Welcome Jon,
You joined one of the best communities out there. Snootyness (except from a few) is quite rare here, however, to avoid making people snooty, here are a few tricks.
As mentioned the Search. Play with different wordings in there, put parts of your question between quotes ( " ), play with the search threads and search posts (I use the posts one a lot myself)
If you dont find anything using the search browse through a few pages of topics in the proper category. Many people post questions in the wrong area (video related in the general discussion thread) and if you look in the right category, the answer is right there. Also some people post a question, and right underneath it is the same question in different wordings.
If you do post, make sure you have your question in the topic title. Things like "I need help" sure does generate a lot of people looking at it, but most of them don't have or want to answer, so it doesn't help. if you use something like "I need help with rooting" it draws the right crowd.
And, always understand that people are doing this in their free time.