Hello , its nice to meet you , i hope you have a great time here, and about your questions.
1- i am not really good at telling people what they should read, sorry.
2-I believe there is no other major vn communities , but maybe i am wrong. (Forgot about VNDB , silly me )
3-Its Fata morgana no Yakata (https://vndb.org/v12402).
4-I started reading visual novels around November or October of 2012 , i believe the first vn that i read was princess waltz.
Thank you for reading this.