Mr. Akimoto generally doesn't know his domo from his arigato, but...
He is right that you may feel more welcome somewhere else.
As someone else said, the S/N (signal to noise ratio) is quite high here. Someone once called the Internet the "Electronic Frontier" and they aren't far off. It's not civilized unless you're packing something.
Your best stop is probably the local hobby shop to find out where the local clubs are hanging out and to see which one makes you feel most welcome.
If you want on-line assistance, you'll get it here but you also have to put up with types like Mr. Aki who seem to delight in neanderthalic demonstrations of their ability to crush egos like beercans on his forehead (Try that with a Canadian beercan and you'll discover the meaning of the word "pain").
Your best on-line alternates are RCGroups.com and RCUniverse.com -- opinions on RCU differ. I tend to hang out on RCGroups.