just do it! 
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Visibility. I doubt that many people on the forums actually bother reading every topic thats posted everywhere. Asking isn't a bad thing you know.
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You can check here
https://forum.garudalinux.org/u?order=posts_read&period=all
People who enjoy sharing their knowledge with others do not need to be asked to do so.
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If you mean these forums, Iāll call your bet on that. And thereās a huge difference between newbie friendly and user friendly. (Didnāt I mention that already?) 
Oopsā¦SGS has the stats already. Reading discussions can be embarrassing, I supposeā¦
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