The Return Of Some Friendly Faces

[Readicti 902]

 

 Hello Lord of the Craft!

 

Some of you might have noticed my take over of recent topics, and I better give an explanation!

 

Today I will be announcing the comeback of an old team. The Mentors will be returning with a few changes and updates. With the staff’s push for a more friendly, open community, it’s become needed for a group of individuals to once again volunteer their time to go around helping new players. This time however, it’ll be a lot more simple and straightforward. No answering modreqs. The goal of this team is to sim  ply make friends.

 

What/Who are Mentors?

Mentors are a group of volunteers working with the AT to create a more welcoming environment for new players. They reach out to newly accepted players, as well as a few denied that need lore help, to help them understand the lore of the race they want to play and introduce them to the server. Mentors will also be present in game, being available to show new applicants around and point them in the direction of where to get jobs and how to get a house.

 

I want to become a Mentor, how do I apply?

The Mentors will have a separate application under the Application Team section. You simply need to fill out the application with the title name [Mentor]. This will help me differentiate between the two applications. These groups will be following a similar system to the ET with a separate application for Mentors, AT, and if you wish to get on both teams. Don’t worry, if you apply for both, you may be added to one before the other. All previous AT applications will be edited to have the prefix [AT].

[Tirenas 677]

[Aislin 4354]

WE DON'T NEED A BULLSHIT STAFF TEAM TO DO THE PLAYERS' JOB.

 

Seriously, though, I was instrumental in the dismantling of both the Guide and Mentor team. I worked hard in both those teams, and we accomplished very little. The existence of such a team merely served as a crutch for the rest of the playerbase - if a group of players is pre-designated to be helpful, why should I be? Not my opinion, it's just what happened.

 

If anything, this should be the AT's responsibility already.

[MamaBearJade 2090]

Seriously, though, I was instrumental in the dismantling of both the Guide and Mentor team. I worked hard in both those teams, and we accomplished very little. The existence of such a team merely served as a crutch for the rest of the playerbase - if a group of players is pre-designated to be helpful, why should I be? Not my opinion, it's just what happened.

 

If anything, this should be the AT's responsibility already.

 

 

It is because some players felt the quality has gone down with the AT that we are sperating the duties. I actually have seen some surprising help from the trial team. I brought in non-staff players into the team and we worked out a way to help. Not only were they leaders/high up in their race, but they were friendly. They helped bring players to their hubs and players got to move into RP hubs quicker and be acclimated quicker.

[hearth_ 1023]

Oouuhh... I remember the Mentors, they helped me quite a bit when I first started!

 

+1!~

[Old-Rattlesnake 1534]

• Too many staff teams.
• Didn't work the first time.
• Meager purpose.
• Bandaid fix for crappy community.

I give the Mentors a few months at most. But, as always, I look forward to being proven wrong.

[Tom_Whiteman 949]

Ugh, Mentors were total bs and just tools to make the staff's jobs easier.

[Heff 2460]

I applied for mentors however I think its best if we push the AT to do this job instead...

[gam 386]

Ehhh... I mean, I really liked the idea of mentors, and I really want this to work, but we need to be honest with ourselves. I was a mentor back the first time around, and it was dysfunctional. Like, really dysfunctional. They were an unappreciated, under-worked, and all-in-all unnecessary staff team (if you could call them a staff team).

 

Now, IIRC you weren't here in the time of the Mentors, Readicti, and I truly do respect what you're trying to accomplish here. I agree that the idea of the Mentors as a group of people who help new players to more easily get into the world of LotC is an incredible idea on paper, but it just hasn't worked in practice. I know from first hand experience. Now, I also know that nothing I can say here will do the slightest to change your outlook on this, but just try to keep an open mind. 

 

Honestly I think it would be a much better idea if we just, as a community, tried to encourage greater support towards eachother and new players. If we could change the mindset of many players, instead of garnering them up into a group and calling them staff members.

 

As always, I really do hope I'm wrong about this, and I'm glad that you're taking a step forward to help out new players. But be weary, and try not to make the same mistakes that were made in the past. Give what I said some thought, if you can. And good luck.

[ski_king3 0]

I'm interested to see how this works out. I think there are some differences from guides (they're refocused on very specific tasks) that will make them better. That being said, time will be the best way to see if these are more successful than Guides.

[Readicti 902]

To those of you with concerns about the program, let me share my personal opinions on the matter. Not to argue but so you understand my intent by bringing the mentors back.

The AT have been pushed a lot recently to do work. They have been getting involved with a lot more projects and the standardization on applications and how to handle them is also going to be coming out soon. They do a lot of work. But not everyone on the team has the best people skills. I don't want to get rid of good AT because they can't spend a few hours chatting with a new player but it's come to my attention that this is what we need.

We accepted about 130 applicants last month. How many of them stayed on the server? When I was new, the only reason I didn't go running was because I had a support system that showed me how to get a house, how to roleplay, ect. The AT, as you said, could easily take on this role. But I felt that having another group of volunteers would be able to give /more/ time to just making friends with the newbies. Is it going to be the hardest job in the whole world? No. But I'm hoping that everyone will see this and take initiative themselves to bring in and be open to new players. In my combined application I even say that I hope for the responsibilities to eventually go onto one team. But this is a process that takes time. 

My eventual goal is to start encouraging the community in general to reach out but that's not happening now. The Mentors are my response to that. Because in the long run, you will be seeing a lot more on the subject, but for now the players that are coming in while the community learns to reach out, are leaving or losing interest. 

Just know, even though you can't see it yet, there is logic to my madness. ^^ And what's the worst thing that happens? The mentors are absorbed into the AT and I go on to finding a better way to help new players. This madness will take time and yes, this is my short term response. But i'm hoping it will go well.

Let that either be an amazing idea shining through, or my naivety showing~

[Pinochet 356]

well then, hopefully this will be worth it

[gam 386]

 

To those of you with concerns about the program, let me share my personal opinions on the matter. Not to argue but so you understand my intent by bringing the mentors back.

The AT have been pushed a lot recently to do work. They have been getting involved with a lot more projects and the standardization on applications and how to handle them is also going to be coming out soon. They do a lot of work. But not everyone on the team has the best people skills. I don't want to get rid of good AT because they can't spend a few hours chatting with a new player but it's come to my attention that this is what we need.

We accepted about 130 applicants last month. How many of them stayed on the server? When I was new, the only reason I didn't go running was because I had a support system that showed me how to get a house, how to roleplay, ect. The AT, as you said, could easily take on this role. But I felt that having another group of volunteers would be able to give /more/ time to just making friends with the newbies. Is it going to be the hardest job in the whole world? No. But I'm hoping that everyone will see this and take initiative themselves to bring in and be open to new players. In my combined application I even say that I hope for the responsibilities to eventually go onto one team. But this is a process that takes time. 

My eventual goal is to start encouraging the community in general to reach out but that's not happening now. The Mentors are my response to that. Because in the long run, you will be seeing a lot more on the subject, but for now the players that are coming in while the community learns to reach out, are leaving or losing interest. 

Just know, even though you can't see it yet, there is logic to my madness. ^^ And what's the worst thing that happens? The mentors are absorbed into the AT and I go on to finding a better way to help new players. This madness will take time and yes, this is my short term response. But i'm hoping it will go well.

Let that either be an amazing idea shining through, or my naivety showing~

 

 

Good on you for actually being transparent and having a legit game plan that you're willing to share out with the community. Looking forward to see if this works out, good luck.

[Kaiser 2347]

 

To those of you with concerns about the program, let me share my personal opinions on the matter. Not to argue but so you understand my intent by bringing the mentors back.

The AT have been pushed a lot recently to do work. They have been getting involved with a lot more projects and the standardization on applications and how to handle them is also going to be coming out soon. They do a lot of work. But not everyone on the team has the best people skills. I don't want to get rid of good AT because they can't spend a few hours chatting with a new player but it's come to my attention that this is what we need.

We accepted about 130 applicants last month. How many of them stayed on the server? When I was new, the only reason I didn't go running was because I had a support system that showed me how to get a house, how to roleplay, ect. The AT, as you said, could easily take on this role. But I felt that having another group of volunteers would be able to give /more/ time to just making friends with the newbies. Is it going to be the hardest job in the whole world? No. But I'm hoping that everyone will see this and take initiative themselves to bring in and be open to new players. In my combined application I even say that I hope for the responsibilities to eventually go onto one team. But this is a process that takes time. 

My eventual goal is to start encouraging the community in general to reach out but that's not happening now. The Mentors are my response to that. Because in the long run, you will be seeing a lot more on the subject, but for now the players that are coming in while the community learns to reach out, are leaving or losing interest. 

Just know, even though you can't see it yet, there is logic to my madness. ^^ And what's the worst thing that happens? The mentors are absorbed into the AT and I go on to finding a better way to help new players. This madness will take time and yes, this is my short term response. But i'm hoping it will go well.

Let that either be an amazing idea shining through, or my naivety showing~

 

This doesn't change the fact that the Mentors were crap before, and will probably still be crap.

I appreciate the ability to help, but any moron can see that it's the player base who has to help the new players, not another useless staff team. Makes me sad too that we can't just get up and help others anymore, maybe the community's too big, but Guides and Mentors were **** and will always be ****. Not that the admins or GM's care, though, what actually happened or the logic, or what anyone says. It'll be ignored because the admins think they know what's best, even if it's blatant that last time it crashed and burned and should have stayed in it's shallow grave.

 

Edit: This came off meaner than I should have wrote it! I seem too bitter this morn! Cheers.

[zaezae 1098]

It is entirely possible to have guides and encourage players to be kind.