New Feature New Mizahar Mentor Program!

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IC News travels slowly in Mizahar. Fortunately there is a constant stream of news from around campfires, from caravan to caravan and from merchants to merchants. Within this forum lies the best of the best of this talk. Also, within this forum, OOC news from the staff and players can be found. This forum requires all posts to be 'approved' by a Founder before they are displayed. So if you post within, be patient. Your post did display - it simply will not show to everyone until approved as actual 'news'. Please keep all Introductions, Status Updates, and various other discussions in their appropriate forums and leave this area for game news!

New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Gossamer on August 10th, 2013, 5:44 pm

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Greetings Mizaharians!

ImageWe’d like to proudly introduce our new Mentor Program to the site. We have had a record number of new people signing up this summer and the floodgates are still open. These new people often have questions and need help finding their way in the game. Sometimes they just need a more experienced person to talk to them about Mizahar or even run a first or second thread with them in the game. That’s where our Mentor Program comes in. Just because someone is a veteran of Mizahar doesn’t mean they have all the answers or can really be either willing to answer questions or be dependable on those answers.

This is why we have created The Mentor Program. Players interested in becoming mentors get a shiny new medal that denotes they are ‘trusted’ by the site to answer newbie questions and take on newbies as mentors.

The way this works is two fold. Mentors can be asked questions by anyone and they in turn can be counted on to answer reasonably, to the best of their knowledge, or go find out for the person asking the question. Mentors can also take a new person under their wing and run a thread or two with the new member to give the new person a feel for the game. We will not have ‘assigned’ mentors to each newbie, per say, but if a Mentor does decide to take someone on as a project they can and will be allowed to do so. Mentors will also be expected to hang out in the Q&A forum and be generally helpful in chat and the Introduction forum. We will probably pull future chat mods from the mentor program as well.

Mentors are a volunteer position. If we get enough interest, we can eventually assign them their own group and give them their own forum. For right now, we’re going to be considering the Q&A Forum their stomping grounds. If you are interested in becoming a mentor and helping out new people to the game, the procedure for application is fairly simple.

You will need to apply in the HELP DESK. Title your thread Mentor Application. You will need to tell us why you want to be a mentor, what your strong areas are, and have two recommendations by current staff members. Mentors must in addition be qualified to be a mentor. We consider people with over 300 posts (mostly IC), and a member in good standing on the site (no past bans, warnings, or conflicts).

Once approved, you will be issued a shiny new Mentor Medal and we’ll set you loose among the newbies.

All this information can be found under the Mentor page in the wiki.

Regards,

Gossamer
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New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Kyodaija on August 13th, 2013, 2:31 pm

This is a pretty slick idea, good way to lighten the load for the mods without necessarily recruiting a bunch more people.
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New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Liyana Winterflame on August 23rd, 2013, 9:55 am

Wonderful idea. It's actually wondrously perfect, splitting jobs into smaller jobs for different kinds of mods.

Chat mods, Character Sheet Liaisons, Storytellers, and now Mentors.
Makes me wonder if more jobs could be divided.

Perhaps Lore mods? I imagine they would make sure the Wiki is kept up-to-date, and they would be in charge of filling in any new information.
Something like a cross between a magazine Editor and a Librarian.

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New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Vyvian on September 7th, 2013, 8:01 pm

As a total newbie to this site a couple of days ago, I thought you might like some feedback.

While the majority of people I talked to were friendly and helpful (note: Majority) I still sometimes felt at a loss as to what I needed to do next, like where to post I was interested in an IC thread, or where I check that my character is approved etc.

Perhaps newbies could ask to have a mentor look after them, and have a mentor look after four or five people?
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New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Jervis Hill on September 9th, 2013, 1:48 am

I would be willing to do this, I'm not extremely knowledgeable yet but I would enjoy helping new players. I also think it would help me learn more for if I decide to apply for a storytelling position of any sort. Think this is a great idea Goss, Keep up the good work and I hope you'll have me
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New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Edelweiss on September 9th, 2013, 12:01 pm

ImageHaving just started out I was lucky to have a RL friend who joined here and was able to point out some key things to look at and read; but also that I spent a month wavering to join or not. I think this would be a good idea, but only if the volunteers are actually knowledgeable. If you get someone who does a half job you’re going to have more mistakes in the character sheets than ever, and later on more questions or uncertainties brought to the mods.

Something that might also be helpful is a small list of the staff and how they act and what they do or have done in the site. At the beginning I took a foul to what a mod, had said to me when I didn’t have to. It was a misunderstanding on my part at how the mod worked. A small little blurb for each mod would save people reacting like I did and having to have another kind role player poke them and explain it; or even not and just be unhappy. Not being from an English speaking country I mistook directness to help me to something rude when it was anything but. >< A very large mistake that I hope no one else has to make.

So yes! Just a little list of mods, what they do around the site and what they have done. Something about them and on how they handle things. I think just this small thing could help some users feel a bit braver in asking for help not just trying to go it alone and hoping for the best.
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New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Vernadel on September 9th, 2013, 12:48 pm

Oh, I agree with Edelweiss about the list of staff! I feel as if I'm being such a bother to people asking them questions when I have no idea who I should be going to for what I need. It takes me a long time just to get to the proper person, and I feel like I have annoyed some staff already simply by asking for clarification or who I should be contacting. Also, maybe some of the STs could be updated as I think there are STs for cities that aren't listed and some that are no longer active.
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New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Wrenmae on September 10th, 2013, 3:58 am

Perhaps active mentors could be added to the starting guide sent to players...sort of someone to help them out if they need some extra push.
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New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Banickle on September 10th, 2013, 4:11 am

There is a Moderator List that is updated often and it contains a blurb on each position found on our board, as well as lists where each mod is located. As for anything more detailed than that, it probably won't happen. Ideally, every moderator should treat you kindly upon first contact, however, real life does often dampen our moods and entries on the board can be interpreted several different ways, especially if you do not know the person behind the post or are not familiar with their native tongue or culture. I say, just surf around, read posts, poke chat, and get to know us. We're not that frightening. Well, most of us are not. Most of us.

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New Mizahar Mentor Program!

Postby Shayna on September 10th, 2013, 4:49 am

I have to say. It is very very overwhelming when first starting here. My first character is in a defunct city because I didn't know to really watch and make sure that the city had an active ST or JrST or any active PC's. So I started a new character and got really lucky to have chosen Kenash. Banickle has been super patient with me learning the rules of the site, and the basic lore.

But it is not as easy to find the help up front.

That being said there are several in the Chat area that are willing to help if you ask questions.

Also in the "whos online" list names in colors generally denote some sort of Story Teller that can and usually will be able to help you.
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