Mentoring new reef keepers?

[Hemmdog]

If your that shy, don't want to look like a fool, etc on an anonymous forums where no one know who you are in real life except if you tell them. Then maybe you should stay in your little bubble of a world and shouldn't be on the internet at all.

Listen I have no problems with mentoring(I'm doing it right now with someone I met at an LFS), its the people who want to be spoon fed the right thing to do instead of trying to figure it out on their own are the ones I have an issue with. I was taught at a very young age to try and figure out issues on my own, and that is how I approach life. Only when I cannot figure it out on my own, do I ask questions no matter how stupid they are, or how stupid I feel for asking them.

Same here lol.

 

[Ron Reefman]

There are several users here that have been reefing for many years. They often have great expertise. What intimidates them is social media and device technology. I have seen this a few times in personal conversations and we should all remember that is humbling. People may often welcome more than just reef mentoring if you see the need.

Excellent point Brian.

And to Homer, what do you say to the 4-6 people here in this thread that have stated they would like a mentor? Are they lazy, or too shy, or what? Different strokes for different folks. Saying things like, "Then maybe you should stay in your little bubble of a world and shouldn't be on the internet at all." That just isn't helpful. please tone it down a notch.

 

[Greg Gdowski]

When you guys hook me up with Sanjay Joshi, I'm all in.
It doesn't matter what level you are, we each learn from one another.
Reef keeping is almost like martial arts, there is always another level. There is always someone there to help you get there.
Interacting with one person on a one on one level, isn't going to stop me from reading on the forum and reaching out.
A good mentor -- will hopefully tell their mentee where to seek additional information and opinions.

I've seen the words hand holding being used frequently here.
I teach many college students and I have never viewed it that way.
In many cases, those students challenge my depth of knowledge and make me a better instructor.
Once those students graduate, they often give me feedback which helps me to refine what I teach.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that a mentor/mentee relationship is rarely a one way street.
When done properly, it can be very rewarding for everyone involved.

 

[homer1475]

And to Homer, what do you say to the 4-6 people here in this thread that have stated they would like a mentor? Are they lazy, or too shy, or what? Different strokes for different folks. Saying things like, "Then maybe you should stay in your little bubble of a world and shouldn't be on the internet at all." That just isn't helpful. please tone it down a notch.

I never said I was opposed to mentoring, heck I'm doing it now as I stated. What I do have a problem with is the people who are to shy, don't want to feel stupid, etc for asking questions on an anonymous forum, and want to be spoon fed information on how to do things properly instead of doing their own due diligence.

And again I will state that if your too afraid, shy, dont want to feel stupid on an anonymous forum for asking questions, then you probably don't belong on the internet. Sorry it's harsh, but its the truth, and sometimes the truth isn't nice.

Sorry I'm not a nice guy, this is how I am(very condescending, always taking the wrong way, always saying the wrong thing, and spelling it out like it is). The world is not a nice place and not filled with frilly little flowers and nice pretty people. The sooner people realize this, the better off the world would be.

 

[vdubreefer]

I honestly think that would be soo cool, I have been having a problem and posted about and somebody in the comments did a #reef squad and someone came a started talking to me, and I'd like to think steered my back on track, I really really like this idea because as a new reefer, you've got soooooo much information to sift through that sometimes it can be difficult to find your own success even if your following a red sea reef care recipe, or something there always to be something that your trying to figure out, or don't quite understand, great idea !!!

 

[Subsea]

Don't get me wrong here, I agree completely with you about the community theory of how this all works.

The point I'm trying to make is; just because you decide to take on a mentor, in no way means you can't still take FULL advantage of the community! I sense you feel that if someone has a mentor that that's what they are stuck with. I see a mentor as a person who helps get the noob started and more comfortable with the very basics and then leads them to the broader picture offered by the community. It's not one or the other, it's both working together.

Ron,
You are spot on with your vision. The implementation on a large demographic like r2r is similar to the IRS tax code on 300 million citizens.

Control is the issue. We have all seen threads out of control with passionate view points on each side.

Kudos to the Management of r2f. With Rebel Risers like me and Slim Pickins Paul to stir the “pot of detritus”, no telling “what’s for dinner”.




Proposed Mentor Program
I can talk with management at ARC to see their history & implementation of mentor program. During its early implementation, two mentors were chosen, each with completely differrent reef keeping methods.
Mentors “Philosophy of Reefkeeping” was written out by each mentor. Each mentor could only have three mentees.

On the mentee build thread, there was no time delay filter on posting for mentor or mentee. To prevent mass confusion with an onslaught of comments, the mentor addresses outside post in the order they came in. In most cases they get passed thru with no delay and no comments as they should stand on their own merit.

Post with comments from mentor will happen when volunteering mentor HAS THE TIME. This is the point that I made about how serving can become a burden when people that are being served become impatient & rude.

Once mentee tank is 1 year old, that build thread moves to members journal forum.

Instead of mentor superstars, Methods of Reefkeeping would be major categories like skimmerless, algae filtration, opposite photo cycle, cryptic refugium, carbon dosing, unls....................

 

[Joe BBC]

#reefsquad

What would you all think of having a mentor program?

We have so many new people joining lately, many who join and their first posts are about things gone horribly awry or they are panicked and think they have.

I have been doing this all along via PM.

One reason is, we have way too many cooks stirring the pot and it confuses people.

It's best that a person pick a mentor that knows what they are doing and stick with them for a while at least to follow things to either success or someone else needing to step in.

We could do a # like #mentor to call for someone to step in.

What are your thoughts?

That is a great idea. I am not only new to reefing but have little experience in blogs and vlogs. Mostly I read up on subjects in this forum and try to make an intelligent decision. For instance, at this time I have a sick fish and not sure if I should treat just the tang or the entire tank? Please find me a mentor.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Mentoring should be left for local clubs not a large open forum. Check out your local club I'm sure there is someone there that would love to help and have one on one time to show you what to do. The forum is meant for a community to come together to help one another not have private conversations that no one can benefit from. If you can voice your opinion when there is conflicting views on here then it should be easy to ask any question. Because I know when I was a shy girl way back when I wouldn't even consider writing anything on a forum especially when there are people having conflicting views on something. (That would be even more intimidating). Everyone on the forum are here to help. We all started at the bottom at some point and I know this community has help many people grow and have successful saltwater tanks.

 

[Subsea]

That is a great idea. I am not only new to reefing but have little experience in blogs and vlogs. Mostly I read up on subjects in this forum and try to make an intelligent decision. For instance, at this time I have a sick fish and not sure if I should treat just the tang or the entire tank? Please find me a mentor.

This is one for #reefsquad to handle.

Joe,
Kudos for the suggesstion

 

[Subsea]

When you guys hook me up with Sanjay Joshi, I'm all in.
It doesn't matter what level you are, we each learn from one another.
Reef keeping is almost like martial arts, there is always another level. There is always someone there to help you get there.
Interacting with one person on a one on one level, isn't going to stop me from reading on the forum and reaching out.
A good mentor -- will hopefully tell their mentee where to seek additional information and opinions.

I've seen the words hand holding being used frequently here.
I teach many college students and I have never viewed it that way.
In many cases, those students challenge my depth of knowledge and make me a better instructor.
Once those students graduate, they often give me feedback which helps me to refine what I teach.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that a mentor/mentee relationship is rarely a one way street.
When done properly, it can be very rewarding for everyone involved.

Greg,
Kudos to you for pointing out the most obvious benefit. The mentor grows and becomes a better teacher.
Mentor apprenticeship is a dynamic relationship. Sometimes they do’t work because of the chemistry between people.

 

[Joe BBC]

This is one for #reefsquad to handle.

Joe,
Kudos for the suggesstion

#subsea Thanks but I can not figure out how to contact the #reefsquad. Also why does the # sign need to be used. No dumb questions.... thank you

 

[Lasse]

#subsea Thanks but I can not figure out how to contact the #reefsquad. Also why does the # sign need to be used. No dumb questions.... thank you

@Joe BBC - you will have a note that I tag you. In the same way when you use the # before the reefsquad - every one in the reefsquad get a mesage that someone seek them

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Ron Reefman]

Joe, all you need to do is ask your question. If you want the Reef Squad to help, you type #ReefSquad and they get a message about it. The # is just a form of communication with the software.

 

[Reefahholic]

That’s right! We all love to help where we can. We all have different strengths. It’s all about sharing information! Reefers unite!

 

[Joe BBC]

Thanks everyone. How do I set up the footer info that I see on many threads? Should I put tank info in there or funny quotes like most of you. Trying ti fit in....

 

[Reefahholic]

Thanks everyone. How do I set up the footer info that I see on many threads? Should I put tank info in there or funny quotes like most of you. Trying ti fit in....

You have to edit your profile. It will be in the signature that you’ll write the information.

 

[Ranjib]

I honestly think that would be soo cool, I have been having a problem and posted about and somebody in the comments did a #reef squad and someone came a started talking to me, and I'd like to think steered my back on track, I really really like this idea because as a new reefer, you've got soooooo much information to sift through that sometimes it can be difficult to find your own success even if your following a red sea reef care recipe, or something there always to be something that your trying to figure out, or don't quite understand, great idea !!!

You have all very valid points , the reasoning for not doing is also true, which is running something like this takes a lot of work and dedicated time from mentors and maintaining long time health of such program which largely made of volunteers can be painful. The other big reason that it takes away the learning (the actual information shared on the forum) from the community to a private space. This imposes other challenge , most of community code of conducts assume an open transparent environment.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I never said I was opposed to mentoring, heck I'm doing it now as I stated. What I do have a problem with is the people who are to shy, don't want to feel stupid, etc for asking questions on an anonymous forum, and want to be spoon fed information on how to do things properly instead of doing their own due diligence.

And again I will state that if your too afraid, shy, dont want to feel stupid on an anonymous forum for asking questions, then you probably don't belong on the internet. Sorry it's harsh, but its the truth, and sometimes the truth isn't nice.

Sorry I'm not a nice guy, this is how I am(very condescending, always taking the wrong way, always saying the wrong thing, and spelling it out like it is). The world is not a nice place and not filled with frilly little flowers and nice pretty people. The sooner people realize this, the better off the world would be.

I just want to point out that I think the respect for every person and acceptance of hobbyists at every level and even the hand holding (that honestly I think most of us have needed at one point or another) is one of the great things about R2R. We pride ourselves on being a community where every member is valued--where everyone is welcome. Also, some people truly ARE shy and even though the forum is anonymous (unless you use your name as your username of course) they don't FEEL that it is anonymous and still are embarrassed to speak up or ask questions. Usually those individuals just need some extra help and will eventually get to a point where they're ok with posting and participating, and sometimes a kind person who will take the time to work with them is EXACTLY what they need in order to get to a point where they are ok with being part of the larger group.

As to how the world is, sure there are plenty of harsh parts of society, but I think that's a great reason for us to go the extra mile and extend a helping hand. Whatever the world is like, it is only reflecting the way that we as people make it. The more of us who try to be kind and make it better, the kinder and better it will be.

 

[dantimdad]

@mdbannister Well said!

I am one who tends to be a little hard on society for wanting the participation trophy and getting their feelings hurt. But, we are not talking about society as a whole here. We are talking about reef keepers... The sole reason for this forum's existence.

This thread probably won't have a tangible or quantifiable outcome. However, I will continue to mentor when asked.

I will do what I can and will set up expectations from the start. But, those I have mentored will tell you I am extremely flexible with my hours and quick to respond.

I just love helping folks and wish I would have had help in the beginning. I didn't have my first mentor until I was in it for 5 years and that was when I started breeding clowns. So a little bit late. LOL!

 

[CaptainsReef]

I'm really late to the party but as a complete noob, this post summed up *exactly* how I feel. As someone who is brand new to the hobby I find posting a thread on this forum kind of scary and often find myself wishing that I had someone, anyone, to go to with the stupid questions without fear of being laughed at or worse, misinformed. Everyone here has been really awesome and helpful so far but that fear of asking too many stupid questions has still kept me from posting more than once. The reef squad sounds like a great feature but personally, not one that I would ever consider using at this point, just because I'm so new. I'm sure that they would be more than willing to help but honestly the thought of tagging a bunch of reef experts on my beginner questions is more than a little scary. On the other hand, having just one person to go to who is patient and knowledgeable and willing to help with those beginner questions would be amazing.

I love the idea of being partnered with a mentor who I could contact through PM but even if there were a different section of the forums for mentoring or a mentor tag, those would still be features that I would definitely make use of.

I agree 100% it can be very intimidating. And I tend to stress when I'm in the middle of an emergency and don't want to hear people's sarcastic answers so I've been cast out on my go to Facebook group because I'm "rude". (I swear I'm not, I'm just wound tight in emergency situations) maybe if I had just one go to person he/she would understand that about me.