I love Pinterest! I started by only re-pinning things other people had. If the people you follow aren't that "pinteresting" (ha!), try just browsing "Everything".
I use Internet Explorer, and Pinterest crashes my browser ALL the time. If you have a slow computer, it may just take forever to pin... Or maybe the browser crashed. If you have a smart phone, the Pinterest app is pretty good -- MUCH faster, and doesn't crash. I still get a lot of messages saying, "oops, something went wrong!", but it still pins stuff, so yeah.
If you post the error message you're getting, we can try and resolve it for you. It sounds like a security setting.
I only recently started adding my own pins. I use the little IE addin that adds a "Pin It!" Button to the toolbar. I am redecorating, so I pinned a bunch of furniture I was looking at from different sites.
I really love Pinterest for three things: first, it really helped me develop my personal style, because after a few months I could look back on everything I pinned, and recognize patterns. I was having an extremely hard time putting a "look" together for my place, and I realized it's because I like several different styles that don't go together at all.
Second, it has really good tips. I now know what all those mysterious icons on clothes tags mean! They actually are information about how to clean the item, not just random little cartoons!
Third, there are a lot of cute, funny animal pictures. I've repinned a bunch, and whenever I need a lift, I go review my collection.
