Always follow your gut. We ignored our gut feelings a couple of times early on and it was a mistake; the only times we ran into drama was when we ignored our gut. Unfortunately it took us a few dramafied times before we figured it out, I think I'm a little slow on the uptake
On the no-kissing thing: thats definitely not a rule and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone (new or not). If that is what works for you then go for it, but no-kissing was never an option for us. Katrina loves to kiss and it just seems so silly to not kiss when you're going to be giving someone oral sex or you'll be fucking them. Doesn't make sense to us, but it works for some people so I think that is a personal choice rather than a "newbie rule".