We all agree Justin’s lessons are great. However, the only thing missing when compared to in person lessons, is the feedback.
Feedback in a forum setting may not be perfect, but could accelerate one’s learning.
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I agree and we should not be afraid to try so.
The meta game is a learning path as well; being able to give and receive feedback is one that is allowed to makes mistakes along the road as well. As long as we remain respectful while we keep everything discussible (important feature of a “safe enviroment”.
From now on, my “lead by example” will be even more explicit.
I can’t promise to provide feedback for very entry but for the ones I do, I will state what I think what is good, what could improve and what need serious reconsiderations. I might add a small disclaimer in the first weeks.
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It took a while to read the 102 comments here 
Great discussion!
I was also thinking they are a bit too positive without voicing it but reading all the thread changed my mind - it sounds like it is a good thing that they are very positive.
I will object to one thought mentioned above:
“we already know what’s lacking in our playing after posting”
I disagree. Yes, I know that I could play better in 56 different ways but I do not know which 2-3 of those hurt your ear the most. So it is great to hear what people are hearing as mistakes to prioritise working on those.
I’m using AVOYP almost exclusively to seek feedback and explicitly mentioning “any feedback welcome”. I now realise that it would be more beneficial to stress this more strongly with something like Looking For Feeback in the title or at the beginning of the AVOYP post.
As for giving it, I tend to say the positives first and give a pointer as to what I think could be worked on next. I’m not a great player, so my feedback often does not come from experience or wisdom. It is more often the case that I notice weaknesses thanks to knowing I have the same and working on them. A better player could give advice on how to work on it, which would be invaluable but I guess it is difficult to see many examples of it (other than basics like ‘practice with a metronome’) here as this is mostly a beginner forum.
Since Richard mentioned above that there’s no intention to further divide categories into something like “AVOYP - Show Off Here” and “AVOYP - Seek Feedback Here”, I think we can encourage people to explicitly mention they are seeking feedback when posting their takes.
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I have been following this thread with interest for a couple of weeks now and every time I want to reply, I realise I have nothing meaningful to add. But every time I come back to it, it bugs me.
I will say that apart from the main reason (extremely reduced use of the computer), one of the big reasons for my reduced activity here has become the (what I call) shallow positivity. What I mean by that is that even if something is great and no improvements are required, you can specify what do you find so good about it. That’s why I keep going on and on about singing and playing at the same time. It’s a skill I just can’t get my head around and I’ve been trying it for 15 years. And yeah, I’m really impressed by everyone that can do it.
It’s mainly my fault to see it this way (shallow positivity) because I ramble a lot, so I’m not the best with concise and straightforward feedback. But I did notice that sometimes there are some recordings that I would absolutely tear to pieces if asked for constructive feedback in person (even if I don’t know the person, I am just better at coming across in person. Sometimes some of my comments get across the wrong way virtually) but all I read here is “That was wonderful!” So it discouraged me a bit from participating a bit and now I mainly answer any questions re-transcribing as it’s the thing I’m most passionate about when it comes to guitar learning journey.
I still listen to about 75% of audio recordings on here, quite a few of them more than once, some I download and put on my mp3 player. The second reason (which is probably quite stupid), I find it unfair to comment on someone’s post and then not on someone else’s even though I am unfamiliar with both users, both songs, etc. So then I do the worst thing and not comment at all.
Agreed, this was the best section to gain feedback but it was also the worst at the same time. People didn’t open/comment on threads that were in there because it was clear someone wants honest feedback which takes time and effort (which is fair enough). I had a few unanswered threads with a significant number of views (for this forum, so three digits).
Also 5:1 ratio of positive to negative news is actually extremely important (psychologically and also from biologically according to my neighbour who’s a neuroscientist) which is why the way news are delivered these days is extremely problematic, but this is getting off topic.
Great discussion overall and thank you @jkahn for bringing this up.
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I think @glpguitar made an important point which I’d like to amplify.
Be specific in your feedback, both the encouraging positive comments and in highlighting either issues to correct or next things to work on to improve.
I know there are different views on like but I am starting to consider if I have nothing specific maybe a like suffices?
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This is a really good point. Often when I’ve posted something, what others pick up on is not what I thought they were going to. The “obvious mistakes” from a players perspective become less important, but something else stands out. BTW Serhat, you’re a better player than you give yourself credit for.
Thanks for the post @glpguitar. Some great points and interesting that it seems you were feeling the same way as me. Detered from commenting because you’d feel like a lone voice. I’d encourage you to comment even if you can’t do all of them (honestly, who can these days, there are so many).
I think shifting from an actual comment to just a like would be a shame. There are plenty of people that just hit like already and that’s OK.
My read on this has changed with the thread. I think now that the short positive comments are OK. What is not OK is people that want to say more holding back because they would feel contrarian. So I really want to encourage those with more insightful comments, that are holding back, to make them anyway. That’s what I’m going to do. And sometimes I will just drop a short comment regardless.
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I would agree with that but would add “personalized” comments. I think it relates in a way to this:
Short specific positive feedback and encouragement on recordings posted (even if its a thanks for introducing to me to that song or a general question on the performance) also helps get to know each member of the community. I also think Toby’s remark on knowing where people are on a journey is valid one for providing specific feedback and it would be good if posters said where they currently are on the learning journey when they post recordings.
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… just as long as there’s no ‘oversharing’ 
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o a v i k
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A great thread to start @jkahn because I think it’s an important subject.
I am very guilty of giving positive feedback on every posting and I do this because I feel that people have made the effort to put practice in and then post it up, so to do that and then not receive anything I think could be quite sad for the poster.
I do however try and give constructive criticism if I spot/hear anything but like others have said, in most cases I do not feel qualified to give out that kind of advice to often. Obviously a shortcoming of mine.
I know when I post a video, yes it is great to get positive feedback but I also ask for critique as without that there is no way for me to know my issues. I don’t have a music teacher so I hope that you guys on here will be honest with me and tell me where and if I’m going wrong.
Maybe the best thing to do is for people to actually say, “please give me some honest feedback”
For me though, if you are learning something new (whatever it may be in life) and are unable to take constructive criticism from others, then maybe you shouldn’t be trying to learn that particular thing. As you obviously don’t have a real passion for it. Or maybe I’m being to harsh here.
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