Novice Network?

[Raldo]

Either find someone with a crown next to their name (indicating mentor status) and ask them to invite you into the novice network, or shout in a relatively populated area and someone can probably invite you.

The only way in (as far as I know) is to be invited by a mentor. I haven't entered the novice network before, so I can't comment on whether it's "a chat full of people who are as clueless as you are", but keep in mind that there are also mentors in there, so it's not just 100% new folks.

It does seem rather stupid that you can't just join of your own accord. I can only assume it's to keep out the RMT spammers.