I've eyed Rails a bit and it's something I'm going to look more into. I just wasn't sure if it was what I was looking for.
If it's good for a web and mobile app then that's great, and I guess it can do both front and backend so that seems pretty good too. Would you say it's a better choice for my situation than going with some form of JavaScript?
For your situation, I would pick Rails or Django. There's no reason not to start with one of those. If you decide you want to use JavaScript, then your next post on HN might be in one year:
"I've been trying to learn JavaScript for the past year, but I'm struggling to get anything built. Every time I think I get it, I read about another new stack which is meant to be better than the last. I started with just JQuery, but then Backbone, and then Angular. Then I heard about React and decided to start again from scratch. But I can't get past the todo app examples..."
If it's good for a web and mobile app then that's great, and I guess it can do both front and backend so that seems pretty good too. Would you say it's a better choice for my situation than going with some form of JavaScript?