Mentor System

My answer will be in 5 section:

1. Answers to Cayr's 3 question
2. Current 'mentor' system
3. Things that i agree with proposed mentor system
4. Things that i disagree with proposed mentor system
5. Alternatives to proposed mentor system
6. Summary

1. Answers to Cayr's 3 question
   1.1 I do think that is a good idea, but i think it is unnecessary and could do more bad than good.
   1.2 I would opt-in for this option. I would expect that i would be 'trained' in group contents, in SWL's case, dungeons, nyr, lairs in terms of tips and tricks, mechanics, alternative solutions etc... I would be expecting my mentor to be active.
   1.3 When me and my mentor decide to do something in i would expect him to be there. Do some training once or twice in a week. Especially in weekends.

2.Current 'mentor' system

I am in ODO for a year now, and from what i have seen to this day, there were always helpers that helped new people around, for my case it was Tarrel, who thought me Darkness War, the very first day i joined ODO.
I do remember many people already helping new players and/or players that couldnt burn their keys or had trouble finishing a content. Of course it was not always the case. Sometimes people don't feel like it or simply there was not many people online at the time, But i do think that this 'mentor' system is already in ODO. It is just not 'official' so to speak.
This 'mentor' spirit was always in ODO, even players that don't help much people, would come to 'recue' many raids/dungeons. Same goes to discord channels, when someone ask a question be it a basic info or a build, they always got an answer.
I would give examples to prove my point of this but that would mean i would have to give names, which i don't think is a good idea for the time being.

3.Things that i agree with proposed mentor system

Helping new players, give them a good experience in in-game content, and promoting healthy envoirenment for new players.
Could also help new player to get used to ODO, so that they wont be/feel stranger anymore. Making them feel like they are home.
Could also make new players to like the role of a mentor if they like the mentor (I had that with Tarrel), so that in future they could decide to be a mentor. Which even improves the cabal even further.

4.Things that i disagree with proposed mentor system

I would like to question this idea's origin point. AWOL has said that "We get some new members of ODO who are new to the game, and aren't very well integrated/active in cabal chat. My worry is that these players basically feel like there is no support for them, and rather than telling us, just stop playing or leave the cabal."
If they are not even trying, why would anyone be responsible if they feel like they have no support ?
Lets say they stopped trying after trying to get help from cabal-chat. Now thats a general issue in ODO actually, you will see plenty of people that wants to a dungeon or lair but they won't write anything down to cabal chat, because either they think no one will join or they are unable to host it because they cant tank them or unwilling to tank them. Assuming Tank role is the most wanted one in a content.
And i don't think this mindset can be changed by mentor system.

This mentorship for both mentor and mentee becoming a job. This is one of the two reason why i would reject being a mentor. If you put a 'rule' on mentor system, even the slightest rule that makes either side 'has' to do something, that automatically becomes a job,because you simply have to do it. And to make this system work properly and successfully you have to put some rules or at least some expectations for it. Many things about this issue is already been said in officer conversation.

Expectations and personality incompatibility between mentor and mentee. This is the second reason why i would reject being a mentor. I myself would see myself as a more 'disciplined' mentor if i were to accept being a mentor. But what if my mentee was a slacker and dont want to really learn anything. That would promote a tense relation with mentor and mentee, and in the end maybe they would break up only with emotional baggage. Same goes for opposite side, mentee want to works more but mentor wants to slack.

5.Alternatives to proposed mentor system

I really liked Taishaku's proposal to create training run events, could be for any kind of content.
I do remember that we tried to have training e5 nyr back in the day. But most people were more interested in completing e5 nyr rather than train for it. But i think if there is a need of an event for helping new players, this is the answer for me.

6.Summary

So in the end i think current system, which actually there is no system at all, is better than proposed mentor system. Proposed mentor system sounds nice and all but i don't think its neccesary to risk very bad stuff in hopes to get a little bit good stuff. Something like my cabal bank proposal really, could solve previous system's flaws but also bring its own flaws as well. I really think current system is good enough for the time being.
But of course i will still monitor what people can bring to the table in this matter.

The problem exists that we have people in the cabal who, for whatever reason, find it hard to engage with the cabal. We know that this happens, because we've spoken to people who have left and were told that this played a part in why they left.

There are lots of potential causes, but we're limited in what we can actually tackle ourselves. One of the things which we hear a lot is that the cabal can feel less than hospitable to newer players. That isn't necessarily true, but it's not something we've only heard from one or two people, which means it's worth examining and seeing if there are changes we can make to help improve the situation for new people.
Part of the problem is also a strength of the cabal, which is the number of friendships which are present. It's often daunting to walk into a room where you don't know anyone and see people chatting about subjects you can't really contribute to. It's easy to feel like the room is full of cliques which you aren't welcome in, even if that's not the whole truth.

Mentoring is just one of the ideas we've discussed about how we could potentially help new players feel more welcome in the cabal. It's not going to be for everyone - there are people who will happily make themselves at home and join in with discussions without much difficulty, and that's why we don't think that it should be a mandatory thing which everyone has to take part in.

There would probably need to be two types of mentor - one for role specific stuff and another for more general things. After all, if someone's in e5 and wants to learn to tank, they're going to need someone who knows how to tank to help out, but someone just getting used to the game mechanics, systems, grouping etc isn't going to have the same kind of needs.

This isn't a fully fleshed out idea, which is why we've opened it up for wider discussion. There's nothing which says we have to take it forwards and implement it if it looks like it's just not going to work, and there's nothing which says that this is the only thing we can try out. What we want is to try to help more people to engage with the cabal so that more people get to have fun together - that's the ultimate goal.

My opinion is that there's no need to overthink things. Assign someone a mentor when they join (willing or not). Match them based on native language and time zone. A mentor/mentee relationship doesn't need to last long, just to make it easy to plug into cabal activities and get to know people.

Most people are capable of finding their own way after a few weeks.

I think the Goal of welcoming, expanding relationships and explaining is exactly right. Perfect maybe even. ODO can feel spectacularly serious. I am consistently horrified when i see people looking for teammates for E9 or 10. After years, I can barely do an e7 and have never survived anything above e4. How good must one be to compete at that high level? The stakes seem too high. The consequences of my mistakes too consequential to my team. What ODO needs is a lot more low stakes runs - Dungeons where everyone is required to use a lvl2 or lower weapon (relax, your armor will probably keep you healthy - and who really cares?) Dungeons where wipes (and silly mistakes) are welcome and to be expected. Raids where the goal is camaraderie and not loot (Take the loot, but don't use it as the main reason to be there) Schedule regular lowbie events where fun is the point and correcting technique is not the point. Require all participants to use green or Blue weapons just for the fun of it. Maybe. It is rare that people run missions in groups, why? We all grind dailies why aren't the newbies tagging along? I have some great circuits in New England but I've never shown a new member.. I think that kind of thing and that kind of companionship is just what new folks can use. ODO has a positively goofy side, there are some genuinely fun folk here. We need a nurturing environment for that aspect. Make the environment fun and accepting and the knowledge will come naturally. {End Rant}

In 9S I used to do these now and then and call them "CoEd Naked E1". You had to be IP 175 or lower, and if you were over IP 175, you started "getting naked" until you got down to that IP. Actually doing the dungeon in panties/bra or a speedo(for guys) was optional but highly encouraged for the giggle factor. I also used to do "Intro to Elites" runs in 9S every Monday at 5pm PDT, but I stopped doing them after a couple months when I got no participation, or the only signups I got were people wanting to do speed run agent farms. A speed run doesn't teach a noob anything.

It's possible that we could resurrect those events for ODO, but my experience so far has been that once most people have done them once (for the lulz), they aren't interested in doing them again because there's no profit in it for them. On the rare occasions when I got a new person that wanted training in Elites, it usually ended up being him and me, and no one else wanted to take the time away from their E5+ pursuits to help the new guy learn anything.

I also get the impression from talking with the new guys that having a cabal full of people ignoring the request for members for E1 training run is actually worse than not having a training run at all because it makes it look like no one else in the cabal cares. The other night I was on Shadowcat and a new Agnitio member just needed a few IP to make it from E2 to E3, so I grouped up with him to run a few E2. 13 other Agnitio players were online and 10 of them were E5 or higher, and sitting around Agartha waiting for the E5+ queue to pop. None of them could be bothered to come with us, and the queue was dead, so our new member gave up. I was ashamed of Agnitio at that moment because I'm pretty sure that new player now thinks Agnitio is full of selfish players that only care about their own IP and don't want to help fellow caballies. If you want to see a rant, you should see me go off about people who are all about the teaming and raiding for E1-4 when they're the lowbies, but once they get to e5+ can't be bothered to pay it forward and help the newest crop of "noobs".

I can say from experience as a new person that I would rather eat nails than come into a cabal as a new guy and "beg" for dungeons. I don't want to be seen as "that noob that wants to be power leveled", so unless caballies OFFER lower level dungeons, your new members are going to quietly leave for a cabal that is doing content at their level. It's what I did when I joined my first cabal. I was a member for a week, and they never did anything less than E5 (I had just hit lvl 50). I left without saying a word and joined 9S because they said they had members of all levels.