New Member Support Discussion

[Mari]

Ok, forgive me if this is jumbled I'm going to go over a few points.

I think before we look at mentors, or acadamies or anything of the sort, we need to look at the layout of the site. Not so much the RP forum parts - but the areas that contain crucial information.

Navigation
I'm not new to forum RP's, I've been doing them for 13 years; even so I found navigating Althanas difficult. Links were broken, hard to find, or just linked to seemingly outdated information.

The new user guide and FAQ section needs to be much more prominent on the home page. It needs to be obvious to newcomers. REALLY obvious. IT also needs to be worked on. A New User Guide should be able to reference to all areas and questions a user would have. I found nothing in there on.

What is there, is fantastic. It just needs elaboration and links. Links are a new users friend!

-Link to where the person needs to post.

You have a link to the update section and how to update a character, but not the initial area where people need to post character sheets, whilst this is generally obvious for people. IT's not for everyone.

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AP
Ya'll need a guide on AP, I have been avoiding using mine because people keep telling me its hard to get, and I thought it was, then things started to be pointed out to me on how to get it, the best way to get it etc. etc. I don't see a proper guide for this anywhere. If we had a nice neat guide on AP that'd be fab, and if there is already one. Shove that link in the FAQ baby! Because that is most certainly a FAQ and most certainly is not in the 'new user guide and FAQ' section linked. here

http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?26564



KNow what would be a good thing to make even more prominent? What shelby linked. I feel having that at the end of the spiel 'beginners guide to Althanas' would help - because then people would go

OH! THere's a whole section here!

The Wiki
What is canon? What isn't canon? I UNNO! I got told so many conflicting and confusing things, "The wiki is canon"
"Not all parts of the wiki are canon, only the canon approved things" Etc etc.

We need to overhaul that thing, add more description to the races, I know Fenn would agree with me there
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I agree with a lot of users here, now - apparently I'm a decent Rper (Ya'll mad) And I found this hella intimidating at first. I think the consensus is it looks extremely formal and professional. Which is great. I mean, we wanna look like we know what we doing, but it's missing that friendly warmth that is so evident in the community.

IF we can somehow show that to new users, it'd make people feel less intimidated by the site and more willing to jump on in.

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Final note; I say mentor system works well in my experience.

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

Some good, constructive discussion here. For the record I am a fan of both systems. The mentor / mentee system creates interpersonal relationships (OOC and IC) on top of the obvious benefits it provides to both staff and members. An academy helps to address specific topics and nuances and can be used to help any level of writer. I see merits in both.

AP
Ya'll need a guide on AP, I have been avoiding using mine because people keep telling me its hard to get, and I thought it was, then things started to be pointed out to me on how to get it, the best way to get it etc. etc. I don't see a proper guide for this anywhere. If we had a nice neat guide on AP that'd be fab, and if there is already one. Shove that link in the FAQ baby! Because that is most certainly a FAQ and most certainly is not in the 'new user guide and FAQ' section linked. here

Guide here, in the Guidelines and FAQS section (2nd thread down after the stickies)

[Gadrial]

I am down to help out in anyway that can. Hell. I would even take part.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

I personally voted for both ideas.

I think anytime we can develop more of a kinship between staff and non-staff is a win for the community.

I can only speak for myself in this, but when I first joined Althanas, I didn't understand many of the original rules. The old rules were much harsher back then, and I think a mentor/mentee program has been a great boon to the site as a whole. I been on the site for a very long time and have been on staff at several points during my tenure (hahah tenure...) here. What I strongly recommend is to continue to develop the program that already exists and make it better, improve upon it.

Althanas is one of the few things that I am passionate about and I just want to someday bring my own kids (If I should ever have any) to this wonderful community of ours.

So anyway guys keep developing the program further and add more incentives/rewards for participation.

Let's make sure our newer writers feel more than welcome on the site!!!

~Pav