If you are interested in doing video be sure to check out
Magic Lantern.
As far as photo forums go there is snobbery and "artists" on all of them. There are people that will tell you what you really need is full frame, or this particular brand or tell you all you need is an iphone. Just ignore the extremists and pick out the good information. dpreview is decent. Photo.net is nice to ask questions on. flickr is also good to search for answers.
I own a T3i and it is an excellent camera. You'll have fun. Just take it one step at a time.