It seems I was fortunate enough to have been reading about Marxism on my own for about six years, and had been working with an organisation for a little less than three years, before I joined RevLeft. I've still developed a lot from that point (apparently I've been on RevLeft for five years now), but not coming to this forum from a point of both political newness and practical isolation has probably helped me avoid some of the worst aspects of RevLeft's culture.
You seem to know a lot about Gramsci. I joined your group, and the of material you had in there on him was quite incredible.
I ordered his prison notebooks recently, as I was impressed with some of the excerpts I've seen from his writings. Definitely one of the most underrated Marxists of the 20th century.