Originally Posted by
cb400bill
Sorry to hear of your experience. Most of Bike Forums is filled with friendly and helpful people. Please don't let a few bad apples drive you away.
It took me all of 2 seconds to find a compelling counter-example in the Touring sub-forum:
Help finding a bike after surgery
I found the C&V forum extremely welcoming, even though I had no experience in that area (other than owning a 1987 Bianchi since -- 1987). My "welcome" to the touring forum was similar to this person's.