My advice, keep away from the novice network. Although it is intended for helping new players, but half the time people go after mentor crowns as an achievement to wear than actually help folks and you might be met with toxicity.

For the time I was a mentor I saw the novice network represented poorly what the game's overall community is like, which is why I think they need to rethink how mentor status is earned.

I'm well experienced in this game by now as I've played pretty much non stop since beta and I love helping people out, particularly newbies but I don't chase after a mentor crown to do it. I did wonder after seeing how people behaved in the novice network how it represented the rest of the community to new players.

In my experience it has been one of the better communities overall and sorry to hear it was the more toxic side to the community you ended up experiencing.