perhaps it's cos the community has such a bad reputation for being anti-new-person, that even when it clearly states "new person bonus" they don;t want to own up cos 9 times out of 10 they are going to get yelled at for the slightest mistake.
so would rather keep there head down and say nothing.

true story, I once joined an ex primal and said "hi I'm new, please carry me" and without even a response, someone quit there and then. I wasn't new, had the fight on farm for months, was bored and being silly, but it speaks volumes about the DF player base.

Those are the runs new players will remember far more than the awesome teachers and helpful players they will run into.