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Perl Monk Mentors

by thabenksta (Pilgrim)
on Aug 09, 2001 at 00:04 UTC ( [id://103202]=monkdiscuss: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

I was browsing around Everything 2 the other day and noticed their E2 Mentoring Sign-Up and it occurred to me that this would be an excellent feature for Perl Monks. I don't know a lot about the Everything Engine, but I assume that since Everything 2 is using it, it wouldn't be to difficult to integrate.

Basically monks above a certain level, let's say Monk(5), could put themselves down as willing to mentor an X amount of newbies. They could give a short description of their specialties so the newbies could find a Monk that best suited their needs. It could be as simple as having a list of volunteers and a list of newbies in need and they could seek out each other. Maybe this would help decrease the number of simple repeated questions in SOPW.

The idea needs some fine tuning, but I think it would be good for everybody.

-thabenksta
my $name = 'Ben Kittrell'; $name=~s/^(.+)\s(.).+$/\L$1$2/g; my $nick = 'tha' . $name . 'sta';

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl Monk Mentors
by KM (Priest) on Aug 09, 2001 at 16:53 UTC
    As an FYI, there will likely be a montoring program in the somewhat-near future (nothing to do with PerlMonks). It will be under the whole learn.perl.org "project" we have been working on. I just have to get a few tuits to put the ideas into action :)

    But! That does give me a chance to ask you folks this: What would you look for in a mentor, and what would you (as a mentor) look for in an 'apprentice'? These questions will be posed in various places, but I need ideas to what people will look for so I can build the system around what people expect. Any suggestions are appreciated, I want to plan this well so it actually works, and isn't thrown together in a way that noone benefits.

    Cheers,
    KM

Re: Perl Monk Mentors
by beretboy (Chaplain) on Aug 09, 2001 at 05:51 UTC
    Splendid idea! But I think there needs to be more requirements to be a mentor other then XP.

    "Sanity is the playground of the unimaginative" -Unknown

      While I agree mentoring would be a very good idea, as beretboy touches on above there should be more criteria other than XP to become a mentor.

      Mentoring on this site, I believe, would clear-up the numerous threads regarding newbie areas, mails to new users telling them what to do/not do, the problem of downvoting poorly phrased first-time questions etc. But, and this is a very big but, (not from where i'm standing - tee hee), designated Mentors will have to be well-thought out.

      A Monastery Mentor® would be a very prominent "face" of PerlMonks, and thus I feel should be elected by current members. A great deal of responsbility would be bestowed upon the Mentor, and we must ensure this responsibility will be taken seriously. Perhaps those who feel they can dedicate time and effort into the nurturing of new members could start a thread with their names on it, and we could then vote for, say, five mentors in total?

      Thoughts? This could be the final piece in the "Newbie Puzzle"...

      Azatoth a.k.a Captain Whiplash

      Make Your Die Messages Full of Wisdom!
      Get YOUR PerlMonks Stagename here!
      Want to speak like a Londoner?

        I aggree with both azatoth and beretboy. Perhaps vroom could select a few elite Monks to be the initial mentors. Then other monks could be nominated or apply. The selected monks could then vote on the prospective mentors.

        -thabenksta
        my $name = 'Ben Kittrell'; $name=~s/^(.+)\s(.).+$/\L$1$2/g; my $nick = 'tha' . $name . 'sta';
Re: Perl Monk Mentors
by melguin (Pilgrim) on Aug 09, 2001 at 20:38 UTC
    Excellent idea. However, I think that there should be different levels of mentors. At the lowest end would be people (like me) that have a solid foundation of Perl, but not the great depth that others with lots more experience have. Higher levels would obviously have more experience/expertise.

    The lowest level mentors would get the questions first. This does two things: 1) doesn't waste the time of those who are Perl gods with questions like "How do I populate a multidimensional hash?" and 2) it allows the low-level mentors a chance to solidfy their knowledge by explaining and teaching it.

    If they aren't sure, then they can pass it up to a higher level mentor, and so on.

    I personally would love the chance to do this.

Re: Perl Monk Mentors
by Malkavian (Friar) on Aug 10, 2001 at 18:56 UTC
    Maybe it's just my perception, butI'd always thought of Perl Monks as a consensus mentor.
    The state of being an apprentice is the forming of questions, and asking questions of the Mentor. Also of the Mentor posing questions for the Apprentice to puzzle and learn from.
    In the various forums existing, there are already the question to answer parts. And not only that, but many minds contribute, eventually attaining a highly accurate answer, which is correct for most values of correct.
    The posing of questions is oft done in the form of obfuscated perl, and in things like the Golf games.
    Perhaps a lot could be gained from a new section written by the more enlightened monks, posing subtle teasers for the rest of us to learn from..

    Malk
Re: Perl Monk Mentors
by thabenksta (Pilgrim) on Aug 09, 2001 at 21:17 UTC

    I just realized something else. If a mentor is answering all of a newbies questions, the newbie wont be posting those questions and therefore will miss out on some XP. Maybe there should be some facility for the mentor to give their "student" XP for good questions and such.

    I hope this isn't getting to complicated. Maybe we should ask our fearless leader if this could or would ever happen before we get too far into it.

    -thabenksta
    my $name = 'Ben Kittrell'; $name=~s/^(.+)\s(.).+$/\L$1$2/g; my $nick = 'tha' . $name . 'sta';

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