The creator and lead developer, Massimo Di Pierro, is incredibly active and always willing to lend a hand with whatever problem you have. I've seen him around reddit (not sure if he's on HN) and even when he's met with the inevitable haters, he's always been friendly and cordial.
Just like you've said, web2py was originally made to teach people how to build websites, which really shows in its architecture. It forgoes traditional Python conventions ("explicit is better than implicit" being a major one) in order to be more beginner-friendly. Some of the more experienced developers find this annoying, but if you're coming from PHP or a fresh background, it can be much easier to get started. Just take a look at the overview on Wikipedia[0]. It gives a good outline.
This is coming from someone who doesn't even use web2py. I prefer Flask for personal projects and Django for work/group things, but I would whole-heartedly recommend web2py. Run through the book[1] and, if you don't like it, give the Django tutorial[2] a shot. If that doesn't mesh with you, there's Flask[3], Pyramid[4], TurboGears[5], and CherryPy[6]. (The last two I would not recommend for beginners, but they're still good!)
[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web2py#Overview
[2]: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.5/intro/tutorial01/
[3]: http://flask.pocoo.org/docs/
[4]: http://docs.pylonsproject.org/projects/pyramid/en/1.4-branch...