Sometimes the instructors go on tour. Anders has been known to do that. Instructors also come an go.

Mike has been quite responsive to questions I've had in the past, so I suspect he is probably on tour.

It is frustrating though. It would be nice if GuitarTricks management made sure that the instructor forums are covered if the instructor happens to not be around.

CAGED for me on paper looks great, but it can be confusing. I became aware of CAGED after I understood the idea of moveable chord shapes outside of A and E based barre chords, so it didn't help me much in that regard :).

Like CanadaBill said, it would be crazy to try to barre a full G chord, or a D chord. It can be done, but the reality is you generally don't have to. In my playing, I find I use the D, G, B, and E strings (the more trebbly strings) when playing chords up and down the neck. When you do that, you can come up with ways that mere mortals like us can fret the chords. When doing that, just make sure you are only strumming the strings being fretted.

When you are finding these different chord voicings up and down the neck, you are finding chord inversions, just like CanadaBill said.

I learned guitar long ago as a "positional" instrument, and like CanadaBill says, it can be limiting looking at it that way. You learn some basic chord shapes, some basic chord theory, how the major scale works, and you have enough under your belt to be dangerous! :). The lure of it though is you can get up and running pretty quickly.