New mentors

[Frabjous]

Assuming I have not missed anyone, PF has lost 6 mentors since 2018 and the only new mentor was one who returned. Will we be seeing any new mentors soon?

 

[dextercioby]

Which section do you think it's not moderated enough? Remember, this is an unpaid job, and because of the "mentor" hat, the moderator needs to be a very knowledgeable person who is willing to spend time daily here not only cleaning up junk, but encouraging valuable discussions.

 

[Frabjous]

Which section do you think it's not moderated enough? Remember, this is an unpaid job, and because of the "mentor" hat, the moderator needs to be a very knowledgeable person who is willing to spend time daily here not only cleaning up junk, but encouraging valuable discussions.

Fewer mentors generally means more work load per mentor. There are fewer mentors than there were in 2018. Or are you implying that PF is shrinking or that the task is easier today?

I also have a vague concern about a lack of new blood.

 

[berkeman]

Fewer mentors generally means more work load per mentor. There are fewer mentors than there were in 2018.

It's a bit more complicated than that, IMO.

First, the core group of Mentors we have right now is really amazing. We've had lots of great Mentors over the years, but I think that the group we have right now is the best ever. Second, the current PF software gives us a lot of Mentoring tools that we did not have back a few years ago. The PF AI catches a lot of stuff for us and puts questionable posts "in Moderation" (hidden) and flags us to take a look.

Third, we have a larger group of Advisors now (Science Advisors, Homework Helpers, Staff Emeritus, etc.) that help us with Moderation discussions in the private Advisor forums, and the Mentors really value those discussions.

And I think over the years we've been able to do a better job of tuning up the PF rules and enforcing them, so new PF users pretty quickly understand what is expected of them here, and anything posted outside of the rules gets reported pretty quickly. That is a huge help, and helps to make the Mentoring tasks much more efficient.

I'm not saying that we may not want to add a new Mentor or two in the near future, but those types of discussions generally are had in the Mentor forums and not in the Feedback forum. Thanks for asking, though.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

+1 to @berkeman above. Also, I'm not sure if it was widely announced but @Drakkith came out of retirement some months ago.