I see this done on NaNo and was wondering if anyone else was interested in maybe doing this. NaNo does an "adopt a newb" type deal and I was thinking maybe we could do that here as well. I think the requirements to be able to adopt a newb is that you have to be a senior member and active on the boards. Any thoughts on this?
I have enought mouths to feed; will my adopted noob come with social welfare and medical insurance of some sort?
lol, don't we sort of do that in our own unconscious way when we help them get through the "newbie' stage by reviews and counter-reviews?
Seems like a noble idea, but I don't really think that "Senior Member" status is a good way to determine who has the knowledge and experience to take someone under their wing. I'll be there soon enough and I still consider myself very new. Perhaps not to the board itself, but certainly to the craft of writing.
My first thought: You need to elaborate this set-up of yours because the current information isn't enouigh to really get wehere you're going with this. That set, I'm going to give my thoughts based on what's already here. The idea has merit, but why force one member on another? If a "newb" wants help, said newb can always look for it and, in doing so, teach him/herself something new. Also, a "newb" to the site may know more than somebody who's "been around the block," so he/she may not need any help at all. Just throwing my thoughts out there, ignore them if you choose
some of the most major probs i see with such an idea: how could we know which ones would want to be adopted?... would the willing noobs be able to choose their adoptive 'parent' or have to be stuck with whoever grabbed them first? what if it's a poor match and turns out to be an uncomfortable experience for either side, resulting in hurt feelings, contention, or worse? what if, as sadly happens too often in real life, some noobs don't get picked/adopted, leaving them feeling unworthy and abandoned? what would 'adoption' consist of that's not already being supplied by many members, not just one?...
Maia, I think the whole idea is that you effectively 'get to know' your noob and so can help them on a more personal level and this will hopefully make the adopter give better reviews and maybe even 'coach' the noob a tad. The idea is perfectly good however I fail to see the benefits of the adopter: they do not get coached and I very much doubt that any warm, fuzzy feelings will arise from doing such an activity via the interwebs...
How does this differ from the way things are currently done? Members do generally greet new members (I'm not fond of the term noob), and thise with common interests or backgrounds tend to stick together. We already encourage members to reply to the New Member Introductions threads, which is generally where the process begins. The biggest difference is that "adoption" reinforces the seniority difference, probably longer than need be. By all means, though, DO go out of your way to greet new members and to help them find their way around. If that is a new idea, I'm all for it. But I thought we were already doing it.
Personally, I would love to be adopted by Mammamaia... The overall concept is rather neat I think. It's more like a mentoring idea, right? I'd love a personal mentor/coach, but are there people who want to BE personal mentors and coaches? It takes desire on both ends in order to be a good thing...that would be my guess.
I sort of disagree with this. You always learn something from interaction. The adopter will pay special attention to the flaws of their adopted members and try to correct them..which in turn would prevent them from making the same mistakes. Doesn't a teacher always learn new things from a student?
The basic setup would be that the people who are interested in adopting new members would have a thread where they post information about themselves and their writing and then the new members who want to be adopted (it's a mentoring thing) will have their own thread and those who want to adopt/be adopted can browse the two threads to figure out which mentor/student relationship would work the best. There are a lot of new members already knowledgeable about writing but this isn't saying that you snatch up every single new member.. it's the new members that are new to writing who want the extra help. And there are more experienced writers who like helping those new to writing improve. The way it's different than the reviewing/counter-reviewing is that the mentor would also help teach the new member how to review properly so that their critiques come across stronger and less like personal attacks (a lot of new writers seem to attack others writing) and to help them during writing a piece if it's needed as well as after. It's more like a mentor/student thing like someone else mentioned. If there's an issue with seniority, then do a thread for Writers of 10 years or more as the teachers because we obviously want experienced writers doing the mentoring and then do a thread for New Writers. Those are my thoughts. Replies to that?
umm, I'd just like to say that just because a writer hasn't been writing long doesn't mean that he/she isn't a good writer, so basically we don not need to focus on "seniority" and "experience" as the criteria for judgement, we need to focus on "talent". A lot of writers, even if they aren't that polished themselves are real good at polishing skills of others. So the "10 years or more" criteria would not work that well, I think.
Okay, well I'm open for suggestions on how to figure out who is experienced enough to mentor. Any ideas?
As a starting point, I know that as an aspiring novelist I would love to be mentored by someone who actually has a published novel. I'm not saying that non-published writers can't be every bit as good, but having published work is a tangible, respectable qualification.
So what does everyone think about that qualification? That the mentor has to have published at least one novel?
<-- I'm one of them. I know there are a few. On an aside... We could always do it as more of a collaborative type thing. Writers that want help from more experienced writers can post on a thread about the type of help and mentoring they want and then any member who feels that they meet the qualifications that the new writer asks of a mentor can respond. That way no one is left out. And even if it gets so that a new member is helping a new member... we have to remember that any sort of collaboration between writers helps strengthen a writer's skills. I think it would work best if the new writers who want help post in a thread "looking for a Mentor" and then list what type of writing they do, what they need help with, and what they feel a mentor should have accomplished in order to be able to help them. Some people may require a published author, some may require a few pieces of that person's work in order to determine for themselves if that mentor will help them etc.
I'm fairly new on here & got lots of people reply to my introduction post which was great & made me feel welcome; one the the best aspects of this site IMO is that you get feedback & coaching from lots of different people with different views on things, & that helps to give a variety of options when editing your work. So I kinda like not having one particular person look, but many many people. Maybe I'm just a critiquing whore though lol. If I can say that word on here? x
Personally, I feel the critiquing service adequately serves the purpose, along with the option to pm when a more personal response is required.
Personally, I would love to be adopted by Mammamaia... ...all ya gotta do is drop me a line and i'll add you to my brood of mentees, yitz... ...as for the 'published novelist' bit, i don't know why so many folks think writing novels is the only thing that makes one a good writer, when lots of very poor writers do it and there are so many other forms of the writer's art that take just as much, or more skill... and 'published' shouldn't include the self-published, imo, since anyone who pays the tab at lulu or PA can get their book in print and that doesn't mean they're good or experienced writers, as witness some of the really awful stuff they put out that never sells beyond their clients' family and friends... for instance, while i've written a novel, had several 'in progress' and have written several screenplays [in my old write-for-money years], they hadn't yet been published or produced, when i left all behind with my agent and dropped out of the material world, but the work i had published [for pay] runs the gamut of all other types of writing, from ad copy for nestle's chocolate, to a famed writer's colony town-commissioned poem, to the theme song for an off-b'way musical and newspaper and magazine columns, and all else you can imagine that takes words... so, would a person with a single book put out by lulu or PA be able to match that kind of experience in the world of writing and publishing?... while it was a nice thought, i just don't see such a thing being able to work here, where so many do so much for each other already, anyway...
Mammamaia, PA isn't self-publishing. At least it wasn't for me. I submitted my manuscript, got accepted, published, and I get royalties from it. I never had to pay them anything.
lynneandlynn, from your description of setting up those two threads, I honestly have to refer back to Cog's statement about the New Members forum- basically, that info's already posted. Also, all it takes is looking at some forums you find interesting and reading other members works, you can tell who can help you and who won't. Click the link of the helpful, drop a question, 9 times out of ten, you'll get the advice you need. If not, there's a myrad other members who could help you just as much. One more thing, the whole mentioning how you're helpful/what you can help with, if you're consice about it, it'll fit in your signature and follow you around the site. What I'm trying to say is that this could work without the extra forum if people chose to use some of the tool already integrated into our system. And there's the Questions and Feedback forum, people are always looking there.
