......the inside jokes everybody has, the ongoing relationships, the abbreviations about old board members....
We've all been in this situation and not just on this board - first day at school, going to Brownies, joining a new club, evenings out with two friends who've just got it together - whatever/wherever - and we always get through it. As Caradea said, it just takes time. The inside jokes etc are part of what makes a club or a group of friends special - they give it character. If we hang around for long enough we suddenly realise that we're a part of those jokes and we feel we belong.
Also, as someone else said, the titles are irrelevant and actually misleading. I've been around here for something like 18 months - I just don't post very often. According to the titles I'm still a journeyman. But that doesn't mean I'm not party to the jokes, don't know who's here and don't get upset and irate when it all starts going to pot occasionally.
At the beginning I didn't post half the time 'cause I thought my offerings would be blown out of the water. Then I came to realise that all offerings on the subject of language would be considered, discussed (and occasionally rejected) no matter who you were. Nowadays, time constraints permitting I post a bit more!
As with most things, there's rarely a shortcut. The only option is to stick around and learn to live with/love the foibles.
