After three years of trying to get answers on the WordPress forums I think I can conclude that posting there is somewhat like talking to yourself. Here are pretty much all the threads I started the last 3 years and the amount of answers ….:

(so my question is: is there actually anywhere on the web a WordPress forum where users interact or reply if you are looking for help?)

("yes you know and the cool thing about Open Source is that there are forums where people will help you "the community" instead of the easy calling to a helpdesk who will resolve your problem immediately because they are paid to resolve your problem and you really don’t have the time to spend nights solving it because they are full time employed solving problems. So yeah you will spend days and nights searching for an answer but hey that is the cool thing, the learning experience")

Then again… changing code myself would probably also not fall under any software support contract of a paid software product.

So… I am really wondering, is it just so that with WordPress problems it’s like "you are on your own" or am I missing those forums where the real interaction is taking place? Or is the only route to pay someone with same skills as myself to go find the solution?

Link to my Problem	Date Posted	Amount of Replies / Help
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/347497?replies=2  (PHP execution limit)	3 jan 2010	none, have not found solution yet  solved this one myself very strange: as soon as HR tags are used with php-exec pages then it fails. see also here.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/347731?replies=1 (undefined pages, tags)	3 jan 2010	none, have not found solution yet solved this one myself also. Very strange also. There were 4 hidden divs not viewable when viewing page source but only by viewing the DOM directly. It turned out they were generated by an add-on on the dhtml menu i use…
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/347412?replies=2 (XMLRPC escaping)	2 jan 2010	none, close to solution myself
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/321125?replies=6 (stat)	2 months ago	2, no solution, I deinstalled the plugin completely
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/300127?replies=2 (query var)	4 months ago	none, solved it myself
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/298811?replies=1 (weird ss)	4 months ago	none, solved it (maybe)
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/281884?replies=9 (str_split in P2)	6 months ago	8 replies  GOOD!, it will be solved … any day now in the next release of p2
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/279705?replies=1 (query_posts)	6 months ago	none, I still dont know the solution
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/279569?replies=2 (idem query posts)	6 months ago	none, I still dont know the solution
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/277718?replies=1 (stealth plugin)	6 months ago	none, deinstalled it
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/232386?replies=1 (hierarchical comments)	11 months ago	none, found it, really easy problem: forget some tags in the template
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/221453?replies=2 (show all tags)	1 year ago	none, 1 person is asking the same, I solved this myself
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/219430?replies=15 (no template page)	1 year ago	several replies, but I solved it myself, others picked it up
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/216837?replies=2 (maximum length of url)	1 year ago	1 reply but still no answer to why 175 characters seems to be the limit
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/216286?replies=2 (tags/tagcloud)	1 year ago	none, made code myself and posted it
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/215175?replies=2 (remove string from tags)	1 year ago	none, made code myself and posted it
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/214690?replies=3 (types of relationships in taxonomy)	1 year ago	1 reply/question, still no answer
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/211065?replies=5 (tag of current page)	1 year ago	none, pretty sad in 5 replies of myself I find it myself
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/209608?replies=6 (tag bug)	1 year ago	several replies, I found a bug in 2.7 which was entered in trac
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/174834?replies=4 (pagebar)	1 year ago	replies from author, i think it is solved
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/167192?replies=2 (tag in rss feed)	1 year ago	1 reply, but didnt help, I cant remember if I fixed it.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/166546?replies=6 (widgets problem)	1 year ago	some replies that suggest the same problem, it was a problem in some wp release". no replies however on solving it, solved itself.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/160996?replies=4 (WLW problem)	1 year ago	replies but asking me for the solution, I found the problem myself
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/155467?replies=1 (tag pages)	1 year ago	none, build a whole system myself
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/143356?replies=5 (why count field)	2 years ago	several replies, with the answer!
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/128099?replies=3 (default editor)	2 years ago	1 reply with the same question, no answer
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/142825?replies=3 (>7mb export)	2 years ago	none, took my quite some time to write code myself for this
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/121606?replies=2 (kmz file)	2 years ago	none, found the solution myself
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/116207?replies=3 (comments not appearing)	2 years ago	1 reply, after I fixed it.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/107130?replies=1 (export not working)	2 years ago	none, see above took me some time to fix
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/85806?replies=7 (some cache error)	3 years ago	some replies, but none that worked