definetly. you can be yourself and not have to worry about being banned.
Heh heh...
Of all the sites I have been to, I found that this site was the birthplace of my mapping days.
I found out that you could make levels, I found Hammer 3.4, I started messing around on it and made an average level. I was nieve then cause it had no lights (or light source) and it looked crap. I wanted to know how to make it playable so I found this site and failed configuring it. I tried again later in the year and it worked, I was really happy and started learning off the tutorials here and here I am.
HL2 mapping is similar so I was already at home with its power.