Remove the Mentor crown

[LeonKeyh]

Removing the crown would remove the "status symbol" and new player chat channel that these players use to clown themselves by thinking they're better than everyone. You can't remove their clown but you can remove the platform they broadcast the clown on.

Novice Network is the ONE place that the Mentor program doesn't fail and you want to remove that? The Mentors are fine, there are some assholes but there are assholes in ANY vertical slice of a community.

The real problem is that the "post modern" player can't take any sort of criticism or advice which isn't a problem with the mentor program.

just make the criteria harder, and not something you accumulate over time just by playing the game
it's just that simple

That would make it more of a status symbol and an even bigger problem. Nothing needs to happen with the system.

[Nav_Fae]

You can remove their crown but you cannot remove their behavior. If you think some Burger King crown is what is making people toxic then you're sorely mistaken. They don't need that crown. It could be a watering can and still be equally as much as a status symbol. Being given access at all to Novice Network is a status symbol. My point is, you take away the current thing, they'll only find something else. Taking away rewards is not the answer. As much as you think it should be in people's good nature to help and not be rewarded, that's just not the case. Life is full of this. Therapists get paid, Doctors get paid, teachers get paid. You might sit here and say "but those are jobs... ofc they get paid. What are you smoking?" but my point is, is that being a mentor isn't much different. It's a thankless, incentive less, volunteer position. Sprouts are going to continue to call them useless and unhelpful even if the rewards were removed. All you would achieve is reducing the total number of people volunteering wither good or bad mentor. (And even the people who are doing it out of the "kindness in their hearts" are still doing it for attention and status to a point). At least with mentor roulette, this allows more people to queue for dungeons. Take that away and queue times will absolutely suffer for it.

Also making the criteria harder would strengthen the status symbol even more. The mentor system is better off as is. The only thing it's ever needed is better moderation by actual SE GMs. Especially when entire cliques of friends run/operate Novice Networks and install themselves as the leaders/owners of the *Linkshell* and use their friendship and alts to kick those out that do not conform to their ways.