how many websites have a person who is required to explain how to navigate said website?
Are you thinking of @FannyJustinGuitar and the Onboarding Clubs?
My thoughts are, and have always been, that what Justin makes available for free is on another level of generosity and paying-it-forward. That he has done so for over twenty years means he has accumulated a website of such scope and proportions that any guidance to help new members find their way around is invaluable.
The Community has always had people happy and willing to offer navigational guidance as and when.
Justin has stepped it up a level to ensure that Fanny has a dedicated role to provide this service.
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@Malz Mal, not sure exactly what comment you are making about JustinGuitar by this question.
My immediate thought is that the support is more about optimising the learning experience, particularly for people totally new to guitar playing, than how to access the content.
Though in my 8+ years Iâve seen many people ask questions about the website, the content, and how to work through the material.
In my short time as Mod, I have also supported the team in terms of giving feedback and suggestions about the website design. I think over time that design has evolved and improved, but of course there is always room for improvement. So if you have thoughts about that prompting the question, please share as feedback always welcome.
But maybe I am missing the point and the question is actually a compliment to the breadth, depth and volume of content and material, such that support is required to help new students to become inducted effectively and efficiently?
I hope youâll elaborate.
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The breadth of information herein is formidable, and quite amazing. For me it is simply too much at times and I do get lost. It is not a problem and probably only me.
Iâm not sure if I understand Malzâs correctly, but I get it as if the content of the website was kind of overwhelming and difficult to navigate?
Justin turns a really big wheel. He is providing free content for decades to millions of students. This content has grown and grown over the years, even has been revised or revamped to make the experience for the students even more satisfying. Courses / Premium Courses / Song lessons / Club sessions, etc. , almost everything you could imagine has been provided during the years.
All this is represented by the website and other platforms and tools. He and the team offer all of this to us on a âsilver plateâ, ready to pick and to digest and to make the best out of it.
They are taking us by the hand and are guiding us in exemplarily manner. What more could we expect?
Isnât there maybe a rest of personal input / proactivity we should offer to jump over those very few points where we feel something is not a 100%?
I donât mean that offensive in any way and I hope my lack of English doesnât turn my words into something that will be misunderstood.
The only thing I wanted to say is, that we are blessed with the whole JG project anyway and if there is room for improvement, we could be a bit more concrete and probably providing more information or even solutions about our âcomplaintsâ.
Just my very humble feelingsâŚ
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people come in from different angles and it isnât always easy to guide their path.
I understand the perception and the Live Onboarding could seem like a hefty meta.
Justin went through more than one iteration of site navigation and there are many ways to do it right or wrong. **The decision to set up onbarding live sessions is remarkable; pure luxury in my eyes. I still feel we are doing not a bit but A LOT more than other websites. **
To me, the live onboarding sessions are a âwhat ifâ experience we can offer.
people come in from different angles:
- from youtube; via a lesson or a song lesson
- via the app; thinking this websites evolves around it while the app is just one of the many tools that enrich the learning journey
- via the website/search engine, searching for certain things online
- âŚ
A long time ago, There were just beginner courses on the website justinguitar.com and some extraâs.Thatâs when I learned 
Now there is enough enough material to keep you busy for years!
The core and main guide should be the navigation on the main website, justinguitar.com
There you have:
- the structured, linear path, starting from absolute beginner, working through some grades in a straight line
- The skill based material, to go deeper in some topics touched in the linear course
-
- the explore parth branches out even more, approach material from a different angle, enriches your views and sets the contextâŚ
When in doubt, go back to the most linear, elementary path; Go to the home page, check the nav; find a good spot for you to continue in the modules of the grades and move forward.
Also, you might be at a point you are looking for some tihngs of your own. What are my goals? What is my path? What should I do next?
When there is so much to choose from, it can be overwhelming. Consider a few sessions with a teacher or a more experience player to use as a soundboard. Or consider a session with an Approved Teacher to help you set goals and a path.
Meanwhile; feel free to ask here!
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Mal,
Are you using the Mute function to restrict the Categories you see when you are logged in? I have muted everything that doesnât interest me to help me manage the information overload.
Still not sure if the original question was in regard to the main website and lessons, or Community specific. And donât want to assume either or. 
I was not aware that parts of the site could be âmutedâ. I will try that, thanks.
A bit of both really. I have been diagnosed as dyslexic and do find parts of the site, mostly I think the community to be unwieldy.
Beautiful topic and a wonderful community, And all free I am sure it will be answered soon. There is so much to learn and take in, but all worth it cheers
I can now understand your initial post much better! And I wasnât aware you mostly were talking about the community site.
Maybe its just the last few weeks Mal. After a relative quiet start to the year, Community has just exploded over the last month. Just canât keep up, so guess I know where you are coming from in that respect. But we have always had these ebbs and flows but it certainly can be overwhelming.
I certainly miss the âMark Readâ feature of the old forum, where you clear out stuff that you didnât want to read with one click and leave what you wanted to read in Unread and New for example. That was a very efficient way to manage things when they go through crazy periods like now, But what adds to that is the non guitar related topics that get hoisted as if its facebook or the like. Just muddies the waters with no relevance to learning and playing. JMHO.
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Itâs still there Toby Itâs just called Dismiss. Read what interests you and dismiss the rest. Itâs very useful for categories like AVOYP and Introduce Yourself when someone posted on multiple old threads that youâve already read or posted in.
You can dimiss all of them with one click.
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I thought it only worked by Dismissing a whole category/section, like all of Unread ?
Might just have a clear out then and see what the results are.
Cheers Rick
If you go to a category like introduce yourself all the posted under unread are thread you have already opened and either read/commented on. so you can dismiss all of them with one click.
This is handy when someone hasnât been on the forum for a week and insists on welcoming every new person who joined that week. It can be 30 or more some days.
Or their are a few people who only come on the forum once or twice a month and insist on commenting on every AVOYP thread. So unless you want to read what that person has to say on every post then just dismiss them.
Any of the New Posts you havenât read yet will be under New and wonât be deleted.
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If all these topics are appearing on your unread list, itâs because the topic controls at the bottom of each thread is set to Tracking
The default setting is Normal except for your own threads which are automatically set to Watching
If you post a comment on a thread, then the system changes the setting to Tracking and the thread will then appear on your unread list when there are new posts.
Check the bell icon at the bottom of the threads. Black is Tracking, White is Normal - (doesnât appear on unread list)
Click the bell and select an option to change it.
Or change it in your preferences such that it never goes to automatically track when you open a topic and only change it manually in a topic when you specifically want to track a particular topic.
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I donât think opening a topic automatically sets it to track (or do you mean your own topic)?
It auto sets to track if you post a reply or if youâve been reading the topic for a certain amount of time.
I could be wrong though. Iâve been wrong before, once or twice or maybe more!
Check out your preferences under tracking to see what the setting says
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