I removed mentor status today.

[Tsumdere]

I want to say it's opt-out for mentors and opt-in for sprouts. As you can decline the invite. If irc when a person 1st gains their mentor status and there's room in the chat they get instantly tossed into it.

Mentor and sprout are opt-in. I have never been in the NN for the years I've been a mentor. Recently I got mentor on another character and wasn't put in NN.

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My biggest issue is that it's hard for sprouts to find mentors that well... mentor. Vice versa. I would love to find people to mentor without joining NN which as I hear from my friends is largely a global chatroom and not someplace to teach. And preferably without cold approaching people in the overworld who may or may not be alts/aggressive to suggestion.

Another game I played had a mentor system where it paired you with a random newbie who opted into mentorship, and you had a private chat with just you two. You got reward bonuses for playing with them and a little sticker on your profile when they graduated and they rated you well. The newbie could report the mentor for inactivity or abuse (and leave to find a new one), and if you got multiple strikes of newbies leaving you for these reasons you got your mentor status stripped permanently. You could only get it back with an appeal.

I really liked it, and I raised several newbies and made friends with some of them. It's more personal.

[Jeeqbit]

I would love to find people to mentor without joining NN which as I hear from my friends is largely a global chatroom and not someplace to teach.

The novice network is where you will find people to mentor. I used to think like you because everyone would say it wasn't a good place, but once I joined I discovered new players and returners ask questions all the time and when I chat in there, I'm teaching people about the game all the time.

[Tsumdere]

The novice network is where you will find people to mentor. I used to think like you because everyone would say it wasn't a good place, but once I joined I discovered new players and returners ask questions all the time and when I chat in there, I'm teaching people about the game all the time.

I would be more inclined to use NN on any other server.

Edit: To be clear, it's more that my server has been a closed server for years - since I started playing in HW. It only opened up briefly in early EW and was closed again. There is such a miniscule pool of genuine new players it's hard to make it worth it, and I cannot even guarantee that sprouts will be online when I am. I haven't seen anyone with a sprout next to their name that isn't an alt from Balmung in years. That's why my friends left and why I would prefer a NN alternative.

[Jeeqbit]

To be clear, it's more that my server has been a closed server for years - since I started playing in HW. It only opened up briefly in early EW and was closed again.

I'm aware. I used to be on Balmung for most of the years I played this game. I was in its Novice Network for a really long time. It wasn't the best novice network, but it was far, far from the worst and helped sprouts and returners regularly still. Mostly returners, but they still count because they are returning to the game and have forgot things.

Unrelated, but the closed nature of the server was extremely problematic because fresh players are vital to have new statics to join and Balmung was just kinda stuck with all its old, established players and FCs.