Noticing Newbies

hello all. i joined this site back in 2008, but haven't made any use of it since then. there are two reasons for that.

the first is that it seems so overwhelming. i haven't yet dived in to figure out how anything works.

the second reason is that i'm unsure of the consequences of putting my work on this site. i read the copyright information, and so i know that i keep the rights to my work, but what i'm curious about is whether or not publishers or agents frown on this sort of thing. i've finished one novel, and i'm close to 200 pages into a second one, and i'd like to have them published some day. the finished one, in its current state, is not likely ready for publication. i know there are some problems with it, and i'd like to get some feedback and/or suggestions (i imagine that's what this site is all about, right?), but i don't want to slap my forehead with my palm later after a publisher tells me he isn't going to touchy my book because i already posted it on the internet.

i imagine this question probably comes up a lot. if that's the case, i'm sorry for giving this dead horse another beating. but i'm sick of getting reminders every month or so in my email inbox telling me that i still haven't used this account. i want to use it.

if someone can definitively tell me that i've been worried over nothing, i'll start submitting work, and i promise to be a giver as well as a taker as soon as i figure out how the nuts and bolts of this site work.

cheers!

bob.