Of course I know nothing about shutter speed, aperature, proper lighting, this is just a new hobby.

Any advice as to the best place to start for this information. Been thinking a photography class or two but the ones near me require an SLR camera and I only have the Nikon Coolpix p80.
Also any advice as to the best forums on here that I may want to read to put me in the right direction would be much appreciated so I'm not asking a bunch of questions that have already been answered elsewhere.
Thanks much!