Clamzy - only Jim can say how much splashing around in the shallow end has so far taken place. For my part, I trundled along for ages with the Times/Sunday Times, the latter being the first I ever completed, having been started off by my uncle, blessed be he. Mephisto came pretty soon after, wearing out successive BRB's until the electronic version came along. I started the Listener pretty much when the Times took it on in 1991. I arrived here in (apparently) 2009, desperate for hints on a particularly arcane Listener, and love to feel a part of this slightly whacko community.
I would certainly agree that this should not become a place where every clue is analysed/explained before revelation day, and I quite like the fact that blunt answer requests are not welcome and don't even appear in the general crossword questions. But along with the buzz of being in the Friday Club (mostly), there is the buzz of being part of what is, after all, a pretty small (elite?) constituency that shares, at whatever level, a curious obsession.
I'm betting that - access permitting - Jim360 will hit the Friday club sooner rather than later, as it rather looks as though the bug has bitten.
As a postscript, I've now seen the answers to the last numerical, and I still don't have a clue what's going on Should I just concentrate on Sudokus for the time being?