The org has had it's intimidation factor since long before this year

I knew about the org for a few years before I started out in 2004. I wouldn't go on the forums until 2005 (now I'm the top poster). However, I rarely, if ever, wander into other parts of the org, except the donator's forum and site feedback, anymore because I really just don't care (JaddziaDax for most helpful). I don't think I was ever treated like a newb, however I'd established myself a bit (journals?), made some friends, and lurked to see how to interact before I started posting on the forums.
If your main concern is that newbs don't get the same feedback as established people, a lot of that is due to friends commenting on friend's videos. Established people usually have made a few friends, and all it really takes is becoming part of the community and making friends to get more and more feedback. Not to mention how many times Dragon/Roy has whored his announcement link to me on AIM. Making a crazy/off the wall AMV helps too.
If constructive criticism is what you are looking for
the opinion exchange board will probably get you more opinions than just announcing your video and hoping for feedback O:
I didn't have the youtube link problem because youtube didn't exist back then. I only found out about youtube because someone else uploaded my videos there and I was getting emails from people viewing there. I remember suggesting the site to people who wanted to put amvs on their myspace profile.
Ah, birthday mep vids... (as far as I'm concerned) they started out as a huge in-joke between Rina, me and Scob and only blew up from there

There's no real sense of elitism behind them, just this formula.. Make crappy vid making fun of the birthday boy/girl, upload. Just when someone's b-day would come up the more friends the person had made, the more people wanted to join the "project". People don't make them crappy enough anymore :/