but I still want to say that even though I'm learning the hard way, it has given me a lot more confidence that I can succeed on my own with perseverance and hard work.
Your friend is very stingy with knowledge, what's so difficult about teaching you about the performance of this forum, I think if you have a strong desire it only takes a few hours, you are already proficient and understand how to post and understand the performance of this forum.
But don't worry, there are still lots of good people here who want to share knowledge about anything, including understanding forum performance, Bitcoin and so on, don't be shy to ask questions and learn a lot about anything as a beginner.
My suggestion, visit these boards:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=24.0, you will find various rules that can be done and vice versa, as well as rankings and don't forget to review these:
SMF User Help: Posting, I'm sure it will be useful for you, as well as other things such as:
Topic: How to add photos to a post, good luck here.