What does P2P mean and is there a thread on these forums that will detail how it works?
Peer to peer. It's just a way you can buy XRP or any other digital assets using bank account you have, paypal or credit card. Try the Binance p2p, I believe there are more users using it there. I haven't tried p2p in binance but they are offering the services where users are buying and selling.
This is the page https://p2p.binance.com/en Check your local currency.
P2P is actually trading with someone you know where no exchange or anything involves but people may accept BTC more than USD so OP habe to by BTC first before proceeding further.