So, you wanna be a master of? Mentoring!

Introduction

Have you ever wanted to become a Smogon Mentor? Do you like helping people? Well, so do I! On PS!, I hear this question the most: "How can I be a Mentor?" It pains me to tell people that they can't, because there are so many great users that could be a Mentor, and I hate denying them the opportunity to be one. However, most of the people who ask are badgeless, and one of the basic requirements of being a mentor is having a badge; this is problematic because a lot of users don't know how to earn one. While they eagerly do what they can to obtain a badge on Smogon, the best that they can do is be helpful on IRC and in the Mentorship room on PS!. If you are a badgeless user and would like to eventually be a Mentor, fear not! This article will show you how to be Mentor-like while not having a badge.

On IRC

Smogon uses IRC to talk to each other in real-time, so it is a very effective way to start helping! The Mentorship Program has its own channel, #mentor. The Mentors have AOps (@), while the Mentorship moderators have SOps (&). You will see that others have HOps (%) or Voice (+). The latter two you will see less often, but that means that they are non-badged users who are great contributors to the chat. Typically, #mentor gets a lot of questions from new users, and the Mentors are not always watching the chat to see who has said what. If you are confident in your knowledge of the area in question, feel free to pitch in and help them with whatever they need. The most common questions we get are about team building, but it can range fro breeding help to help with grammar, and maybe even something that Smogon doesn't cover! Whatever it is, feel free to pitch in! Continually doing this will get you Voice, and even more continuous helping will get you HOPs.

PMing a user is also a good way to help them. PMs are less stressful because they are not in a room with a lot of people, so you guys can talk without being disrupted by other people's conversations in the chat. If you are helping them with battling questions, battling with them and pointing out flaws is a good way to give them aid. If you are helping them with grammatical problems, www.pastebin.com is a great resource to use, because you can paste your article/analysis/anything in there to help with. Alternatively, Google Docs is another great resource because you can both edit an article (or a team) at the same time. If it is in-game help, you can always use Google Hangouts (if you and the other person are comfortable with talking to each other on the Internet) to stream any game (with the use of an emulator). Note that you will have to have a mic, though.

If you are wanting to help with any of these, be sure to know the corresponding IRC channel as well, because it is always nice to have a main hub to ask questions on if nobody on #mentor can answer them (though, chances are there will be someone to help in #mentor). #grammar is a great place to ask anything English-related. The members on #grammar are usually on Smogon's Grammar-Prose team, so they know what they're talking about. For in-game help, you can always go to #orangeislands, because that is our forum's in-game chatroom, as well as our forum! For trading, breeding, Friend Safari's, or something of the like, head on over to #safari. #safari has a Google Doc of people's Safari data, so it is another great resource to use!

On the Sim

Like the Lobby chat (the main server in Pokémon Showdown!), the only questions asked are for battling or team help. Doing this actively will earn you Voice (+), and eventually Drivers (%). If you are a Global Voice, you can have Drivers in the room. Take note that this requires a lot of activity, especially considering Pokémon Showdown! is the most-used battling simulator on the internet. Some users will also be inquiring for help with other things, such as trading. There is a trading room on Showdown! called Trading, so you can go with them there and help them with whatever they need. Typically, the Mentoring room on Showdown! is used for general talk, but encourages talk on battling, in-game help, and everything in between! While we encourage general talk, the majority of the topics should go to their respective rooms.

If there is a foreign user, you can do /invite [username], [room name] (without the brackets). Showdown! offers a number of foreign rooms, such as Espanol (espaol for redirecting), Francais (franais for redirecting), Italinano (italiano for redirecting), and many others! Be sure to redirect them to their proper room, though! A lot of the metagames also have different rooms to talk strategy in: OverUsed, Little Cup, and Doubles, to name a few! If a user is wanting to get better in a certain tier, bringing them to the tier's room on PS! is a good thing to do. There is also a Competitive Tutoring room that would love to help anyone! Redirecting a user to that room and joining them helps them a lot.

On the Forums

This isn't something we see, nor something we give a badge for, but helping people on the forums is just a general something that will help you get realized as a good forum member. The Introduce Yourself! thread in our Mentorship forum is a great place to start looking for people. Some new users could have a bad time introducing themselves to a large crowd, so helping them get started can really mean a lot to them! Going on IRC and helping them make a thread is a good way to help someone wanting to do that. If there is a user who posted a thread in a wrong forum, PM them to redirect them to the appropriate forum! Make sure you know where to redirect them, though.

Another way to help is to make them feel welcomed in a forum they are wanting to post in. Acknowledge them in posts—make sure to involve them in discussions. Being involved in a thread is something that a lot of new users dream about. It also helps them feel welcomed! Making new users feel welcomed in any part of the site will make them wanting to come back. Numbers mean nothing, though, but friends do. It's okay to have "noobish" friends, so if you feel that someone will somehow tarnish your name on here, don't fret about it. We're all a bit weird, especially considering we take competitive Pokémon this seriously! Remember, though, that it's a hobby that we all enjoy doing and we should not belittle anyone for doing it, so being friends with anyone and everyone doesn't hurt. Making new users feel welcomed is a great way to make friends, so start at it!

Closing Notes

Other than being nice to everyone (this is a given in real life), there's not much else to say other than just keep on trying to help people. Even try getting a badge! The Badge FAQ is a great place to look to get started, but if you still aren't sure, you can alway PM someone with the badge that you want. I'm sure any user will be happy to help point you in the right direction. If you are having trouble navigating the site to help redirect people, look at the Smogon Primer for more info. The Mentor Page is also a good resource to look at, because it provides useful links for you and for new members looking to get started on Smogon. Always remember: it's never too late to start on anything, so get going!

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