Idea: The Mentor Thread

[TsukiOokami]

The idea is simple. Some of us have joined recently, maybe even today. The older users know the ropes and they understand what's expected from a good user. They know whether or not to post a thread of yours. They are (mostly) familiar with what'll get you banned and what'll get you praise. In short, if you're new and have a real interest in becoming a contributor to this community, they can help you.

The guidelines for becoming an elitepvper's Mentor (as I'll call the older members participating in this program) are as follows:

A Mentor should ideally be a well-respected/contributing member.

He should be capable of answering any of the usual load of questions usually asked by newcomers. Understanding of the forum sub-sections, the thanks system, and the guidelines for thread creation and posting are all examples of things that a Mentor should possess.

His spelling and grammar must not be atrocious. A misspelled word here and there is one thing, but there are two reasons why a Mentor should be concerned with the way he writes. One, it allows him to communicate effectively and efficiently with others, and two, it sets a good example for newcomers.To maximize the quality of the time invested in his adoptee, a Mentor should adopt no more than one or two newcomers. Trying to help fifty people at once is noble, but not very effective.



Likewise, there are a few things to be asked of the Adoptees. There will be people spending time with you that could just as easily be spent elsewhere, so please try to keep the following things in mind:

Keep a good attitude. If you don't, then you're going through this whole process for nothing. Don't be offended if your Mentor tells you to stop doing something or to shape up in some area. He knows what he's talking about.

Ask, ask, ask! Your Mentor is there to answer your questions, so don't be afraid to ask him. Are you thinking about posting a Viagra thread in the Hacks/Exploit subforum? Check with your Mentor first and see if it's such a good idea (it's not). Confused about why your thread was locked? Ask your Mentor (or the mod who locked it) instead of creating another thread/badgering said mod with pms to complain about it. He's taken the time to help you. Let him help.

Listen, listen, listen! Your Mentor has been around this place for a good long time. He knows what's going on, and if he tells you that you to do something differently, he's probably right.

Use good grammar and spelling. This is a no-brainer.

Contribute! You're here to be a part of this community, so be one! A good poster will post something relevant and interesting in a topic. A bad poster will post things nobody wants to read, and gain a bad reputation very quickly. Interested in Bots? Making scripts? Editing dll's? Everyone loves contributers, and if you take a little time, you'll be able to give back to the community.

Now, if you're still interested in becoming a Mentor or an Adoptee, just say so. Post in this thread and say "I'll be a Mentor" or "I need some help." Ideally you'll be able to find someone to mentor/be mentored by with little problem. If you're having trouble finding someone to adopt you, PM me and I'll try to connect you with someone.

Additionally, adopted users shouldn't stay adopted forever. There are lots of people here who will need help. The whole idea behind this is that once your adoptee is ready to become a contributive member of the community, you let him run free.

This is an idea that I've gotten from another forum of mine. With our ever-increasing populace, and our ever-increasing portion of people unable to mod, I thought that it would be a good idea to introduce this system to the Mabinogi section of epvp as well. I hope that this will help everyone to learn how to mod, and not just to leech, and maybe give back to the community once in a while.
tl;dr If you want to be a Mentor to newbies, pm me or post
If you want to be adopted, post here and wait for a Mentor to adopt you.
Mentors
skititlez:
Halfslashed:
pawntobishop:
lostmage333:
Tyne:

Adoptee's
Darkboy132-In need of adoption
Ver990- In need of adoption
Ayamin- In need of adoption
neebneeb- In need of adoption
zukine123- In need of adoption
Timer150- In need of adoption

Programs that the adoptees should download beforehand
For modding



For communication

[CecyElmo]

Or everyone could read the rules and we can move on, yes?

[redjoker5]

So basically what you are suggesting is for the older members to babysit some new members am I right? And here I was thinking that just reading the rules, using common sense and using the search button was enough to become a standard user.

I am sorry but this plan fails. Joining a forum is not some revolutionary ****. It is joining a community just like when you move into a new neighborhood. They don't assign you a babysitter who has lived there for years to show you where the mailboxes and stuff is. They just assume you're a ******* adult with a brain and that you can figure out that stuff yourself because it is no different from the last neighborhood you moved into.

Plus I doubt there are that many people willing to have a person asking them where they can find this and that when the search button is literally RIGHT THERE. I understand what you trying to do and it's fine, but in this forum is most likely not gonna work. Because I know there are more people like me here and all they are gonna do is mislead the noobs into ******** themselves (forum-wise).

Maybe in a more collectively mature forum?

[TsukiOokami]

Originally Posted by CecyElmo

Or everyone could read the rules and we can move on, yes?

Lopl, reading the rules doesn't teach new people to mod.
How about saying something useful or supportive instead of trying to look impressive and cool?

Originally Posted by redjoker5

So basically what you are suggesting is for the older members to babysit some new members am I right? And here I was thinking that just reading the rules, using common sense and using the search button was enough to become a standard user.

I am sorry but this plan fails. Joining a forum is not some revolutionary shit. It is joining a community just like when you move into a new neighborhood. They don't assign you a babysitter who has lived there for years to show you where the mailboxes and stuff is. They just assume you're a goddamn adult with a brain and that you can figure out that stuff yourself because it is no different from the last neighborhood you moved into.

Plus I doubt there are that many people willing to have a person asking them where they can find this and that when the search button is literally RIGHT THERE. I understand what you trying to do and it's fine, but in this forum is most likely not gonna work. Because I know there are more people like me here and all they are gonna do is mislead the noobs into screwing themselves (forum-wise).

Maybe in a more collectively mature forum?

Well, this plan worked fairly well enough for the other forum :V
And there isn't much of a future here. Not unless the newer people start to learn how to mod, and who better to teach them then the people who already have experience in modding?
I just think it would be easier to ask questions and learn from other people then looking through obscure tutorials and guides on how to code.

[Kevsprk]

Yeah, Joker, you fail. At least Tsuki is trying to do something good for this forum.

I, for one, was clueless when I started modding. I didn't know what assembly or C++ was, I didn't get how to use mods or their potential. I took the hard path, just reading everything I could about modding and learning bit by bit. I wish someone would've helped me.

[sarcasm]We can't all be brilliant like you right from the start [/sarcasm]

[redjoker5]

Originally Posted by Kevsprk

Yeah, Joker, you fail. At least Tsuki is trying to do something good for this forum.

I, for one, was clueless when I started modding. I didn't know what assembly or C++ was, I didn't get how to use mods or their potential. I took the hard path, just reading everything I could about modding and learning bit by bit. I wish someone would've helped me.

[sarcasm]We can't all be brilliant like you right from the start [/sarcasm]

No, no. You misunderstand me. I said it's dumb because not enough people are gonna help out noobs. And look at the rate of new members compared to a year ago when people barely knew of the forums. Unless you got people on the comp 24/7 doing forum costumer support it's not gonna help a lot.

[TsukiOokami]

redjoker5, while it looks as if you were a bit sarcastic and may seem to come off as arrogant, you raise an excellent point. Of course newbies can go to the subsections of this forum and take a glance at one of the multiple guides for whatever they are interested in, or use the search function to find what they need. But in the mentor thread, they can receive one-on-one instruction for dll editing or whatever, and it helps them out that much more. This thread is to encourage disheartened newbies, to give them the confidence to say: yes I can, and make a valuble contribution. However, I would like to make clear that my original goal was to circumvent the hatefest for newbies and give them basic guidelines on happenings in the forum. Let me make this simple: they don't have to follow what a mentor tells them to do. It's a free country. For ***'s sake, this was among the first of my internet forums too. If I hadn't lurked around and figured out certain "taboos", I would have been hated like any other newbie that joined. I just made this so more newbies could contribute better.

If a newbie posted a thread to introduce themselves and used an overused meme, he would instantly be lynched, set on fire, have his eyeballs gouged out, thrown in water, and then drowned. Well, that's an exaggeration, but you as well as I know how badly some people treat newbies, especially those who think they are being funny by doing what I just mentioned above. To them, it's all in good fun. To us, it's the epitome of stupidity, and an instant "Another noob leecher/weeaboo/idiot" disheartens the new people and scares them off. Not many people seem to realize what a hostile environment this place has become.

With that said, with all the naysayers who go: "Bad idea, this will never work", why don't you give it a try instead of being so negative? After all, what harm could come out of it? We may even get a few new contributers.

[Halfslashed]

I'll do some mentoring, I guess. The community is in shambles right now, but talent is scattered among the smallest corners.

Bishop is still answering questions, so she's an alternative as well.

[pawntobishop]

Ty Halfy. Yea I'm game.

[XDFACE]

I've been wanting to ask for help for a while, But It's hard to trust someone who can possible rape my system. I'm sure I'm not the only one...

[skititlez]

its built on trust. trust those you only know they will help.

[XDFACE]

I trust everyone. I just don't trust the devil inside them. -:Troy Kennedy-Martin, The Italian Job

Well, I'm willing to build some trust.OH! I re-read the first post again.. Just to make things clear... This is more than just teaching proper forum etiquette and covers actual contributions to the community?

[redjoker5]

If by "actual contributions" you mean that one of the veteran members is gonna come and hand you pro mods then you are wrong.

[XDFACE]

Nah, I meant help to the point where you can make your own mods or at least set you on the right path. Hand outs are nice, But reaching the point to depend on yourself IS better.

[fenrir2037]

Most of us are willing to teach, it's just hard finding a person that's willing to learn and not completely oblivious... oh wait.. I'm oblivious..