@Bootlebarth
Here is an intro. I hope it is correct.
Think of this forum as like the old message board. The first difference is that you can have more than one of them. When someone joins they join the set of forums (boards), not just a single one.
So if you click on the forum button you get a list of forums (2 at present). It is possible that Rob might add more in the future.
On the same page as the list of forums is a list of profile posts. These are public messages that one member can send to another that everyone can see.
When you click on the forum name in the list of forums you are taken to a message board. This is like the old board. Made up of threads and posts. However the new board calls the posts messages.
A new feature is the ability to hold private conversations (access via the envelope icon) with one or a number of other members. These are called conversations. The messages here are called conversation messages.
All members have a profile. There they can publish some information about themselves that everyone can see. Also they can set up their preferences. For things like receiving emails or alerts (a little notification inside the board itself - accessed via the bell icon) when certain events occur. The default email preferences are set up badly so you have to switch them all off to stop receiving loads of emails.
One of the things you can do is mark a thread as watched.
By default when you first register you are set up to automatically watch any threads that you post in. Plus you are automatically set up to get emails when someone posts on a watched thread.
When you switch off all email notifications this stops all NEW threads from generating email notifications to you. The existing watched threads continue to send you email when someone posts on them.
You have to unwatch any watched threads to stop getting email notifications completely.
Finally in this intro. There is a way of highlighting a user in a post. Like I did to you at the top. By typing an @ sign before your name. In your profile you can set yourself up to receive an alert (not an email) when this occurs.
There is a lot more to learn. At least this is a start.