We do usually lock threads and direct people to hybridphoto.com for relevant subjects, but since this is a sponsor thread in a sponsor forum, it seems right to allow the sponsor to decide whether they want the thread locked, and if there is a lot of off topic discussion, we can move that to a new thread.
I agree and I suppose there could be a prominent button somewhere near the APUG menu that says "New to Film?" with a direct link to a set of articles...
We could do that, but a lot of the new users who post such questions haven't figured out how to use the search engine effectively, and aren't yet aware that there are sticky posts for frequently asked questions. We'll mull over it for a bit and think about how to create a sticky that will attract the relevant posters and redirect them to the hybrid site, because it does seem to be the right time for that, as membership on APUG is growing and we're getting more of these off-topic threads.