When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not
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This is something I've been thinking about implementing for a long time now, and I think we've finally got enough players again that this is both needed and can work. I've wanted to start up a mentorship/buddy system for new members.
Basically, I think it's helpful for a new member to have a player to roleplay with, ask questions to, and plot with as soon as they enter a new board. It makes the process of integration and feeling at home happen that much more quickly, and I think you all know how important it is to me to have everyone feel safe and at home here.
Generally, as I'm sure you've seen - I put myself out there and happily answer the threads new players put up once their characters are complete, either that, or another member of staff does so. However, I'm now to the point of being somewhat overwhelmed now, and I need to close some threads before I start some new ones. But I don't want new members to feel at all unwelcomed, and doing nothing, or picking up threads I can't keep up with won't help them at all.
So this was my idea, and since most of you are newer still, I really want your opinions. What this would be is a subforum for new members to ask questions and members can answer them. Also, each new member would be paired with one of our active and integrated players as a mentor. This job could be as little as directing people to a plot their character would fit in and who they should pm, or as big as helping someone who has never roleplayed before. Likely, it'll simply involve answering some questions and being an rp buddy to people who are new and don't know what's what here yet.
Do you guys like this idea? Do you think it would be helpful? Any ideas of your own? I'd really appreciate any and everyone's opinions and comments on this.
~ They spiralled into ebony, catching stars with their tails ~
I think this would be a very helpful idea. Now that I do have Kailyn cleared to roleplay, I'm terribly stuck on what to do with her. Having someone I can ask for help about what to do would be very useful. I think it would work especially well for members who are shy and worried about asking 'silly' questions. I've struggled on other boards with that, especially when there is an expansive plot like the one here on WS.
How well a buddy system will work is likely to depend on the number of mentors to new players, I think. It could hurt the mentor's willingness to roleplay if they start to feel overwhelmed by the number of people they're trying to help. On the other hand, it could certainly help the new players willingness to roleplay, because they have someone to work with them.
-rubs the back of her neck sheepishly-
I'm probably overthinking this, sorry. All in all, I think it could be a very helpful and beneficial idea.
That's a really great idea. Vixplora is right about the mentor to newbie ratio but I know from experience that having a helping hand is great when you are new at something. I'd personally be very happy to help someone get oriented with WS and also help someone who has never done a role play before. I think this could be a great help so long as it doesn't get too burdensome on the mentors. Also, it may help to have mentors volunteer when they want to mentor. I know most of the time I'm all for helping someone else, but some days I just am not feeling up to it.
I think this is a great idea, and you probably won't even need to do much to implement it. Perhaps just add a few more fields in the form the new players post in the registration subforum. Asking whether the newbie would like to be mentored, whether they have roleplayed before, and maybe how much mentoring they'd like.. or something?
Then any potential mentors can just post their willingness in that thread, along with all your welcome posts. Maybe that way you can avoid overloading as well.
I really like this idea! Given that when I join sites I'm one of those people who typically will cling desperately to any hand that's offered to me, I think it would help to have someone navigating the process. It also might make it a bit easier to not just get involved with this "mentor", but this mentor might be up to date with the other plots and can help the newer member find where to put their feet, in the sense of "Oh! Your character would be great in *so and so plot*, which involves *person other than mentor*. You should go talk to them!"
That way, I would hope that the newer members could be spread a little more evenly throughout the site instead of it falling so heavily to the staff to help people get integrated.
I think the effectiveness of this really is going to depend on the group of mentors-ideally, everyone involved would be comfortable with one another and join this with the expectation of picking up a few threads at a point. They themselves might not originally be associated with the new, but if another mentor had been talking to them and found out their character might fit well with yours in a situation, be willing to play off that!
Sorry. I'm rambling. But I like it-there's so much information on WS that's absolutely wonderful, but I think that it can get overwhelming and it's easy to get it all confused and as a whole, is rather daunting for new members. Having a mentor who is there to answer questions, help navigate the site, bounce ideas off of and who could help get you started with your writing or get you hooked up with someone who could, would help immensely.
Let me just toss my two cents in here. This is going to place a lot of responsibility on everyone here, that's fairly obvious. It seems like it would be difficult to.implement based on a few facts. One, most of the players besides the admins who are currently active are new members themselves, I just think it seems contradictory to have new people teaching new people. Two, I think that doing this would significantly slow down posting. Let's be honest, life takes up enough time and responsibility- the reason we come to the board is for fun and relaxation, not to.pick up more work. Thirdly, most people who find this site do so after fairly exextensive reasearch and as long as long as I've been on tne board I haven't seen anyone yet who actually needs mentoring. If they have any questions they've either posted them on chat or pm'ed someone about them. Those are the bulk of my concerns, do with them what you will.
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