I'm no elder, but I came over from facebook too so maybe had the same experience. It's mostly very similar to the facebook app, just (nearly) all the things that should be fixed have been fixed. There are still occasional cheats and dropouts but I think they're rather rarer here.

Things that are different that got me at first:
- over here, it's considered bad form to comment on games in progress
- perhaps for this reason, forums are alive with intelligent (sometimes) discussions, but very little about the game itself
- if you do come across a multi or other cheat, don't accuse them on the forum, or in the game chat - email the mods. And don't use the 'mod report' function on people's profile either because everyone can read it..
- I think people on this site are even more focused on their ratings than on facebook — so in a ppsc game, expect people to play for points even if it means giving up the win. There's also an unofficial rating system called the Ghost Rating (GR), and there's been some discussion about whether players at higher levels are playing to massage their GRs, although I don't know how this affects play. See http://www.tournaments.webdiplomacy.net/theghost-ratingslist for details on how the GR works - you'll get a rating at the end of the month once you've completed at least 1 game.

That's everything I can think of right now - enjoy :)

Oh, and I forgot to mention live games - they actually work here in a way they never could on facebook. I enjoy one from time to time, it's a good way to get a feel for things quickly - most of them are gunboat but not all.

http://www.webdiplomacy.net/rules.php

you should know that you should never go CD. Turn in your moves everytime. its bad form to CD. If you are going on a trip ask for a pause ahead of time. If its a longer trip ask for a babysitter to play your games.

Welcome Kochnevich. It's much better here than facebook (I used to play there myself). The standard of play here is higher, there are variants (not that I ever play them), you can play speed games too, and the general discussions are more interesting. There are tournaments here too (mostly organized by TheGhostmaker).
I sense you won't be sort of player to go CD, after all you said yourself that players dropping out annoyed you on facebook.
I suggest you use your remaining points and jump right into another game. If you win, you'll be off to a great start and if you lose you'll be reimbursed once your games finish. gameID=30798 (PM me for the password).

One quick question about the "Save" option. I think I've understood correctly from the help menus but want to confirm. "Ready" means I'm ready to go, and if everyone else is ready then we progress without waiting for the clock to tick down, right? So "save" just means that these are my orders as it stands now, and if the clock hits 0, that's what I want processed, but I want to reserve the right to come back and change them if I get a message from an ally or some such. Do I have that right?

Yes. Ready means the same as finalize on facebook.

Precisely - they were renamed a few months back (never did find out why).

Welcome to the site :)

Save and Ready were supposed to be more intuitive I think. And I think they are, but then I know what they do already.

I highly suggest getting into the leagues. Right now you'd just be on the waiting list and might get a spot midseason, but the games are great. Go here to learn more about it:
http://tournaments.webdiplomacy.net/thephpleague

rlumley indicated you should check out this link:
http://www.webdiplomacy.net/rules.php

Note that is not the rules of the diplomacy game. That is the website rules. You should DEFINITELY read that page. Won't take long and will answer a lot of questions.

Don't be afraid to ask stupid questions in the forum. But keep in mind that we like to have our fun and will mock you mercilessly. That should be taken as a sign of friendship and not animosity. Unless it is from hellalt.

If you have a situation in a game that you have a question about, don't come to the forum and link the game and ask. Best to not even ask using the specific territory names. Someone else from your game may see it and know what you are thinking. Better to ask "If A supports B into C and C supports D into B while E supports C to hold, what happens?"

Welcome!