A problem and a proposed solution.

I'm willing to be a mentor. I'll even play like crap to give them hope. 😉

Thanks everyone.

I'll get this going in a week or two.

-Russ

Aye, count me in on the mentor thing.

I'll volunteer to be a mentor too.

I would be glad to help anyway I can.

Doug

Happy to help also.

ncrosby🙂

Sure, I'll help .. this is a cool site, and I want it to keep going..

dscp said something like: "I'm willing to be a mentor. I'll even play like crap to give them hope. "

check out dscp's games!

p1200
p1200
p1200
p1200
p1200
p1200

go dscp!!!!!!!

(but if you call that playing like that crap, then maybe i can teach you a thing or two about chess ;-))

Originally posted by eyeqpc
I think this mentor system is a great idea. Also there could be some system put in so that newbies (pre subscribers) can have trial periods in joining a clan, thus guaranteeing games that will be played to completion and sort of dangling the carrot in front of the donkey scenario

Sign me up for mentoring.

-Robbo

wxcept for the fact that if 2 newbies end up playing a clan match against each other then there is no guarentee that they will both stick around, so it would be no different from the current situation

Originally posted by Exy
I am talking from my own experience here, I'd like to hear what others felt. If I had come to this site and could have started playing as many games as a liked, joined a clan and entered a tournament, at the end of the first month I would have happily parted with my money.

The fact that I could only play 6 concurrent games meant that in order to get a true ...[text shortened]... more experience than I and you know how much extra work you want to take on to fix the problem.

I'm busy so I'll make this brief (hopefully not rude)

tourneys with newbies/non subscribers won't work because too many drop out
clans with newbies/non subscribers won't work because too many drop out
allowing newbi's full access for a trial won't work because too many drop out, and after the month they could just sign up as newbi's again to get another month for free.

I hope you don't feel I'm knockng your thoughts, I know that you are trying to express what almost made you leave and what would have encouraged you to stay. Keep throwing out ideas and we'll work out somthing that'll benefit the site.

sign me up to be a mentor (if I fit the requirements) if.
Mentor games must be non-rated, and I'd prefer them not to show up on the win/loss records too. Apart from getting whipped by a GM in newbi clothing I would want to be allowed to advise a newbi who didn';t know what they were doing in order to encourage them to get into the game, but you can't advise in a rated game. Being able to limit the numebr of mentor games to a level I have time for would be essential too.

All the recommendations to link a newbi up to a suitable mentor have been good - get the newbi to chose rate of play (although many will chose 'multiple moves/day' because they are new and impatient), time zone, and maybe even ability, and then let the system pick out the best matching mentor that is available.

Similar to this wouldbe setting up a teaching ladder - everyone who signs onto it agrees to teach 2 players with lower ratings in exchange for getting lessons from one player with higher rating. Like the mentor games, the games would have to be unrated to allow advising.

Originally posted by belgianfreak
sign me up to be a mentor (if I fit the requirements) if.
Mentor games [b]must be non-rated, and I'd prefer them not to show up on the win/loss records too.
[snip]
Similar to this would be setting up a teaching ladder - everyone who signs onto it agrees to teach 2 players with lower ratings in exchange for getting lessons from one player with higher rating. Like the mentor games, the games would have to be unrated to allow advising.[/b]

I second all the above.

I volunteer to mentor, too, if my somewhat erratic move rate is acceptable.

Originally posted by flexmore
check out dscp's games!

p1200
p1200
p1200
p1200
p1200
p1200

go dscp!!!!!!!

(but if you call that playing like that crap, then maybe i can teach you a thing or two about chess ;-))

Well, I tried to take the mentor thing to heart, so I tried to answer the p1200 challenege. Unfortunatley I don't see my opponents rating when I cycle through the games, so I don't know when to play like crap. ;-)

Depressingly, many of those challenges are not out of the "Delete" stage after several days. :-(

Maybe I've kept a few newbies from becoming discouraged, though.

Originally posted by dscp
Well, I tried to take the mentor thing to heart, so I tried to answer the p1200 challenege. Unfortunatley I don't see my opponents rating when I cycle through the games, so I don't know when to play like crap. ;-)

Depressingly, many of those challenges are not out of the "Delete" stage after several days. :-(

Maybe I've kept a few newbies from becoming discouraged, though.

I'll mentor!

I would just suggest, match the first games against the most recent subscribers with open game lots.

That will get the new guys in on a few serious game (I gather, someone who pays, is serious about playing chess).

Just my 2 cents.