Well this post could be easily answered. As most of us have. Using a funnel. That's what I used when I used carboys.
I too am surprised by Cheesy's response. I think the point of having a dedicated homebrew forum is to share our collective experience. Whether youre a seasoned brewer or a beginner, we all come here to learn and to share.
However, as members with experience, I feel we have a bit of responsibility to help those who are just beginning, there are no stupid questions ( I know, how cliché).
There are 101 ways to do everything. Keep an open mind. Learn all you can and then do what works for you. If using a carboy is what you want to use. Then so be it. Learn about using Carboys. It's apparent Cheesy likes using buckets. Is he right and your wrong? Or is he wrong and your right. Neither.
I've used buckets and carboys. Both have their pros and cons. Buckets are cheap and easy to clean. Most have a handle, which makes carrying or lifting much easier. However, I had issues as well. I found the seal on the lids to be suspect. I have 2 buckets I used as fermenters. Both leaked CO2 from the fermenter through the seal on the rim and then taking the lid of the bucket when it came time to clean them was a pain.
I ended up using my carboy more as a primary fermenter, and then transferred to a bucket as a secondary.
As a primary, yes you can see the initial activity. You can see the yeast sediment. I like using a blowoff tube, and find it works better with a carboy. Of course cleaning a carboy is definitely a little more work then a bucket, having to scrub the inside with a carboy brush. Not fun.
As for getting the wort into the carboy, just remember. If you are NOT chilling the wort using a wort chiller or other method, you need to put cold water into the carboy first before adding the hot wort. This is mainly for glass carboys, so you don't crack the glass. If it's plastic, you shouldn't need to worry about cracking so much, but it's better if you still use the cold water, just in case the hot wort warps the plastic. Using this method, I am assuming that the amount of wort is in the 2 gallon range, so for a 5 gallon batch you need to have 3 gallons of cold water to make up your full batch.