I hear what you're saying, however that's not the case - or the reason I put it on here.
The first reason I put it on, is that I've seen others doing it not only on this forum, but on others too. The second is that a lot of car forum'y type people are in IT, or at least they are in my experience so far and so I thought perhaps they may know someone, or perhaps be looking for a change themselves. The third is, that I thought this was a pretty open community that enjoyed helping each other out, advice or otherwise - so in this case I've put up an ad for a job, which I put here: http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/JobDe ... d=41417095 first..
That and I dislike recruitment agencies, having in the past worked for one (in an IT role). I have a problem with paying 25% for them to send me a CV - which in this case could potentially be £8000. Its worse than the commission you'd pay an estate agent in some cases - and they do a lot more work for it.
So no blushing from me, IMO I have many valid reasons
It's only networking, just online. Go for it, and I reckon you'd be about right with the ratio of IT peps on most forums.
Good luck, and if you can beat the agencies at their own game, do it.