Suggestion for Novice Network replacement: "Beginner's Board"

[PangTong]

Most people who have been in the Novice Network will be familiar with its problems. The quality varies wildly per server with some NNs basically just being global chat and personal hangout for the server's mentors with no one putting much thought into helping new players.

With the goal of making the concept of the system more focused and effective as a tool for new players to get help, I propose removing the Novice Network as a chat channel and instead replacing it with a bulletin board system, the "Beginner's Board"


The Beginner's Board would be a globally accessible message board-like interface accessible via a sprout icon on the HUD. To avoid bot pollution, the same system of invites can still exist, but anyone on the board can see this icon.

On this board, new players and returners can post questions which appear as topics in a list. Anyone on the board can open, view and respond to an existing question, but ONLY sprouts and returners are permitted to post new questions. Mentors may only respond to existing questions. The question asker can reply to responses to ask for more details or clarification, and in this case respondents may reply again to help. If a question or reply you've posted receives a response, the HUD icon lights up to notify you.


The board could also have a system of ratings. Sprouts and returners may be permitted to rate responses to questions as "helpful".

The number of "helpful" ratings a player receives may be tracked and could serve to prioritize their responses, appear as a "trustworthiness rating" next to the player's comments on the board, or potentially progress new mentor achievements. The interface could also provide the option to report bad or abusive responses, which could penalize repeat offenders by temporarily limiting their access to the board, disabling their mentor status, or triggering a GM review for serious cases.


The board would display the 100-200 most recent questions, with older questions gradually falling off the board as new questions are posted. Ideally players could still view responses to their own questions even if the question itself has expired. Some limit on the number of questions a player has active at once should be there to prevent abuse. Question askers can voluntarily close any of their active questions which removes it from the board.


Due to the fact that sprout status is tracked per-character rather than per-account, it would be possible to abuse the above system by creating new characters, so I think such a system would also have to come alongside a change to make sprout status tracked account-wide, or otherwise preventing players from joining the board as a sprout if they have a non-sprout character. However I think that even without a system of ratings, the board would be an improvement over the current Novice Network.

[Saraide]

Some sort of ingame forum. Alright, doesnt sound too bad. I would allow sprouts to also reply to questions though, both informative replies and further questions on the topic are valuable. Rating systems like that seem overrated but whatever.

[Dikatis]

Bulletin boards are slower than chat channels though. If someone posts something on a bulletin board, it may not be seen for hours or days. Mentors can respond to stuff in Novice Network chat in seconds.

A bulletin board would make it even harder for sprouts to request help queueing for content too. If a sprout asks for help, there's no guarantee that their request would be seen, versus every mentor currently playing and logged into the Novice Network seeing the request instantly.

A bulletin board would be strictly inferior with no real upside. If the Novice Network has mentors abusing their kick privileges, it's up to sprouts and other mentors to report the offenders.

[Saraide]

Bulletin boards are slower than chat channels though. If someone posts something on a bulletin board, it may not be seen for hours or days. Mentors can respond to stuff in Novice Network chat in seconds.

A bulletin board would make it even harder for sprouts to request help queueing for content too. If a sprout asks for help, there's no guarantee that their request would be seen, versus every mentor currently playing and logged into the Novice Network seeing the request instantly.

A bulletin board would be strictly inferior with no real upside. If the Novice Network has mentors abusing their kick privileges, it's up to sprouts and other mentors to report the offenders.

The upside would be to have the topic visible for longer I guess.

[Jeeqbit]

Most people who have been in the Novice Network will be familiar with its problems. The quality varies wildly per server with some NNs basically just being global chat and personal hangout for the server's mentors with no one putting much thought into helping new players.

Usually this mindset is most common among crafter/gatherer mentors who got the easiest version of mentor for that very purpose, but in many of the networks where it's being used as a global chat and a hangout, when a new player asks a question, it does actually get answered.

But a small number of servers don't have mentors that regularly invite sprouts to the novice network. They are meant to use Player Search and find sprouts to invite and when that doesn't happen, there is a noticeable lack of sprouts interrupting with questions.

I propose removing the Novice Network as a chat channel and instead replacing it with a bulletin board system, the "Beginner's Board"

This would probably get as much use as the New Player forum here, or Fellowships which have bulletin boards. So not much.

Sometimes people just want a live conversation to properly discuss their queries rather than a slow bulletin board system and I see a lot of sprouts benefit from being able to fully iron out their query in a conversation, or learn from others' conversations and sharing of experiences.

[Dikatis]

The upside would be to have the topic visible for longer I guess.

From my experience as a mentor on the Gilgamesh NN, we usually have at LEAST 20-30 mentors on at basically all times. I've never seen a question or a request for help go unanswered for more than three minutes. Most are answered in under 30 seconds.

For us, the bigger problem is sprouts not asking questions or refusing to join the NN in the first place because of its popular perception as a mentor chatroom... Which turns them into mentor chatrooms like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The social capabilities of the NN are also important for making the sprouts who do join feel welcome. I happily advertise free minion giveaways and help 40 players each week with the Fashion Report. Being able to chat makes the game world feel less lonely while allowing mentors to foster a positive atmosphere. Of course there are bad eggs here and there, but I've had multiple players tell me they want to come back and mentor other players because of the NN.

[Deo14]

Just use google? The point of asking in NN is that you get real time response, with further clarification if needed. It's also easier to ask question if it's more vague. Players are more likely to understand what you're talking about than google, for example if you use term skin instead of glam and similar.

This won't help NN in any way, you'll just take away opportunity to ask veteran question directly and you'll be limited to slow and delayed forum format, which is something that internet already provides.

[Canadane]

/activehelp if you want a FAQ

[Raoabolic]

Give me the cozy feel of a BBS over the modern glut of twitter and "social media" any day.

[Bladedance87]

How about you keep the NN and you can have your board? Dont see why Servers with a good NN shouldnt miss out just because other NNs suck. Lich has a great NN