No problem! I know exactly what you mean; I didn’t find the forums until 5 years after I found out about IF.
You know, right now would be a good time to start writing a game for next year’s IFComp! If you want an easier entry to writing games, Ectocomp is a Halloween competition that is for games that only take 3 or 4 hours to make, and it doesn’t start until the 24th.