I agree, in person is optimal, but for a lot of people, especially those trying to figure out if getting into poultry breeding long term or more seriously, this place is a great place to get the 'bug' for it. Conversely, it can also be a good place for people to maybe decide its not the breed for them, or can really push them to decide that Marans are the breed for them. I'm sure if I hadn't had all the years of poultry breeding and interaction with those in the poultry world, it would be a really hard world to break into as there is still a large portion of it that is word of mouth. One of the clubs I'm part of, and built their website for this last year is finally online after existing for 128 years. A huge passion of mine is doing what I can to develop poultry breeders that will carry on into future generations, so I can get a bit excited about it.One of the things I've found going to shows and getting to know the folks breeding Marans is that they're a great bunch of people - truly! I have on many occasions overheard conversations where two people were looking at one person's bird, and evaluating it. The owner of the bird might have had trouble with something in their program, as evidenced in the bird they're looking at, and the other person was able to share their strategy to "fix" the issue, and often even offer some stock that may help the other person.
Forums are fantastic, to be sure, but you just can't the level of support I mention above online.