It is a great idea to have mentors, and it has been proposed a few times before.

The problem is that it will be almost impossible to get enough mentors for the amount of people needing them.

If someone could be a mentor, they are often already very busy themself, and will already help people at the moments they have some spare time. Sometimes a mentor-like relationship comes from this, but that would also require a "click" between the 2.

The problem with becoming an "official mentor" would be that you would loose control (or at least it will feel that way) over when you help others.

Until now all projects like this have unfortunatly failed.

I think you are limiting yourself by asking that it be done over an instant message client. Many of us can't use them at work. Keeping things on the forums may mean you wait a bit to get your question answered, but it also means that somebody else benefits from your question and the answer.

Marco I think it's at least worth a try :) I know many people like me, eager to learn will really appreciate it (and that's never really forgotten ;) )

I propose, a new section is created along with a new usergroup (for Learner coders) - the permissions are set so that Learner Coders can only see the threads they post in that section, but all coders can see all threads in the section - that way Coding Mentors can subscribe to the threads of the people they are Mentoring to easily keep track of them.

Why not just make the section public? Because when learning, one of the best ways to learn is to modify an exisiting similar hack to do exactly what you want - and as the original hacks belong to someone it wouldn't be fair to post those changes on the public board without asking for permission first - remember, at this stage and this particular project, its about helping others learn to code vB hacks, only. In addition that privacy will also help build a relationship between Mentor and LCoder. You could even have a bunch of mentors helping a LCoder in that section... those details can be discussed amongst the Coders and they can decide which would be best for them.

With regards to demand meeting supply, you can do it on a first come first serve basis, and you'll probably find, as Learner Coders get better, they use less of the Mentors time who can then take on more people if they want to. Even if 5 people are helped in one year, that's 5 more than none :-)

It will depend on what other knowledge you have, you will need at least the basics of HTML. If you have that then two books I think are pretty good are PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites (Visual QuickPro Guides) by Larry Ullman and PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson. Incidently - I asked for book recommendations here on vB.org before ordering :p

I'm not sure the usergroup method you describe would work as well as you expect - because I think quite a few of the "learners" would be people who have already done a small amount, and maybe released a small mod or two - enough to already class them as coders on the forum.

The next question is how many peolpe would seriously be prepared to be a "Mentor", experience in the past has been that everyone thinks what a great idea, but then no one actually steps forward.

I think those coders, are probably already asking for help in the coders forum? Or at least thats what I imagined one of the purposes for that section would be. This is more for those just getting on the ladder, people who are starting to learn php and need to get into the little details with vB :)

Already SirAdrian and Adrian, have said they are happy to give it a go, Amy has replied so I guess is keeping an eye on it too... and how about you Paul? I think you'd make a good Mentor too :p

There'd be no harm in setting it up and seeing how it goes, we all know it may or may not work out - but we shouldn't let that stop us trying :)

Instead of having one mentor asigned to one "learner".

Why not make a forum like suggested, with usergroups, learners and mentors.
Then, the learners just post help, or what they would like to know, and any mentor assists them. ;)

Adrian

Wouldn't that be the "Programming Discussions" forum then? :p

That could work too - I guess in addition to each person having a specific Mentor, any mentors noticing they could help in one given situation/thread could post too.. hence having their permissions set so they can see all the threads and not just their students :) However, that's something that the Mentors could decide on themselves, as you might find some Mentors preferring to Mentor solely.

KW802, the way it will differentiate from the programming discussions section is the criteria and basis of the new section. That is people who are serious about learning will be offered a Mentor, and as Mentors will be giving some sort of commitment it will eradicate the current frustration - that is threads going unanswered.

And who will be allowed to post a new thread in that forum?

The Learner Coders who have been assigned/found a Mentor (but they will only be able to see their own threads (which is easily set in Admin CP > permissions)).