Just got someone in my family an imac g5 and have alot of questions. Can anyone recommend a well-populated message board for mac users–one that tolerates newbs? Thanks.
The only computer message board I frequent these days are the forums at Ars Technica. Specifically, their Macintosh Achaia forum.
The forum on the whole is a bit tech-oriented (understandable, given the nature of the site), but the Mac Ach handles newbies and beginner-type questions without problems, either. There’s even a handy FAQ covering most of the common points for new Mac folks, which is worth checking out.
Just avoid the threads about highly technical issues and you’ll be fine. 
Thanks rjung; I’ll check it out.
One of the best sites for new or old mac users is [MacSurfer’s Headline News – it’s sort of a meta news site with a digest of daily Mac related news and links to all the Mac News and Support sites.
Another one I really like is [url=“http://www.macosxhints.com/”]Mac OSX Hints](http://www.macsurfer.com/). It’s a slashcode blog-type site with user-submitted usage tips, shortcuts, etc.
Finally, Version Tracker for Mac OSX is a daily synopsis of all the demos, shareware, freeware, and free commercial updates released for the Mac.
Best of all, both of those sites, and others, are summarized on MacSurfer’s every day… MacSurfer should be on your Safari Bookmark Bar.
Bah… post without preview just once… :smack:
If you’re looking for a message board community, in addition to Ars you might try the MacNN Forums. It has its share of juveniles and fools, but also a lot of very generous and knowledgable folks. (Having been one myself, I should know. ;))
The Forums at MacMentor are specifically geared to new Mac users – “Switchers” – but are well populated with veteran Macophiles who are able to answer just about any question you might come up with. It’s a really friendly, chatty place, so if you’re looking for nice, homey, kind folks, it’s your thing, but if you’re looking for something a bit more dry, straightforward and technical, go elsewhere.
I’ve always found Apple’s own discussion forums to be quite useful in solving problems. I don’t frequent them nearly enough to comment on the nature of their users, but it seems that almost every problem I’ve had has been shared by someone else (and a solution found for) there.
I use the Apple site fairly often, I’ve always gotten polite understandable answers.
I had an old G-3 B/W so I was there often.
Since I got my G-5 I haven’t needed them.