New way of recruiting User educators

First off before you read any of this just know I have no interest in a position as a user educator nor do I think I deserve the position, I just feel that User educators should be a position that the staff choses apposed to one that can be applied for. My reasoning behind it is that making guides shouldn't be a requirement for the position, as you can educate the community in many ways and requiring that guides be the majority of this is kind of ridiculous. Many users make their guides simply to apply for the User educator position and often some of these guides are poorly written or duplicates of other guides. I realize that Ue's look at the quality of the guides before accepting them in, I just feel that there are many users out there that help out the community more than some of the Ue's and that just because they didn't spend the time to make 5 guides on topics that are already all over the internet that they should still get some recognition. Maybe allowing the public to vote on the most help full user of the month would be a great way to recruit future Ue's. Not only would this encourage users to help out others but it would also get the community a bit more involved in sythe and in a way make it a democracy!

 

The system in place now works, its just the section has been extremely inactive, partially due to the changes in leadership and understaffing it has had recently. If that is resolved, shouldnt really be an issue. I was a UE for like... 8 months and it was NEVER this inactive before : /

 

The guide requirement is more to show that the person is willing to put forth the effort. It's not the only requirement, they are chosen based on their attitude and their post history. So being helpful around the rest of the forum is taken into account as well

 

There was a little discussion in the private forum about changing it, but nothing really came out of it. And yeah, I agree about changing it - it's not even a requirement once you're an ue >.>

 

Actually, the section is inactive because of its content. Guides are pointless, as it's easier to just open google and find something you want.

As it stands, the section serves no purpose other than rank whoring. Not because of the people involved, but because of purpose of the rank. Making guides should not at all be a focus, in fact... it should be removed entirely >.>.

 

I agree. Many of the guides are posted solely to become a UE, then not touched again. The true UE's are the ones answering questions across the forums. I feel guides help a bit, but shouldn't play such a large role in becoming a UE.

Now you may say "But you also have to be helpful." I agree with this, but you also HAVE to come up with five guides, weather or not they are helpful or useful at all.

 

100% agreed, the real UEs are always active.

 

Exactly my point I just think that maybe the User educator rank should mean more than just that you created 5 guides and maybe help the community out now and then. I think the UE rank should mean something like the OMM rank does because as it stands I just look at UE's as people who took the time to write 5 guides. Where as if they were voted in by the public and the rank was solely on how much you contributed to the community I think that it would both promote users to contribute better content but also it would give the public a voice in things

 

I agree about the guide part, and actually made a thread about it in the UE section before I was ever accepted. I don't understand how the guides really reflect your ability to help the community, because in all honesty, people simply google their questions.

However, I do think that it shows people are dedicated to the task. Either way, I don't really think the UE section is where it needs to be.

 

What if those endless hours of making unread guides were spent on helping out the community maybe a help desk forum where it allowed members to answer other members problems? or even if they just browsed the forums and offered assistance to members in need.This would not only make sythe stronger as a whole but it would also help you get to know your fellow sythe members

 

Agreed. To be honest I would like to see it as still an application process, but not involving guides. The HUE would then go in and check the application, and see if the user actually is helpful and is active. The person that becomes a UE based on helpfulness is a true UE, not someone who can copy 5 guides off of google as this doesn't prove anything besides the fact that you can google search and throw together a good looking thread.

 

Maybe you haven't visited the, "Help, Requests & Tech. Support" section? You can find that here if you'd like.

In regards to the "endless hours" of guide making; please, tt takes a few hours, but it's not like it occupies every moment that we're on Sythe. It's 5 guides, it's not a huge deal. If I helped out a single Sythe user with my guides, then I'm satisfied.

And really, just about every UE at the moment is quite involved in the community. I can honestly say their some of the nicest people you'll meet on Sythe.

 

I still don't exactly see the point in giving a rank to people who help others on the site.

 

Gives people an incentive to do so..

 

Point taken I get it but I still don't agree with guide requirement to become UE

 

Thats kind of my point, you shouldn't need an incentive to help people.

 

It's a reward.

More then this though, I take it as someone to listen to. If you have a question and you're getting mixed answers, you should go with the UE as he is deemed to have more knowledge, or formulate better answers, hence the UE.

This leads to the point that guides are totally useless in a UE application.

 

Exactly my thoughts doesn't an overall good character and quality posts mean more than 5 guides written on subjects that can be simply googled

 

I agree with this.

They should take the guide part out for new applicants and change the requirements a bit. If this was the case I'm sure their would be way more people applying.

 

People can be denied on the guide choice. I was partly denied on my first application because of my guides on how to cheat in a test and how to trick your teacher.

Public voting will never work. It's too easy to get your friends to vote yes for you.

Guides aren't useless, they're more for topics which you won't find on google without looking long enough for it or you know exactly what you're looking for. Usually these are the guides which people get accepted for.