Add a "Mentor" role to the staff line-up.

[Girdio]

While this initially was just a throwaway idea I made on the Aurora Discord, I quickly realized that it might be a good suggestion to make formal, especially since it's apparently not been made in the Suggestion forum's history (which is surprising, given the age of the server and forums).

 

Reason for existing.

The Mentor role is something that has begun becoming more and more popular on SS13 servers, within the last five years. Goon, and CM for example, both have mentors and I'm sure a plethora of other servers utilize this position as well, with apparently positive results. While mentor roles may differ on these servers compared to Aurora, I feel that this is something that is long-overdue for Aurora, especially when it comes to fostering a growing population, that is supportive and encouraging of new and old players.

Aurora is, without a doubt daunting to get into. I'm sure many players can attest to joining the server and being overwhelmed with the mechanics, options provided, and even the map. When I came back to the server last year, after being away for so long, I had to reorient myself with a lot of things and I'm sure I would have been more hesitant sticking with it, if I were new. In fact, I've seen this exact behavior happen with new players, people who hear about the server and want to try out this 'high-roleplay environment', and then are completely lost. I've witnessed multiple players join, and wander around for a while before eventually going SSD in the hall or in a chair, never to come back. This actively means we're losing out on players who may really enjoy the server, and help foster a better environment.

It's easy to say "but all you have to do is read the wiki" but that doesn't cover all the questions a new player may have, for example. A mentor program would be able to fill in the gap with responses from a person in the moment able to help out new players or even older players trying out different areas they're unfamiliar with.

How would it work?

Similar to how Mentors are on other servers, Mentors are at the very bottom of the staff totem pole, with some servers not even considering them staff and simply 'slightly above the average player' in terms of responsibilities to the community. As such, Mentors (and the Mentorship team) would have no (or almost no) power, besides being able to respond to Mentor Help requests. Of course, this would mean that while Mentors would most likely need a special chat for them to communicate with, they wouldn't have the ability to see AOOC, current antags, msay/asay, have access to the GamePanel, and anything else.

A MentorHelp is common on servers that have mentors, and is generally used in a similar way that Ahelps are, with it going directly to those with a mentor role, with an individual mentor claiming and closing 'mentor tickets'.

In turn, a Mentor would entirely be there to answer MentorHelps, convene with other mentors if there was a question they wanted clarification on, and help new players out. This also means that Mentors would be much less stress than the role of, for example, a moderator or admin who has to deal with griefing, arguments with the community, and other related issues, and at the same time the Mentor team would take the load off of staff who are currently dealing with questions that would be better suited in a mentor program.

Mentors would have the responsibility to simply guide new players. This can mean simply learning the map, to game mechanics, to minor lore elements, to even explaining how to start getting involved in roleplaying itself. All of these can be challenging to understand and grasp when you're hit with all of this new information at once, especially if you've never played SS13 before. A mentor would not be there to tell a player every single little thing, as new players are still smart and should be expected to figure out some things on their own. In general, a mentor is there to, well, mentor someone and set them in the right direction. Letting players make their own discoveries (within the server rules) and their own mistakes (also within the server rules) would be a necessary restraint mentors had, and they would only be helping when requested.

Responding to possible concerns

• Would this not cause staff bloat? Even with the powers being so limited for mentors, it's possible that a lot of people would sign up to be a mentor, just for the title or the 'power'.
  • I don't see this as being a real issue. Due to mentors having no power, and being able to be removed from their position if they're simply sitting on the title for bragging rights, I don't think many people would take the time to apply and then do nothing. After all, I would assume a mentor application would (primarily) look at players who have put a substantial amount of time into the server, just like other staff roles. We don't see the existing staff just sitting on their laurels to flex having a title or showing up the Staff List, so I doubt this would be any different.
• What's stopping a mentor from overstepping and explaining the entire lore/combat tricks/perfect engine setup?
  • Firstly, I don't think most new players who are reaching out about something are going to be suddenly thrilled with the answer of 'find out ICly', when it comes to setting up the SM, learning how to pull off an oxygen tank from a dying crew member, or even the lore for a place like Dominia. Obviously yes, letting players ask these questions ICly is ideal - but not everyone is that extroverted even in a roleplay environment. I feel that if a player is genuinely reaching out and asking questions about lore for example, it shows a willingness and interest in the world that Aurora has created, but a concern over the large amount of lore presented in one big clump. When it comes to new players asking about lore, Mentors would need to encourage new players to still find out ICly or through the wiki but still answer the question posed by the player, and perhaps even offer a small additional explanation of lore, for the aspect they're asking about. Mentors should also explain to new player why they're being encouraged to find out ICly, and explain the benefit it may give them with feeling more immersed in the world. That said, they should not be discouraging new players from asking questions to them, even if it seems like a new player is still just asking questions about lore exclusively. Again, this shows an interest in learning and engaging with the community and the server, and shouldn't be considered 'wrong' just because it's not the ideal way of learning lore.
    • Gameplay mechanics I feel are more straightforward. To put it simply, sometimes tutorials on the wiki don't make sense and at times may be outdated or not in-depth enough. While this can at times be fixed by playing an Intern or similar role, there's not always going to be a 'full-fledged' engineer on for example, and a new player may need to request assistance in setting up something vital like the SM. A new player will not just say 'well I don't know how to do it, I'll sit and wait for someone else to come on', at least often. Instead, a player may bring up the wiki and end up stressing themselves out by trying to follow it. This is another area where a mentor can help, by giving basic guidance (while not spelling everything out) so that a new player (or new-to-the-department player) can get the basic gist of something, and be able to later do it on their own. This directly would mean people feel less "under pressure" if they're constantly having to tab out to check something, and instead have someone there patiently working with them, even if it's not an IC player.
• Is this really necessary? Adding it may take a substantial time implementing a MentorHelp button, and a Mentor chat. A new player may not engage with it to begin with.
  • I believe wholeheartedly that implementing a Mentor program would only benefit the community, for both new and old members. Despite a new player possibly not interacting with it, it still gives them an option to. Having an ability to reach out, is sometimes all someone needs. While it may not be the easiest thing in the world to add, I believe the longer we go without something like a Mentor program, the longer we lose out on potential new players, and potentially long-term community members with art, stories to tell, roleplay to add, and discussions to build Aurora up.

Afterword

This is my first attempt at making a suggestion on the forums (I believe), and I'm aware that the suggestion isn't a minor one. I fully encourage people to throw in their opinions on this as well, as there may be areas that need altering or could be expanded on. Thanks!

 

Edited January 15, 2024 by Girdio

[wowzewow]

Sounds good on paper, but I don't really why this can't be done on an unofficial capacity.

Main concern with Staff bloat isn't going to be particularly benchwarmers and braggarts, but most likely the administrative overhead. Having a dozen or so quasi-officiated mini-mods is going to be another thing moderators and admins have to keep track of. And I don't particularly like the idea of picking favourites in the community. You are either part of Staff, or aren't. It carries a certain amount of responsibility that necessitates this sort of division.

As for mechanical mentoring, I do not think this is necessary. Aurora already has a reputation of being one of the most forgiving places to learn SS13 mechanics in, namely because of the low stakes and low intensity gameplay the consistent Extended rounds provide - we don't particularly have round-the-clock fragging that Goon or /TG/ does that neccessitates this. As for lore mentoring, we already have the Lore discords. I'm not a Loredev by any means, but it's been the forefront of Lore Team community outreach, and will likely continue to be for the foreseeable future.

 

However, I am not opposed to implementing a Mentorhelp system for /all/ current staff, Devs, CCIAA, Lore and all. They have chosen to invest a large time into Aurora, and are more likely to be able to help with any, if not all issues, aformentioned Mentors deal with.

Edited January 15, 2024 by wowzewow

[Girdio]

4 minutes ago, wowzewow said:

Main concern with Staff bloat isn't going to be particularly benchwarmers and braggarts, but most likely the administrative overhead. Having a dozen or so quasi-officiated mini-mods is going to be another thing moderators and admins have to keep track of. And I don't particularly like the idea of picking favourites in the community. You are either part of Staff, or aren't. It carries a certain amount of responsibility that necessitates this sort of division.

The system doesn't require twelve, or a vast number of members, as I believe (I could be wrong) that would be outnumbering most of the other teams of staff members. Furthermore, with the fact that they lack the ability to cause significant harm to the server, keeping track of a system like this would most likely not be a high-intensity duty. Occasional oversight to ensure nobody is threatening/misleading players would seem to be much easier to handle, than someone who has access to server commands that can alter a round, or can be used to metagame.

As well, this system would undergo an application in the same way any other staff role would be conducted on Aurora, and in line with other implementations on different servers which also require applications. It would not be a situation in which existing staff are performing an outreach and personally requesting favorite players become Mentors. Including them as part of the Staff is still fine, if people believe that they're not 'real assistants' until they're included in the Staff list. Mentors would, akin to other staff roles, still need a period of playtime on the server to ensure they would have a commitment to the server - I don't believe requiring that would be showing favoritism.

12 minutes ago, wowzewow said:

As for mechanical mentoring, I do not think this is necessary. Aurora already has a reputation of being one of the most forgiving places to learn SS13 mechanics in, namely because of the low stakes and low intensity gameplay the consistent Extended rounds provide - we don't particularly have round-the-clock fragging that Goon or /TG/ does that neccessitates this. As for lore mentoring, we already have the Lore discords. I'm not a Loredev by any means, but it's been the forefront of Lore Team community outreach, and will likely continue to be for the foreseeable future.

Aurora has a reputation of being easy to learn the mechanics for some maybe. That said, there are still consistent discussions with new and experienced players regarding engineering and medical mechanics being daunting to learn and tackle. Even in an environment in which it's easier than /tg/, they still can be frustrating and challenging to adjust to especially if you're just getting into a server for SS13. Players being requested to learn these systems during Extended rounds continues to the issues of them still having to switch between platforms to figure out the next steps. As well, even if Aurora may be seen as an easier environment to learn compared to high-intensity platforms, there isn't much reason to not give additional measures for aid as improvement can always be made.

In regards to just utilizing Lore discords, that certainly helps but this also implies that a new player is active or available to utilize Discord. Someone joining for the first, or perhaps second round may not be ready to join a community's Discord servers, and therefore telling them 'go ask on the Discord' for example, doesn't alleviate what they're asking about in the moment and just means that they feel like the question is unanswered. Yes, having new players engage with the greater community is something that a Mentor in this setup should advocate for and suggest, but it doesn't currently resolve the issue by itself.

 

15 minutes ago, wowzewow said:

However, I am not opposed to implementing a Mentorhelp system for /all/ current staff, Devs, CCIAA, Lore and all. They have chosen to invest a large time into Aurora, and are more likely to be able to help with any, if not all issues, aformentioned Mentors deal with.

This puts additional responsibilities on current staff that was not already agreed upon. While some members of the staff may be fine teaching new players during the middle of a round, others may not and placing more duties can increase to burn-out for some positions that can be more demanding.

[Carver]

7 hours ago, wowzewow said:

However, I am not opposed to implementing a Mentorhelp system for /all/ current staff, Devs, CCIAA, Lore and all. They have chosen to invest a large time into Aurora, and are more likely to be able to help with any, if not all issues, aformentioned Mentors deal with.

I'd disagree with this, being one of these doesn't make you knowledgeable all-around nor does it mean you may want to answer every little question. A dedicated mentor on the other hand would be there with the intent, desire and hopefully knowledge (or wiki-traversing know-how) to help out with most questions available.

[Codename: Bear]

I will say I like the idea of a mentor position for Aurora. I get ahelps can be done. I get there is a wiki you can click, but sometimes the wiki is out of date. Sometimes I forget to ahelp something that's confusing me because my brain forgets ahelp can be for ACTUAL IN GAME HELP and not just something lorebreaking or a big game bug (not vaurca) I'm experiencing.

[Fluffy]

I wonder if we can reuse the Heads of Staff whitelist with an opt-in button in the OOC preferences for this, thoughts?

[Butterrobber202]

I think the best people to weigh in on this are staff members themselves, as they experience the brunt of the "load" of ahelps seeking assistance in gameplay. The frequency of those specific types of adminhelp DMs would determine the actual need for this sort of role on the server.

[wowzewow]

6 hours ago, Carver said:

I'd disagree with this, being one of these doesn't make you knowledgeable all-around nor does it mean you may want to answer every little question. A dedicated mentor on the other hand would be there with the intent, desire and hopefully knowledge (or wiki-traversing know-how) to help out with most questions available.

Well, I was thinking it of being more of an opt-in thing. You don't have the obligation to answer it, but the option is always there.

[kermit]

The modmin team already act as mentors to a large degree and there is presumably an expectation that those who apply are familiar with game mechanics, given the question on it in the app format. Can't speak for every modmin, but I know there has been that sense of 'I've got to figure out this department's mechanics so, when an ahelp comes up on it, I can provide a thorough answer.' among myself and a couple others. Part of telling some people off is then being able to lecture them on how they could have better accomplished what they were aiming for – mentoring is part and parcel of moderation. It's also not really that heavy of a role to tack onto the fairly short list of things mods do anyway, I don't think anyone on the modmin team is unhappy that their position isn't just whacking people with sticks for usually very small mistakes lol. So yeah, don't think a whole new branch of staff is necessary personally.

As for people knowing that ahelp can be used for things beyond calling out trouble makers, most new players, in my experience, quickly find out that ahelping can be used for 'I'm stuck, what do I do???' questions, whether they've approach us first or we have.

[Evandorf]

Not to go off too far on a tangent, but I feel like ghosts are an untapped resource for help since most are knowledgeable and are already spectating. If players had an IC way to “look up” information, a “Help” app on the PDA for example, they could ask a question which would be forwarded to deadchat with a link to respond. The information would come back to the player like a VI, or less permanent pAI.

[Ramke]

48 minutes ago, Evandorf said:

Not to go off too far on a tangent, but I feel like ghosts are an untapped resource for help since most are knowledgeable and are already spectating. If players had an IC way to “look up” information, a “Help” app on the PDA for example, they could ask a question which would be forwarded to deadchat with a link to respond. The information would come back to the player like a VI, or less permanent pAI.

I wouldn't normally post here in this thread but this is such a genius suggestion. It's the equivalent of googling something and getting whatever you find off the extranet.

I'd love this as a feature.

[Evandorf]

6 minutes ago, Ramke said:

I wouldn't normally post here in this thread but this is such a genius suggestion. It's the equivalent of googling something and getting whatever you find off the extranet.

I'd love this as a feature.

Just as long as they save people’s searches so sec can find “what’s the best ammo vs normal sec plate” in their history and CCIA can put them on a list.