Hello everyone
Just joined this community, somewhat excited to have found a new art site
Is there any advice or unofficial rules for someone who has never heard of this place and is brand new here?

Welcome aboard! Official policies are documented in the FAQ, 
Code of Conduct, and Ratings Guide (accessible from the 'Support' menu in the header ribbon). Besides the usual common sense of "don't be a jerk", the main difference to other sites is not to hotlink images hosted here externally: Side 7 is run out of pocket by the sysadmin @BadKarma, so he's taking the hit for any extraneous server costs.

That's not to say that linking to a content page is a bad thing.

Hi rollee! And welcome to the site! I hope you enjoy it and have fun! If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to let me know.

-- BK

Thank you for the warm welcome
I've been going through some of the Side7 stuff, one thing was the "characters" section, what is the purpose of this feature? Is it for OCs?

Yep! It's intended to showcase your OCs, or to put up ref sheets of them, and post descriptions of them. They're pretty basic right now, but will soon be getting an upgrade.
-- BK

Welcome to Side 7, rollee. Can't wait to see what you've got.

Hang on...

You've only been here since August?

Swear I saw you around last year even.

Weird.