What's a good resource explaining the best ways to buy Bitcoin (noob friendly)? We have a slew of questions about specific regions ... but I couldn't find a general, concise, good resource on how to buy Bitcoins.

This article offers too many choices and isn't noob friendly.

I want to link to the answer from the Newbie Guide I'm making.

An answer to this question should not be a specific way to buy (it will get stale, Stack Exchange does not handle staleness issues very well), but rather an external resource that is maintained and up to date (and will likely remain so in the future). I suggest a new Wiki entry that is noob friendly.

Update: I've opened up a new wiki entry for this, you can help edit it.
A guide almost needs to be one that provides results dynamically based on responses to questions.

The factors that matter are:


Where are you (country)?
How much are you looking to buy?
What payment methods can you use?
How soon do you need the bitcoins?
Is privacy / near-anonymity important?


Only once those are known can recommendations be made.

A fairly comprehensive list of methods exist on the Bitcoin wiki:


http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins