Boards BR Mentoring

FewFew

Just an idea that might be of interest. Thought I'd throw up a thread to get some discussion on it.

So the basic jist is a more experienced manager involved in the Boards BR community takes on a newer manager to mentor.

It was tried before over on the off-site and there was very little take-up, so maybe people don't like the idea, but it can be pretty handy to have someone there to answer your specific questions and cast an eye over things.
At one end you can have it as light as asking the occasional questions or go as far as let the mentor look at the full team and give better advice that way.

Would definitely help newer managers and might give some of the older heads another team to root for.

cclampett

Regardless of how unsuccessful mentor schemes in the past may have been, its always a good idea to have something up to let newer (or older and looking to improve) managers know that there's experienced managers around to offer their opinions and advice, or just to point out some of the more common approaches to the game, and at the very least, point them in the direction of someone experienced in that approach. I quite like the format in the newbie lounge, where mentors have posted up a little about themselves and newbies can approach them.

I'm not around as long as a lot of the guys here but if there's demand for mentors that aren't too into the TM side I'd be happy to play mentor for someone

[Jackass]

I'm not sure direct one-to-one mentoring would be quite required. Not only as it can be time consuming, but I also quite like the system of boards with the Q&A to get ideas and lots of pooling of knowledge to get answers. (i'm not a big fan of the offsite forum).

For me, I feel like I have a long term master plan for my club that just takes time to impliment before it starts bearing fruit on the pitch, so I feel like I just need patience more than mentoring, but having said that, don't think I am anywhere near experienced enough to help a new manager out either, unless it's very basic stuff. So I'd be fairly useless.

eoferrall

I think the Q&A works well here, but there may be managers afraid to post publicly what they might feel are stupid questions etc.

to supplement it, maybe a list of people who would be open to receiving PM's could be developed and inserted to post #1? ie fewcifer could be approached on how to beat bots. so any questions on bots would be directed to him!:P

That way they have the Q&A, but if want more private advice, then there is a list of people offering availability to answer general or specific topics?

or an alternative could be to contact a mod to discuss and tease out the exact Q's and post on their behalf?

I'm really just spitballing here!

seanand

i think the Q & A on here works very well but would be willing to have my name put down if anyone wants private advice. strong areas for me are probably tm questions or ya questions and training

crisco10

Yeah I think the q&a works quite well. It also provides a stimulus to conversation for us old folk as well, in reality apart from the most basic questions, most newbies questions have multiple correct answers. Like there is no right answer to the question of should a young team open a YA..it's a matter of opinion and preference..

That said, if we wanted to make a "directory" of people open to receiving PMs that mightn't hurt. Although, not sure what my area of expertise would be. lol. Maybe Luck, energy management and youth academies/training

FewFew

Ah yeah, I'm not suggesting that this takes over from the Q&A or anything, and with general questions it's better to get a group response (I know it's been a few years since I trawled through the docs intensively) but in certain circumstances a new manager might want a hand.

So some examples where I think this would work...

New manager shows mentor his team, allowing mentor to suggest positions (and explain why) and recommend purchases etc. I'm still amazed when I come across a team (a few nicely embedded in Div III) that don't have locks above 200cm or props over 120kg etc.

New manager can ask mentor to take a look at his league and do up a quick strategy and explain the whys. Can be pretty daunting to delve into opposition teams etc, especially without knowing what to look for.

A list would be good though, and sure people can PM.

Effluo

I am not mad on the mentor idea. I think that the information on how to play the game is already sufficient, there is lots of it going around and besides that tactics can vary hugely between two successful managers.

I think energy would be better spent on activities making the game a little bit more interesting, social and inclusive.

The priority for most managers is their own club, winning their leagues and gaining promotion. I think if there was a designated journalist for the good Div. IV's and all the Div. III's and up that gave running commentary on league and cup runs it would get people more involved in the game. The journalists could be voted in by their league colleagues.

This plan would be best suited for the offsite due to the organisation problems that could occur here on boards.


The real potential for growth has got to be with the NT forums. They basically are just for the NT right now, but it would benefit everybody if that was changed and a greater focus was put on the individual manager and their team.



I propose that Community Manager becomes an official position whereby at the start of every season hopefuls put themselves forward with a manifesto on which the community votes.

The Community Manager could be given forum administration tools and appoint officers to help with the projects. Setting it up would be time consuming but after that, it would require little modification.


I posted this on the offsite a few weeks ago,
"Maybe people could post guides on what is needed to get promoted to each level and share their different plans on becoming the next Ruff. We could have people make pre-season predictions on the divisions, have polls on game related stuff. Also some fun things like, "Game of the Week", "Giant Killer of the Week" and "Play of the Week" pretty self explanatory, but also fun.

I often thought it was a shame we could not show our appreciation for SteacyM's amazing work as a journalist by commenting on the articles he produced, that kind of thing imo could really improve interaction.

You would need at least 1 assigned community manager though and probably a few deputies doing each set of divisions..."

eoferrall

Effluo wrote: »

I am not mad on the mentor idea. I think that the information on how to play the game is already sufficient, there is lots of it going around and besides that tactics can vary hugely between two successful managers.

I think energy would be better spent on activities making the game a little bit more interesting, social and inclusive.

The priority for most managers is their own club, winning their leagues and gaining promotion. I think if there was a designated journalist for the good Div. IV's and all the Div. III's and up that gave running commentary on league and cup runs it would get people more involved in the game. The journalists could be voted in by their league colleagues.

This plan would be best suited for the offsite due to the organisation problems that could occur here on boards.


The real potential for growth has got to be with the NT forums. They basically are just for the NT right now, but it would benefit everybody if that was changed and a greater focus was put on the individual manager and their team.



I propose that Community Manager becomes an official position whereby at the start of every season hopefuls put themselves forward with a manifesto on which the community votes.

The Community Manager could be given forum administration tools and appoint officers to help with the projects. Setting it up would be time consuming but after that, it would require little modification.


I posted this on the offsite a few weeks ago,
"Maybe people could post guides on what is needed to get promoted to each level and share their different plans on becoming the next Ruff. We could have people make pre-season predictions on the divisions, have polls on game related stuff. Also some fun things like, "Game of the Week", "Giant Killer of the Week" and "Play of the Week" pretty self explanatory, but also fun.

I often thought it was a shame we could not show our appreciation for SteacyM's amazing work as a journalist by commenting on the articles he produced, that kind of thing imo could really improve interaction.

You would need at least 1 assigned community manager though and probably a few deputies doing each set of divisions..."

excellent suggestion, and would certainly bring me to offsite more.

Effluo

Someone will have to put the initial work in to create it, if it was done well Community Manager would become a prestigious position that I am sure lots of people would apply for every season.

FewFew

Effluo wrote: »

I am not mad on the mentor idea. I think that the information on how to play the game is already sufficient, there is lots of it going around and besides that tactics can vary hugely between two successful managers.

I think energy would be better spent on activities making the game a little bit more interesting, social and inclusive.

Well that's the thing with mentoring, it's an individual thing. Nobody would have to sign-up if they didn't want to. Getting someone to have a look over a young team is a much different prospect than taking on an off-site job.

The information is there alright, but it's a case of going to look for it and quite often trawl through it. I'm sure it's all been covered in our Q&A section above at one stage (and elsewhere of course) but you have to put in the time to find it, and that'll put off a lot of people. You'll find plenty of teams that spend four or five seasons in Div IV, just because they don't "get" some aspects of the game.

Effluo wrote: »

The priority for most managers is their own club, winning their leagues and gaining promotion. I think if there was a designated journalist for the good Div. IV's and all the Div. III's and up that gave running commentary on league and cup runs it would get people more involved in the game. The journalists could be voted in by their league colleagues.

That's really key for getting new managers to stay, and a bit of banter/commentary can really bring a league to life. Used to have great banter in III.9 with Fetch, CClampett, Scrummage and so on, but now I'm in (insert blank where I can't remember) and there's now lounge usage at all.

Effluo wrote: »

I propose that Community Manager becomes an official position whereby at the start of every season hopefuls put themselves forward with a manifesto on which the community votes.

The Community Manager could be given forum administration tools and appoint officers to help with the projects. Setting it up would be time consuming but after that, it would require little modification.

Community Manager could work really well alright. Tricky job to fill. You'd need someone established and neutral. Someone who wasn't too bloodied during the whole GH debacle back in the day. Not essential of course, but if you want to grow the community you need to get as many people on board as possible. Or maybe someone new and enthusiastic, that's capable of doing the job and doesn't have any preconceptions hanging over them. Realistically their skill at BR mean feck all for such a position.

Effluo wrote: »

I often thought it was a shame we could not show our appreciation for SteacyM's amazing work as a journalist by commenting on the articles he produced, that kind of thing imo could really improve interaction.

Yeah, you really need direct commenting there to drive up the banter. I remember setting up the BR Ireland magazine for just that reason, and a few posts actually did generate a lot of banter. Unfortunately it was piggy-backing on some other hosting and is long disappeared now, but I'm surprised the same hasn't been attempted since.

jj1

I need some advice.

Playing a bot this weekend (last 2 between us 85-0 & 79-0, ranking points 25.0) & my team is a bit tired. Have a top of the table clash the week after. Have also arranged a friendly for Monday night.
Do I need to rest key players this weekend & take off training next week will I be ok to put strong players in for the Monday friendly at WNWIM?

Also, I'm in Div 4. The top 50 of the promotion tables are league leaders with rankings down to 37. Then the last 12 spots are based on rankings. Is there not supposed to be 64 league leaders for the 64 spots?

Sound lads.

Zagato

You can rest anyone you like for the game against the bot and play wnwim. You'll have to make up your mind with the friendly, depends on your chance of winning the league game next weekend.

In the promotion tables, are there only 50/64 there because the other leagues are being led by bots, and so would not be promoted ahead of a proper team?

jj1

Zagato wrote: »

You can rest anyone you like for the game against the bot and play wnwim. You'll have to make up your mind with the friendly, depends on your chance of winning the league game next weekend.

In the promotion tables, are there only 50/64 there because the other leagues are being led by bots, and so would not be promoted ahead of a proper team?

Thanks Zagato.

I've played the fella next week 4 times so far & haven't come within 20 points of him but I want to give it a rattle as I'm only 1 win behind him in the league.

I thought there might be a human in every division but what you are saying makes sense. There would be no point in having a human team on his own against bots so I suppose they bunch them up. 3 human teams out of 8 in my league I think.

Will play a weak team this weekend so.

Zagato

jj1 wrote: »

I thought there might be a human in every division but what you are saying makes sense. There would be no point in having a human team on his own against bots so I suppose they bunch them up. 3 human teams out of 8 in my league I think.

Will play a weak team this weekend so.

The human team might have gone bot (if no sign-in x 6 weeks) or they have only joined mid season so are not at the top of the league. Every so often the are bot shuffles to try and even it all out a bit

crisco10

jj1 wrote: »

Thanks Zagato.

I've played the fella next week 4 times so far & haven't come within 20 points of him but I want to give it a rattle as I'm only 1 win behind him in the league.

I thought there might be a human in every division but what you are saying makes sense. There would be no point in having a human team on his own against bots so I suppose they bunch them up. 3 human teams out of 8 in my league I think.

Will play a weak team this weekend so.

So how did you get on..you learn now that you can play any amalgam of players on WNWIM and you will beat a bot?

FewFew

Hah, looks like BR are getting in on the action...

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