Suggestion: Adopt a Newb Thread!

[THeBiiGReDSCaRe]

This seems like a great idea.
I know for sure I'm not in the newbie section anymore, but I'm probably not in the 'owner' section yet. ;;

I would still love to help whoever needs it. ;D

*frantically jumps around, raising his hand, grunting*

 

[Hiidoran]

It is tough being a new member on such a big community and to be made someone's 'thing', might be intimidating to some and defer people to join in on the community.

It would be voluntary, Captain Fabio. If someone wasn't keen on the idea of being adopted, then by all means they would be welcome to try out the ropes of PC on their own just as it has been in the past.

I don't imagine a lot of people joining PC will take this option unless they're really into the idea of getting into the group dynamic. Some new members just prefer to do their own thing, and won't be that into the social aspects of PC. Which is fine.

 

[Chibi-chan]

I wouldn't mind doing this.
Count me in if this goes through o/

(But I'll have to make my own criteria on who exactly, I feel like adopting, heh)

 

[Dawn]

This seems like a great idea.
I know for sure I'm not in the newbie section anymore, but I'm probably not in the 'owner' section yet. ;;

I would still love to help whoever needs it. ;D

*Snatches* =D

I think it's up to personal judgement where you are on the scale, personally anyway. Of course it could be the personal judgement of the mods if that was the case.

(But I'll have to make my own criteria on who exactly, I feel like adopting, heh)

It could be a mutual thing. =3 Or chosen people could automatically assign the volunteer new members to adopters they think will be good fits. I personally find the mutual option pretty awesome. A new member offers to be adopted, and an adopter that wants to / can handle it adopts them.

 

[Hiidoran]

I mean, if you really look at the amount of new members that actually want to stay after the first few days, well...I dunno. .__. It just doesn't seem all that likely. It's the new member's choice whether they wanted to be adopted and...really, most of them are just here for the forum's content and stuff...

Yeah... nobody understand that more than Drew and I, trust me. You don't see the countless posts we have to deal with every day that have little more content than, "just looking for the Shiny Gold download..." In fact, if you read back in this thread, you'll see that I bring up the point that most of our new members are here solely for the purpose of ROM hacking or Wi-Fi interactions. However, there are at least a few people each day that are genuinely interested in becoming a part of this community, and that's who I assume we're targeting.

 

[Chibi-chan]

Assuming that they would at least stay with the community and not disappear after a few days. Trust me, I've lurked the new users area here and there before, and the new users hangout and... how many users are actually going to plan to stay within the community and remain until veteran "status"? That's what I keep asking myself. I don't want to be a mentor to someone who's only going to remain within the community within a few days. I want them to become an active part of the community and actually post around and enjoy PC for what it is, y'know?

Well, what kept me on PC was how close I felt to some members when I first joined. My first friend was Paul, and then I met friends through his fanclub, and I did the whole 'PC Family' fad (which seems to be disappearing these days sadly). I think once you have a person as an anchor on PC, they'll stay. It depends on how good of an impression their veteran leaves on them!

 

[Hiidoran]

I don't want to be a mentor to someone who's only going to remain within the community within a few days. I want them to become an active part of the community and actually post around and enjoy PC for what it is, y'know?

I can understand that feeling, I really can. I put massive amounts of effort into directing people in and around this community, and most of the people I help will never come back. Really, it's just a gamble. Help because you want to help... it doesn't really matter if they choose not to come back. You still did your part. As Chibi said, if you put a lot of kindness and effort into showing these new members how great of a place PC can be, then they just might be tempted to come back the next day. It's not like we can weed out the members whom will and will not stay here, so you might just have to take that gamble if you want to become an adopter.

Like it's been said, the people who are only interested in downloading a hack and the like will more than likely pass that thread right up. You don't have to worry about their transience.

The higher staff are discussing it for now, so who knows if it's even going to be implemented.

 

[Chibi-chan]

I guess you have a point there. For me, I have hopes for this thing to work, but I'm still unsure on how it's exactly it's going to turn out. I'm only a bit uncomfortable to put in effort for someone only to end up that they only came here for certain material, but eh. ninja'd by Larry

For me, if it really wasn't for my friends, I don't think I would remain here. When I joined PC, I sorta made it on my own, and I tried to make friends and stuff. Sure, I annoyed a lot of people, but they got to know me more as a person, and in the end, they've helped me out a lot.

.___. I'm just a bit sensitive towards the newer members or shy, or however you put it, and I'm not quite sure how this is going to turn out, as I said. But I guess I'll do it(if this gets implemented), because I pretty much had myself mostly when I joined so I don't want the other newbies to be the same way.

If you're sensitive about it, don't do it and let those who aren't do it :P
Honestly I wouldn't care if the member I trained ran away; oh well. I should have been better in picking my nublet. And yeah. Kinda wondering how my life would have been if Paul hadn't of PM'd me; dalfkdsnfal.

 

[Nick]

Assuming that they would at least stay with the community and not disappear after a few days. Trust me, I've lurked the new users area here and there before, and the new users hangout and... how many users are actually going to plan to stay within the community and remain until veteran "status"? That's what I keep asking myself. I don't want to be a mentor to someone who's only going to remain within the community within a few days. I want them to become an active part of the community and actually post around and enjoy PC for what it is, y'know?

This is the reason why I brought up the idea of a new member adopting a veteran (or another active member of the community, who isn't exactly a veteran as defined by the veteran emblem). I think anyone who's taken the time to greet a new member has faced the fact that they simply aren't coming back. That's one of the main reasons why I just gave up on greeting anyone. In fact, nearly everyone I welcomed eventually ended up not coming back. And my replies were often longer than the original post, so I put a lot of thought into them becoming part of the community and enjoying it for what it has to offer; both what they were looking for, and what they may not have been looking for.

I think the idea of a new member adopting a veteran would be a lot more helpful and supportive of the new member. I see it working in a way where those who are interested in having a new member adopt them (or some other word for adopting, since that's generally done for younger people - maybe shadowing or something?) post in a designated thread. It'll be run sort of like a claims thread or something of the sort, where there's a list and it's updated with people who are interested in having a new member shadow them or something like that. The new members can view the list, click their profiles, see who interests them, and choose them by asking them if they can be their guide to PC.

I think the whole process of finding someone who a new member would like to be their guide would take a few days, so it will really be able to separate those who are truly interested in the community from those who are just here to look for a hack. But that's just one concept on how it could work out.

 

[Eurydice]

I agree with Nick. It'd be a lot easier if the new members would choose their own mentors. After all, it's all about them, right? I feel that we should give them the choice to decide on their own veteran. It'd be sort of meh to have veterans choose their own new members seeing as some of us are incredibly picky on what members we'd like to adopt. D:

i agree with you. i think that the people who would like to adopt new members should write an into about themselves and where they are most active on the boards, then let the new members choose.

 

[mooglehunter]

Hmmm... here's my opinion on it --

PokéCommunity is a very large community compared to others most newbies have been apart of. I remember being intimidated to participating in even the smallest discussions because of how many people would see it. Being a new member in a large forum like this can be intimidating for anyone who isn't used to the mass amount of members who participate in the forums and discussions. Having someone guide you in to all of this can really prove to be a good thing. That's what I had when I joined. There were about four people who would help me out - one of which were really dedicated. Did I feel I needed that many people to help me settle in here? No, but it certainly did help me get situated and encouraged me to become as active as I could be without worrying about anything.

So, I do feel this system is a good idea, because I've been part of it without many people even knowing what it was really all about. But, I do feel that there can be some negative impacts on what happens and how that member is viewed by others. More often than not, I've found that some people here judge people for who they're friends with and who they communicate with simply because they may not like the person. Resentment towards that person follows. Is this a good thing? Of course not, but it's a fact of life - not just something that happens on the internet, but something that happens everywhere. People are always judged by who they hang out with because of the influences that take place. Happens all the time in someone's teenager years where they're labeled as hoodlums because one of their friends did something. I don't like how that happens, but as I said, it's a fact of life.

I feel like that will only be magnified if this system is put into place. I like the idea of the system, but I don't like the idea of so many people being judged in such a manner. And I feel like if someone new is adopted by someone who some people have bad feelings about, the bad feelings will move on towards the newcomer, and they'll be judged immediately for being associated with the member. Like I said, I don't agree with the way things like that happen, but they do. Not by everyone, but by enough people for me to feel un-confident when I say that I think this will be a benefit to the member.

I agree with the whole negative feelings being passed down to the adopted newb, but if someone is disliked for a non-petty reason, i don't see them as teh type to adopt a newb. thats like a gang-member adopting a child, idon't see that as likely

 

[Skip Class]

I agree with Eurydice suggestion.
We should have a list of the people who want to adopt with a description of what they usually enjoy doing on the boards. Maybe also place down who they are already adopting and adopted

 

[Dawn]

i agree with you. i think that the people who would like to adopt new members should write an into about themselves and where they are most active on the boards, then let the new members choose.

I actually think this is a good alternative. Though, what if the adoptees don't know who they want to adopt them? If they are forced to decide on their own it could make the whole finding an adopter thing hard for them.

Here's an idea. The above should happen, but the new members should also get the option to simply ask to be adopted, preferably with a small form about themselves showing basic info and interests, should they not know who to choose. VM/PM could be used for asking a specific person to adopt you, and the thread itself could be used when you're not sure. What do you guys think?

Also, just fyi the vet is taking care of the new member, (At least I certainly hope so o.O) so it's less "adopting a vet" and more "getting yourself adopted". The former just sounds... odd. xD

 

[Taemin]

I agree with Nick. It'd be a lot easier if the new members would choose their own mentors. After all, it's all about them, right? I feel that we should give them the choice to decide on their own veteran. It'd be sort of meh to have veterans choose their own new members seeing as some of us are incredibly picky on what members we'd like to adopt. D:

I'm not so sure that would work either.. Newbie's wouldn't know who's who, and for all they know they could pick the most hated person on PC to 'adopt' them. >A> The whole system seems a bit testy if you ask me. It's a good idea in some ways, but it will cause issues for some people. :/

 

[Luck]

How about either of them choose their mentor/subordinate and if both parties like it they can agree to it?

 

[Blaziquaza]

How about either of them choose their mentor/subordinate and if both parties like it they can agree to it?

Woudn't that mean that less newbies get adopted? It'd fell awkward.
Anyway, I support this idea. :D

 

[Luck]

Woudn't that mean that less newbies get adopted? It'd fell awkward.
Anyway, I support this idea. :D

This way both parties would get a choice in the matter and there wouldn't be any complaining about which party actually decided. If you don't want the person you're adopting/being adopted by to be member X, then you can just not do it.
There shouldn't be too much complaints though. Most people who sign up for this know what they're getting themselves into.

 

[Hiidoran]

How about either of them choose their mentor/subordinate and if both parties like it they can agree to it?

While that would be ideal, it would require a lot of extra time from both parties. The quicker we can match up a newbie and a veteran, the quicker the two can bond, and the quicker the newbie will make friends and find his/her niche within the community.

Really, there are going to be at least minor issues whether the system is based on the new member adopting a veteran or vice versa. In my opinion, it would be best to instate one or the other, and just try and address the problems therein. I can see where Nick is coming from... adopting a veteran would give the new members a better chance of finding someone whom could truly help them out. Personally, however, I like idea of veterans adopting new members, since the veterans are more likely to have the confidence to send a PM and get the ball rolling.

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

How about the people that mentor have to be chosen for their job? That way, no bad mentors should get into the lot.

 

[Hiidoran]

How about the people that mentor have to be chosen for their job? That way, no bad mentors should get into the lot.

We've already discussed restrictions on becoming an adopter or mentor. If you read up, we actually discussed it in pretty great detail. XD Not sure if restrictions will be there in the final system, so we'll just have to wait until the upper staff decide to let us know anything. :3