Hey Ranea, welcome to the community. As the game isn't out yet, there isn't anything you can really do to be "active" in the community other than hopping into the discord for a bit every now and then, and looking at and replying (or starting your own) to forum posts.
When it comes to the question that's probably plaguing you, we are currently in a unreleased development of pre-alpha. SBS has not released any timelines (by demand, as I have heard) but progress seems to be steady and we are looking at some sort of (just my guess) deliverable of alpha in 2020.
As for pledge packages, if you have the money to spend and if you want to get into the game at its earliest, Proprieter is good for you. However, my personal recommendation is to spend whatever you feel comfortable with losing, just in case ;). If your just looking to get general beta access, any of the lower packages will do just fine :D.
We are currently doing a Settlers Of Elyria event (that's just crashed two times, sbs is fixing some issues haha) that, unless you plan on purchasing a town, shouldn't be of any importance to you when it comes to deliverables.
Hope you enjoy the community, if you have any other questions feel free to contact my discord (By the way, did I mention that EVERYONE in this game practically uses discord for communication, its a free chat app you should get). My discord is Zeek#9476
As for your questions, I suggest looking at the game articles on the site, or asking people (or me :D) on their Official Discord, or check out their Wiki (The wiki has some outdated stuff but most of its pretty updated).