In my case, this happened back in 2014. At that time, I just started doing mining and did not really know anything about bitcointalk .
However, when I encountered a problem with my GUIminer on the mining.bitcoin.cz I began to look for a solution that brought me to bitcointalk to "mining support" branch.
As it often happens, I found not only a solution, but also a whole community that helped me dive deeper into the world of bitcoin and mining, as well as find answers to the most difficult tasks.
And to this I am infinitely grateful.