Suggestion: Mentors

[sambah]

There are a vast number of skilled coders and designers here, who dedicate their time to making hacks, styles etc for the good of the whole vb community.3

There are many more users who silently appreciate these hacks and love the coders/designers for them.

Sometimes the creators feel like they, and their skills, time and effort are unappreciated on here, due to the nature of the site, where many users just come, download and disappear .:)

Sometimes the users get frustrated because they feel the creators are on another planet where they speak a special language about class functions, pixels and queries etc.

There is another small group on here, users who would like to learn how to code or design for themselves, but get frustrated and eventually give up, merely expending their own time and the peoples who try to help them.

My suggestion is that users who want to learn be assigned a mentor, an experienced person on here who would be able to easily help them with the newbie questions that will inevitably be asked.

In this way the mentors will feel very much appreciated, having an understudy who looks up to them; and will also learn how to speak more simply so that a user can understand them :)

Good idea/Bad idea/A load of bollocks?

[peterska2]

This is an excellent idea, and something that I have been trying to start.

However, unless there are people willing and able to mentor then it is going to be a non starter.

[sambah]

I'm pretty sure many people would be both interested and flattered if approached by staff and offered a mentor position.

[noppid]

I think this could work. One of the problems I see with community help is, we can all do the job, but we may all do it in a different way. So multiple coders addressing one problem with one member could cause confusion.

If there were a way for a coder to address a person one on one so that the thought process and explaination stay on the same wave lenght, it could be helpful.

Of course we can't all be eveything to everyone, so threads may need to be handed off now and them.

Anyway, good idea. I bet many would kick in. The only negetive that I see is some folks just won't be able to code and we don't want to offend anyone.

[sambah]

You could use Threads/PM/Messenger. I thiink the channels of communication already exist should a system be setup and managed nicely!


And I guess you'd just have to be brutally honest with those who are incapable of learning :)

[Freesteyelz]

Hmm. There's a lot of potential with a mentor. You can do it individually or by group; with group members can meet up in chat as a possibility.

Nice proposal. :)

[noppid]

You could use Threads/PM/Messenger. I thiink the channels of communication already exist should a system be setup and managed nicely!


And I guess you'd just have to be brutally honest with those who are incapable of learning :)

I was thinking a hack to manage it, go figure. Yeah, those things would work. People could meet up and schedule times together in threads.

[sambah]

It would certainly bring people closer together!

edit: /me is a little newbie and needs one :(

[noppid]

It would certainly bring people closer together!

edit: /me is a little newbie and needs one :(

Pick a forum, post a question and link us. Let's see what happens.

[Boofo]

noppid can be my mentor. :cross-eyed:

[sambah]

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?p=1001686#post1001686" target="_blank">https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showt...86#post1001686</a>

there we go! lets see what happens

Usually these threads have a really low response rate for some reason.

edit: go easy. i'm only a few days old !

[hotwheels]

well i want boofo has my mentor.............

[Boofo]

well i want boofo has my mentor.............

You are in trouble then, I'm afraid as I was going to ask you to be MY mentor. :(

[Ohiosweetheart]

John I want you to be my mentor :D

[noppid]

Fore the matter, i think the "mentor" idea is great, thats why i asked noppid to be mine.
.

I will help most times if I have the time and my head is wrapped around code. However, I hate helping in PM because no one else benefits.

If someone starts a thread and has a question that I can answer and I find it or it's brought to my attention, I'll help. Biggest problem I would have is sometimes I'm gone for days if the issue is pressing and that could be a problem.

[Lottis]

I will help most times if I have the time and my head is wrapped around code. However, I hate helping in PM because no one else benefits.

If someone starts a thread and has a question that I can answer and I find it or it's brought to my attention, I'll help. Biggest problem I would have is sometimes I'm gone for days if the issue is pressing and that could be a problem.
I know you do. ;)
And i agree about the PM. I have found mutch help from the "search" button.
The most diffecoult thing is, that i sometime is afraid the question is to silly. ;P
If there is something that simpel, that i should find it out on my own.
Thats why i often leaves out to send a question.

[noppid]

Problem with the simple problems is that it's easy to be at a loss for the right keywords to search for.

So we with experience can or might see the question as obvious. If this place is too succeed as a community effort, we have to realize that and link you to the obvious or explain it again.

We all just have to get in that frame of mind again.

However I will add this, if your thread title sucks, most of us won't look. Finding the questions is the hardest part becuse the thread titles can be useless. You must try to get your question accross or th exact topic of it in the title.

It's like flies to honey if you will. We can't resist showing off our skills, but finding the platform to do it can be difficult even with the best intentions.

[Lottis]

Problem with the simple problems is that it's easy to be at a loss for the right keywords to search for.

So we with experience can or might see the question as obvious. If this place is too succeed as a community effort, we have to realize that and link you to the obvious or explain it again.

We all just have to get in that frame of mind again.

However I will add this, if your thread title sucks, most of us won't look. Finding the questions is the hardest part becuse the thread titles can be useless. You must try to get your question accross or th exact topic of it in the title.

It's like flies to honey if you will. We can't resist showing off our skills, but finding the platform to do it can be difficult even with the best intentions.

Thank you, fore your very helpfull answere.
*takes notes about the thread title*
*and leaves the dancing banana alone, tempting*

[corn dog]

That is a very fantastic idea.

I have tried hacks myself and I can make fantastic things, I just cant realease them, everything goes...BOOM :P. TEACH ME PLEASE xD

[amykhar]

The off topic posts and the fight about being off topic has been split off into a separate thread. Please keep this thread focused on the topic of coders mentoring non-coders.

I've done the best I could on getting things cleaned up. Thanks for understanding. :0

[Freesteyelz]

Biggest problem I would have is sometimes I'm gone for days if the issue is pressing and that could be a problem.

As a Mentor, this is where you can teach whomever the art of patience. :D

[Ohiosweetheart]

wow... this thread died...

[Kihon Kata]

Most of my valued possible mentors have left :( But I have tried to keep in contact with them via their own sites.

But I have to say that there are some super skilled hax0rs left here and would love to have one of them for my mentor.

[melefire]

That is a great idea!!

[Adrian Schneider]

Seems to have worked well on SitePoint. Count me in.

[Freesteyelz]

I don't know to what level I can offer; so many talented people. Though, I'm interested too in being a part of it. Just lay out the details and we all go from there. :)

[soniceffect]

I think this is an excellent idea ... I am learning to code in php myself at the moment..