plain and simple rules, no problem

I see a lot of shots being fired at the Arch forums for "their antagonistic approach" and "elitism" towards users of Arch derivatives who want to come to the Arch forums for support.

Personally, I have no issues with the Arch forum rules, which begin with:

These boards are for the support of Arch Linux, and Arch ONLY

If you have installed Archbang, Antegros, Chakra, Evo/Lution, Manjaro, Whatever, you are NOT running Arch Linux. Similarly, if you followed some random video on YouTube or used an automated script you found on a blog, you are NOT running Arch Linux, so do not expect any support, sympathy or anything but your thread being closed and told to move along.

Arch is a DIY distro: if someone else has done it for you, then showing up here asking to have your hand held for more help is just help vampirism and is not welcome.

I started out in the Arch world by trying out Arch derivatives Chakra, Bridge Linux, and ArchBang. Those distros convinced me to finally install "straight" Arch. I currently have an Arch installation as well as an Antergos installation.

Arch derivatives have been very important here, but, I'm sorry, they are not Arch. In all this time of running Arch and Arch derivatives, the Arch forum rules have never been a problem for me. These Arch-based distros do have their own forums, and there are also some Linux forums out there where questions about any distro are welcome -- for example, LinuxQuestions.org and the Bruno's All Things Linux forums.

Besides all that, users have the excellent Arch Wiki, web searches, and system documentation (man pages, help documents, etc.). With these tools at hand, I haven't found it necessary to post more than a few Arch-related questions at any forum.

If you use an Arch derivative, don't go to the Arch forums asking for help with that distro. Plain and simple. This is not "elitism", as some like to call it, but just a sensible approach that the Arch folks feel is the best one for them to take. Works out fine, seems to me.