I will say that the FB sites I've used have helped me improve the finish on my wood baits for airbrushing, clear coating, and foiling dramatically, but they haven't helped as much with actual crankbait building and design.
Personally, I try not to ask questions unless I have first researched something and attempted to figure out my own solution. If someone gives you an answer to something it is much less likely that you'll even try to come up with a way to do it yourself and no creative thought is put towards that process. If we aren't thinking outside of the box then innovation occurs much more slowly. I'm willing to put in the time and work, and in many instances that has helped me.
The other side of this is there have also been times when I've been stuck on various things that caused me to waste a ton of time figuring something out when there was a simple solution that many builders before me have taken advantage of.
It's taken me this long to finally get confident that I can produce the few wood models that I make consistently to achieve desired action, and also understand the adjustments that I can make to them to fulfill multiple niches with each body style. This is for 1 piece balsa and basswood builds that are not inherently complex. I've got several more complex ideas that I had difficulty working with when I first started building, because I quickly realized that I didn't fully understand all of the variables and forces at play. Most of these ideas are going to require me to use 2 piece builds.
The biggest problem I'm having at this point is finding ways to speed up the production of my baits so that I can make more efficient use of my time. Right now I use a band saw for basic shape, disk/belt sander for refining edges, and then carve and hand sand to reach my desired blank shape. That works well, but the hand carving/sanding is incredibly inefficient.
In a perfect world new builders would be paired with an experienced one, and there would be a knowledge share that would take place. It's obvious what the experienced builder provides, but less so with a new builder. A new builder's lack of experience can actually be an advantage when it comes to creativity and ability to provide a fresh perspective. A new builder doesn't have preconceived notions about how things should work or be done. This can help provide new inspiration for crankbait design or production techniques that could be used by both builders. Think of it similar to how many large companies are moving towards a combination of young and more experienced employees within their executive teams. Since we don't often have this scenario for crankbait builders this site is about as close as many of us can get to this type of knowledge share.