As a recent newb myself, here’s my input.
I think it would be a lot easier to be a respectful and good poster if there was some sort of post to help new people such as myself - sort of an FR guide. This might be post answering frequent newb questions. When I joined, I searched for, but couldn’t find, something that included all the following topics:
How to create posts (especially keyword guidelines and such, which I still don’t know)
The fact that new members’ posts will be delayed until reviewed by a moderator until it is deemed no longer necessary,
General FR etiquette (such as vanity frequency),
General FR terms and labels (eg. barf alert, vanity, freep this poll, etc),
Some basic html coding,
An explanation of pings - what they are, how they work, etc
And maybe some other stuff I can’t remember at the moment. A post for new members to be redirected might be easier than having to reexplain the same thing to new members constantly. Just to clarify, I do still like the welcome wagon ping list idea though.
Here are some links that may help you get acclimated around here.
FR Posting Style Book - format for replying
Statement by the founder of Free Republic
There are tons of links and a lot of info on the FR Home Page
If all else fails, just ask! That is how I learned most of the stuff I needed to know. Such as posting pics, hotlinking, what BTTT means etc.
Most of all, enjoy your time here!