Mentor IRC channel

[poland spring]

So most of the time when I'm playing it can be difficult to respond in a timely fashion to mentorhelps because I am busy in-game. Other times, when I've asked for help from a mentor, I've been sad to discover no mentors are currently active on the server. I know that admins have a channel where they can view adminhelps from players, why not give mentors a channel where they can do the same for their mentorhelps? This allows us to respond to calls for help even when not playing on any server, thus ensuring that many more helps get answered.

[Lantern]

So most of the time when I'm playing it can be difficult to respond in a timely fashion to mentorhelps because I am busy in-game. Other times, when I've asked for help from a mentor, I've been sad to discover no mentors are currently active on the server. I know that admins have a channel where they can view adminhelps from players, why not give mentors a channel where they can do the same for their mentorhelps? This allows us to respond to calls for help even when not playing on any server, thus ensuring that many more helps get answered.

This seems like a pretty good idea. Im not a mentor currently, but i can certainly see how this would be helpful to those that are a mentor.

[Haine]

I like this idea. I don't always have time to respond to things with as much detail as I'd like while in-game, and some days I'd like to help people out, but not necessarily play or observe. I have more time during the day where I'm able to be on IRC than in-game, as well.

I dunno the difficulty of implementing this, but I think it'd be something I'd use often, certainly.

[Rageguy504]

A plus i see from this is that this removes the metagame from asking certain questions. Like wizard spells and changeling powers.

[Conor12]

If this was realistically going to happen then mentors would need to be able to pm players from IRC, which will probably need admins to oversee to prevent abuse.

A fair few mentorhelps get ignored (can't have mentors on every server 24/7) so I guess this is a good idea.

The IRC isn't lacking in mentors either.

[Clarks]

Urgh. Don't get too worked up about mentoring. If no mentor is playing or they don't have an answer, people can ask over the radio or figure it out on their own. Non mentor players can be equally competent and helpfl, and learning to ask on the radio can't hurt.

Let's not turn mentorhelp into a 24/7 1-800 hotline.

[poland spring]

If this was realistically going to happen then mentors would need to be able to pm players from IRC, which will probably need admins to oversee to prevent abuse.

A fair few mentorhelps get ignored (can't have mentors on every server 24/7) so I guess this is a good idea.

The IRC isn't lacking in mentors either.

Yeah you'd definitely need some oversight, but ultimately I think it'd save the admins time and effort, as usually (at least in my case) when mentorhelps don't get answered, folks go to adminhelps for results. This isn't to say I want to get rid of the cherished tradition of beating yourself to death with your own shoes in your first few rounds, but chances are you wouldn't know to mentorhelp by that point, anyway. The large number of mentors on the IRC is why I came up with this in the first place, as far more often you have people on IRC than in-game.


And in regards to Clarks, the whole point is not having them have to ask questions over the radio. If they are asking about traitorous things, that could potentially ruin their round. I'd like to prevent that.

[KikiMofo]

Urgh. Don't get too worked up about mentoring. If no mentor is playing or they don't have an answer, people can ask over the radio or figure it out on their own. Non mentor players can be equally competent and helpfl, and learning to ask on the radio can't hurt.

Let's not turn mentorhelp into a 24/7 1-800 hotline.

I'm with Clarks here. People need to learn stuff on their own sometimes and they can ask over the radio too. No one is going to yell at them for asking about how to do stuff over the radio. Lately there has been alot of handholding and handholding is what leads to more players that think things should be easier. Also if someone asks how to make a secret chem you shouldn't just tell them how to make it, Just give hints. I mean jeez, How much handholding do people need?

[poland spring]

Urgh. Don't get too worked up about mentoring. If no mentor is playing or they don't have an answer, people can ask over the radio or figure it out on their own. Non mentor players can be equally competent and helpfl, and learning to ask on the radio can't hurt.

Let's not turn mentorhelp into a 24/7 1-800 hotline.

I'm with Clarks here. People need to learn stuff on their own sometimes and they can ask over the radio too. No one is going to yell at them for asking about how to do stuff over the radio. Lately there has been alot of handholding and handholding is what leads to more players that think things should be easier. Also if someone asks how to make a secret chem you shouldn't just tell them how to make it, Just give hints. I mean jeez, How much handholding do people need?

I definitely agree with the sentiment that people need to learn stuff on their own, but you've got to keep in mind that you're coming from the perspective of someone that's been playing for a long time. We've got three servers now and only one is ever populated, and the fact that the help function we've provided to them is frequently unavailable doesn't help new players enter the game any. I'm not in any way advocating giving out secrets or anything like that, just to make an existing feature that's already been implemented actually work the way it was intended to. I never see anyone give out chemistry recipes, hints are usually what people share over mentorhelp. Honestly, I'm not trying to dumb down the game any, just smooth out the rough edges a bit and actually give new players a chance to get into the game.

[UrsulaMejor]

mentorhelps already go to the adminhelp IRC, I believe? I'm not so sure about it. But Shitbot could probably be easily programmed to pull a little extra weight as far as IRC mentorhelps go

[Wire]

Yeah mentorhelps get sent to our admin channel.

I suppose I could work in a system that would only allow mentors to PM people who have mentorhelped that round, in order to prevent some possible abuse.

I generally like the idea though.

[AffableGiraffe]

i dunno about you guys but i really like the idea of a mentor IRC. i feel like people would get their answers more quickly and in-depth. i always love to answer mentorhelps to the best of my ability but when i'm in-game and there's murder going on everywhere and nowhere to stop, it gets difficult. and while i do know that these people could easily go over the radio, i know for a fact that when i was first starting i mentorhelped questions i was too embarrassed to ask over the radio without aggravating people. i just feel like asking over the radio is just asking for wrong answers or for really snide remarks (i admit some guilt to this, hurk), and that's not helpful to newbies at all.

[YJHGHTFH]

mentor irc'd be really handy, I'm on irc wayyy more often than I'm ingame

[bubs]

I don't get the connection between mentors and admins being more able to see mentorhelps and more people mentorhelping. That being said, I ALSO don't see the problem with more people mentorhelping. People don't have to figure out a fucking thing on their own, I know you fuckers sitting here talking about figuring stuff out sure as shit don't.

This is a good idea, kiki and clarks have bad opinions on the matter (call the newspaper)

[Clarks]

When a mentorhelp comes up and nobody has an answer I never see the guy who asked repeat the question over the radio. Having times when no mentors are available hopefully reminds people that they can get help or learn from other players as well.

On the other hand, I can't wait for someone asking an easy question and receiving three answers from mentors in game and five more from irc.
There's a ton of rounds when mentorhelp has no questions; setting up a channel, watching it, goes way beyond what's needed.