Community
Though there's nothing to stop you from just joining a Q3F server and playing right away, if you'd like to get more involved with the community side of Q3F, including news, clans, tactics, player skills or even making your own map, the following resources should prove useful to you:
The Q3F Website
The first place to stop for all the latest Q3F specific news and content is our web site at http://www.q3f.com - all official announcements (such as new Q3F releases) will be made there.
Forums
We also host several online forums for clan announcements, editing and the general community. You can access all of these by clicking the 'Forums' link on the left-hand console at our web-site.
The Mapmaking Community
We've also created a new section on our site called 'Editing'. If you're interested in making maps for Q3F this is the best place to start - it currently includes our complete Q3F Entity Documentation, a .DEF file for Q3Radiant and several tutorials on implementing Q3F entities in your maps. The 'Edit' section is accessible from the left-hand console.
IRC
For IRC fans (like us), we've set up a channel that you'll often find packed with members of the Q3F team and community. The channel is present on both the Gamesnet and Quakenet IRC networks and is called #q3f. If you're not familiar with IRC, great places to start are probably http://www.gamesnet.net and http://www.quakenet.eu.org.
Clans
When you've played on public servers for a while, you might start to wish that you were part of a group who were more focussed on team play, or perhaps had regular matches against other similar groups.
This is where clans come in, and the team-play MOD scene is absolutely full of them. Everything from newbie-training schools (without any goals, save having fun) through to commercially sponsored teams (who get flown around the world to play in tournaments) exist online, and Q3F is unlikely to be any different.
For your first clan, there's nothing wrong at all with just asking on a public server if there's anyone recruiting, or asking the same of people in the Q3F IRC channels and forums.
Remember that a lot of people who play team-based MODS do so because they really aren't interested in that whole free-for-all, deathmatch l33t individual skills thing, and not a care for anyone else attitude of unmodified FPS games.
In the main team-based clans are considerably friendlier and a lot more likely to help you out while you're new. Don't worry though, the minute you get any good you'll have plenty of people out for your blood, or to join their clan :)
News Sites
There are now several news sites catering purely to Q3F fans. Many include columns, map reviews, advice on scripting as well as reporting on leagues, release and the community. the first of these to start were PlanetQ3F and The Q3F Resource Centre. Other great sights include The TF Tribune, The Q3F News Network and Fortresscenter. there are also come Q3F news sites that cater specificly for certain languages such as http://se.q3f.net (Swedish), http://www.q3f.de (German) and http://www.TFExpert.com (French).