According to earlier similar threads, making a thread saying HI would be one of the no-no's. Otherwise, respect others, and you will receive it in return.
Nah. Making a 'Hi' topic is perfectly fine, so long as you don't come off really stupid or immature. It's also okay as long as you're not an alternate account of someone else on the Forums. In which case you shouldn't have an Alt account at all. Usually, it's best to E-mail Baddy if you're creating an account on the forums but allready have one.
Anyways, Welcome to the forum. Make sure you read the rules in all bards before posting in them. Also, welcome to the game. As a tip, don't start hosting immediatly, perhaps take a tour of servers and find out how they're run. Also look at the buildings and pick up some styles of building too. The added bonus of server-surfing is that you'll download some Add-ons on the way, which will be annoying as you have to wait for the servers to load them for you, but in time, it gets faster on other servers as you have less add-ons to load. Just be patient. It all pays off eventually.