Hi there, Beckii! Glad to see you drop by. I won't stall for much longer, so I'll just say this now:
Welcome to the forums!
It's nice to see people still getting into the franchise from its recent releases. I know I started pretty early, but Yellow wasn't the earliest time you could start with it anyway, so really, I don't see much difference. In fact, I think that starting at this point in the franchise is a wonderful thing! Because you still have that much enthusiasm towards the franchise, and I think that with the way technology gets better, that's not gonna waver any time soon. That being said, I say hop right in! We have the
Fifth Gen subforum for you to indulge yourself in. That place is probably the most bustling we have among the sections like it, not counting
XY because that's about games that aren't released yet. Haha. Speaking of which, are you excited for XY? I certainly am! The starters are adorable. Maybe you have a special place for Snivy like I do with my first starter, but I think it's just as easy to fall in love with the new bunch.
In other news, you're from Swansea, eh? We have members all around the globe, some of which might just live pretty near to you. Don't let that scare you, though! XD; As far as I know, we don't have creepy guys here that haven't been dealt with yet. In fact, the entire community is pretty friendly! Both the side who's still into Pokémon and the other side who's just in for the company, so there's multitudes to enjoy talking to or making friends with. I believe the easiest way to get to know people and make friends is to just stay as active as possible. Post around, drop a VM to an interesting person and hope he/she replies, stick to the rules and make an awesome track record as a new user all in all. If you do that, they might just get back to you and say hello with a nice chit-chat every time! If that doesn't resemble a friendship budding then I don't know what does.
But yeah, I hope you like this place and come back each time! I assure you, this place is amazing if you give time to it.