For me, a newbie who wants to learn in the forum will not only focus on the bitcoin discussion board.
There is a lot to learn in different boards on the forum, and while it is advisable not make comments in boards where you have little understanding, reading through topics in those boards can help a lot, it helped me, and I am sure some other people too.
Why?
It is a Bitcoin forum and if a newbie joined this forum to learn about Bitcoin, the most helpful board is Bitcoin discussion board. I am aware of other boards for Bitcoin, and they are for technical discussions and supports, but there is enough time for a newbie to learn and know about those technical boards.
Before they know existence of technical boards, they can make their threads or posts in Bitcoin discussion board without any big problem. If their threads belong to technical boards, forum moderators will move those threads to technical boards. This will give chance for a newbie to know and learn why their threads were moved to Technical boards.
Later they can create threads for technical questions in Technical boards.