Absolute Beginner. Advice needed

Hi

I am completly new to wordpress and hoping to get your advice and suggestions.

I wish to create a site for invite only members that can sign up and create their own boards where they can showcase items of interest either via images or text.In some ways similiar to the pinterest site. I also want to have some standard information on each members boards which they can highlight if its applicable to them. I also want to be able to load skimlinks onto this which I dont know if thats possible with a www.ads-software.com site.

As I am completly new to wordpress I was hoping to get some general advice as to how to get started with this, which themes and plugins etc.. would be best and also just general comments if you think a complete beginner could achieve this.

I appreciate any advice anyone can give to a beginner like myself, whos willing to learn and lucky enough to have plenty of time on my hands to try and convert my vision into a functioning website.

Thanks