Hey Julie,

You are certainly not the first person to earnestly seek information,
just to be ridiculed (intentionally or not) by other contributors, or
to have one's questions questioned in a way that seems disdainful.
Certainly a shame you were given reason to make the response you did.

While there are likely to be a complex range of reasons why people do
such things in a forum designed for information sharing, I imagine one
is not viewing these exchanges as an opportunity to be helpful to
others (and failing to empathetically understand where those others
are coming from). Instead, it seems it is sometimes taken as an
opportunity to display one's supposed
knowledge/mastery/discernment/taste, and/or to mess with people (out
of fun or disdain).

I am not sure what Samartha's up to, but FYI, his frequent
contributions IMO offer a mix of wonderfully helpful and insightful
suggestions, and self-righteous judgments.

As for the idea of being fed up with newbie questions, perhaps
starting a new ng would be appropriate, perhaps:

rec.food.sourdough.advanced
rec.food.sourdough.wiseonesonly
rec.food.sourdough.holierthanthou

or for the generally curmudgeonly:

rec.food.sourdough.n'erdowell