Onboarding “normies” to forums!

As a brand new user looking to create a site, this was the first post that talked about the need for simple introductions. This is very powerful and robust system, but as a very skilled technologist, I am completely flummoxed about how and where to even begin to get help in understanding much about it. There are categories galore, but not a single, well focused and promoted document that tells me how to get started, learn the starting basics, and where to go for real-time help if I have complex questions, and don’t have a week or two to read all the documentation. I expected to find real-time chat for support, but as of yet, I can’t find any, nor even a discord community to get help. I go to the Developer’s category, and find only a few posts less than 4 months old. I just think the onboarding process could use a lot more attention, and if we finally deploy our system, I will target some of our resources toward that.
Meanwhile, can someone direct me to the best place to ask random questions that community members are likely to answer? Thanks in advance!