The novice network needs reworked, and a way to rate mentors!

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

There are a few drawbacks to a system like that.

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Yeah :/ most of the drawbacks you listed were spot on, really. Perhaps we could have a subsystem that would give the various types of crowns some actual meaning, and upon entering the NN the leaf would choose what "type" of mentor to be assigned to (i.e tank, healer, rdps, pdps or mdps - not sure where the crafting/PvP subtypes would fit in with something like this in place though).

... but -and I'm probably not the only one thinking this- I really do think that having a single chat with everyone shoved in it will eventually lead to mentors chatting among themselves about things completely out of reach (at a time) for the new players, thus alienating them in a chat meant to cater to their issues). This is my number one gripe with the current system tbh, mentors putting more effort into looking cool in front of each other and in front of new players instead of trying their best to help out.

Well. That and the titles and mounts, actually. I really don't think adding glamour incentives to a system that is meant to help people out is a great idea - and I'm pretty sure this is the origin of most impatient/rude mentors in roulettes, as they're probably more interested in completing roulettes x number of times for the prize.

Being a mentor should be like a part time job. If you want to be called a mentor then it should come with much more responsibility.

You can't sign on to help new people on a regular schedule? You can't be a mentor. But those that do, should get rewarded for it aka paid.

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Originally Posted by brogettoku

Being a mentor should be like a part time job. If you want to be called a mentor then it should come with much more responsibility.

You can't sign on to help new people on a regular schedule? You can't be a mentor. But those that do, should get rewarded for it aka paid.

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There is a reason why people who are mentors irl do not get paid, its because it then strips what that person has to say of any real credibility. If someone says something to me and I know they are being compensated for it in any way why would I listen to them. The main job of a mentor is to lead and show direction to individuals by example, and that is what a lot of people are not seeing in the current mentoring system as it stands now. Compensating people to be good and decent people in instances instead of elitist jerks will only compound the problem that exist not make it better.

I think what we really need is customer service to actually enforce the mandate of mentors. As it stands now, they are only subject to the same rules as everyone else. So if they harass others badly enough to get banned, we at least have that recourse. But as far as actually being an "exemplar of player etiquette" and so forth, nothing is technically holding them to that. It would be great if customer service (that is, the GMs) actually had the power to remove mentor status from people when it's clear they want Novice Network to be elitist insular endgame chat rather than helping new players as intended by the devs in the first place.

I had good experiences in the NN, but it sounds like YMMV. Report bad mentors to the GM's. The NN is there to help new people not to be the private chat for mentors. Rude mentors in particular should be reported.

While experiences can vary I wish mentors could also rate players, most don't listen, can't take advice, and think they know everything. Oh wait that almost 80% of the human race. So yeah there are trolls every where not just disguised as Mentors.

Ok so rate the mentors like a commendation system for how helpful the advice is, but also add rewards for the mentors who achieve a high rating to encourage them to give the most helpful advice they can. I practically live in this game and have a big knowledge library built up, I can explain how all the systems work in detail, but to be honest it gets tiring answering the same things so many times over the years so I stopped making the effort to maintain the novice network. That and it having a lot of off-topic discussion between mentors when last I checked. Maybe I'm being greedy/lazy asking for rewards for advice; think I'll reactivate NN chat soon and see if anybody needs help.

Rate mentors using a 5 star system... 5 stars means top tier mentor... 1 star is a trash mentor... all mentors start with 3 stars... this would at least identify who should be listened to... 2 stars or less cannot access the NN

We have a commendation system where many players just randomly commend whoever's there regardless of helpfullness just to meet their own commendation challenge log. The Novice Network lets mentors kick others who misuse it, but that turns into kicking wars where they'll just kick each other for having been kicked themselves before...

A rating system sounds good, but only if they could come up with some way to both get people to use it while not encouraging them to mis-use it. They don't seem to have quite succeeded at that before.

I would think they would be more disciplinary actions taken against the bad mentors. We're basically the veterans that accepted the role of helping new players. We're supposed to represent the community, and if a new player see a mentor just behaving in such a negative way, treating them like crap. It could turn people away from the game. Which is money lost for SE...or at least that is how I see it.