m0useanswered grow question 6 months ago I also was looking for something like this back in the day.
there is no on-boarding or guide of all the features and tools on the site.
Sometimes if you hover your mouse over the item in question it may pop up with something saying that it is.
the big thing I did not understand in my beginning is the inbox feature.
In the bottom right hand side of the site is you inbox. it will be green if you have messages and white is you don't. its got an icon of a paper airplane.
One solid tip of advice, don't use your real name or address in your profile setup. The sites had data leaks before and they did nothing to let anyone know, not even a update your password. Contests are more popularity contests and don't always reflect skill set... like almost always. there are groups of trolls and users who are dicks and the same goes for users and groups who are kind. If you stay out of the contests you will not likely experience any of the bad.
A lot of users spam diaries and such with garbage comments in hopes to get a "like" its how your rank is controlled. get more likes get a better rank. however the ranking system is easily exploited and means jack shit... this site has gurus who peach pseudoscience and when you call em out on it they get real pissy, GD favours higher ranked accounts and bans lower ranked ones more so if that person is to write to them about it and you are being viewed as a bully or troll.
If you have questions or are uncertain of something, take a screen shot and circle it in red then ask a new question, or use you inbox and write to someone.
There is a lot of shit in this site but also some good parts, just need to learn to weave in and out of it all.
Good Luck!