Welcome back, something something about a goat ritual.
The rules are here:
Personally I navigate the website from the homepage which lists all the subforums on the left. Get to the homepage at any time by clicking the logo at the top of any page. You have a handy shortcut called notifications at the top right of the screen by your profile picture, which is currently a white “A” on a yellow background. Click that and it will show you new replies to discussions you have participated in. If you click your profile icon then the little person you can set up your user profile and email settings. Website search works pretty well now, just use the magnifying glass up top.
Scroll with either a mousewheel, arrow keys, page up/down, or by dragging the scrollbar on the right side of the screen that shows a date next to it (by default the scroll bar is blue). When you aren’t writing a post, there are keyboard shortcuts for navigation like ‘j’ to jump to the next post. See all the keyboard shortcuts by typing ‘?’. Alternatively click the hamburger icon in the top right of the screen, then “Keyboard Shortcuts”. (It’s called a hamburger icon because it consists of three horizontal lines, sort of like a patty between two buns).
To quote, either start your line with a greater-than symbol >, use the speech bubble button in the editor, or highlight text from the post you want to quote and click “quote”.
Cecil Adams is writing columns again after a hiatus, and new columns are posted on the message boards. Check out the Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports subforum.
Good luck!
~Max