I'm a self taught guitarist, have been playing 16 years. I decided to get serious about theory and add some structure to my learning, hence sigining up for the site! What I found from watching the videos is that many of the tricks, such as alternative fingerings I already had taught myself when learning all those years ago. I didn't really pick up many bad habits but when I did I kinda knew they were bad habits so I grew out of them (e.g using my ring finger to fret the 5th and the octave in a power chord).

Regarding pinky G, this isn't really something I ever toyed around with. I knew I could do it if needed but I prefer sticking with regular G. Ultimately you can use whatever you find most comfortable in the long run, but while learning it's really important to not neglect the pinky so make sure you really try pinky G. G on the whole is a nightmare to learn but you'll feel the benefit in the long run when your pink can keep up with the rest :)