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Helper status - currently not hiring.

Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2005 1:25 pm
by Teshidee
i was just curious why not? i'd actually like to get it and i always thought all it really does is open up a channel most others above lv 20 cannot see. it didn't leave me heartbroken when talona had to tell me that the staff is currently not hiring new helpers, but i was wondering what the reasoning for this is. especially during european times there often are no helper status people online at all. i understand that this channel does get abused for offtopic things every once in a while, but have never seen anything horribly wrong on it. would be nice to get an answer to this, i know others have been told the same thing. another sidenote, if i was a newbie and i'd have an nhc channel available, log onto the game with all other ooc channels turned off, and no real clue, i'd leave after getting no answer on it at all - no matter if it's due to AFK helpers, or none being online at the time present at all (including gods). this is not supposed to sound accusatory - i am merely curious what the answer to this would be (as well as others). thanks.

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 8:04 pm
by Lilira
Ran into the same answer Teshi and it irritated me just a little.

I'm not going into it over the BBS, but IMHO, the current list of helpers needs to be gone over, as I only ever see maybe 5 people respond to questions.

Also irritates me when I get jumped on for helping someone by a helper (who hasn't been playing here half as long as myself), when I actually knew the correct answers and was perfectly capable of assisting a brand new person who had _just_ entered the newbie room. (I was sitting there memming.) I had also pointed that person in the direction of someone I thought would be the best fit to help him out, and that person _was_ a helper.

To go the other way, I do appreciate the kudos I received from one of the gods one day when I managed to answer lots of questions cus I happened to be working on a new char that day.

The Newbie system has gone through several changes since its inception, which I was peripherally involved in. So the nice gold letters which helped identify helpers at a glance are gone, who cares. The channel is a wonderful idea and makes it lots easier to help the new players who log on. I'm just not sure limits should be set on the amount of helpers out there if they are qualified.

Sorry for the slight venting, hope there was something helpful in there.

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 9:59 pm
by Marthammor
To my knowledge, from what I've seen people told, is that we currently aren't accepting new helpers because the policy for being a helper is undergoing changes. When we will start accepting new helpers again, I don't know, but you could always mmail admin, oghma, or shar with your request to be a helper once we start allowing them again.

If you already have a char that is a helper, I think you can have other chars made a helper, but you'd have to ask an admin about that to be sure.

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:45 am
by Lilira
Thank you Marthammor for taking the time to respond. :-)

Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 6:28 am
by moritheil
As a helper, the main issues that I faced that were extraordinarily frustrating to me were people helping too much or too little. Want examples?

Too much: Chatting over NHC with specific item stats, specific quest info, specific and exact directions to places, specific stat notches, etc.

Too little: Being asked to help find a corpse and telling someone to do it themselves, refusing to give ANY information, etc.

Now, I realize that not everyone is competent enough with the English language to give hints but not give away exact stats. However, I question whether or not it can really be true that no one is competent enough to find a middle ground. At that point, it seems more like laziness.

If you are a helper, this rant is probably not directed at you. 90% of helpers that I have seen managed to find a middle ground quite nicely. It was the other 10% of NHC, whether official helpers (a few), or simply chatters on NHC, that tended to veer excessively to one side or another.

The point of all this? I, for one, am glad that the system of approving helpers is getting a revamp. No helper should ever have cause to yell at another helper. Maybe we could write up an official Helpers' Guide that outlines what is okay and what is not.

PS: Marthammor, you are indeed awesome for responding to this.

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 9:20 am
by amolol
ive been asking to be a helper at random intervals for the better part of 4 years. first time i was tol ok just a minute and then laudager forgot about me the second time i got no responce the third -60th time or so i was told that they were not hiring due to requirement changes and i have recived the same answer whenever i randomly ask for the past 3 years or so. i find myself rolling new charictors partialy for helping new peopl because there usualy arent any active helpers on.

Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:16 pm
by Pril
amolol wrote:i find myself rolling new charictors partialy for helping new peopl because there usualy arent any active helpers on.


What's your definition of "usually no active helpers on"? I tend to be on a bunch and i don't idle. I know a bunch of my guildies who are on a lot and don't idle who are helpers too take lilithelle and sotana for example there are more. Shrug every time i've seen a question on NHC i've answered it or someone else has when i'm on maybe we just play at different times.

Pril

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 10:25 am
by Teshidee
during european daytime there are hardly any helpers online - or they are idling/afk helpers *shrug*

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:09 am
by fotex
more like any non-american daytime. :(

Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:42 pm
by Teshidee
ahem. this on any list? or just not important at all.

Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:00 pm
by Lilira
Something that actually popped into my head today.

Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 9:25 pm
by Kordon
right now there are 3 helpers on, but 2 are afk. i wonder if there has been any changes in the policy, you'll notice the thread is 2 years old.

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2007 3:51 am
by moritheil
It has become legal to give away specific item stats, specific directions, and stat notches on global channels, so I guess many of my specific examples from two years back are not valid now. It is still true that sometimes people have no middle ground between smothering someone in help (doing everything for them) and being no help at all.

Recently I have noticed a third category of trouble - sniping at helpers and using NHC for insults. While snarky responses are to be expected on other global channels, NHC is the one channel they really should be kept off. Such rancor undermines NHC's credibility and therefore its usefulness.

If the policy is being updated, I would argue in favor of a policy whereby offenses on NHC are treated more seriously than offenses on other global channels. It's okay if OOC serves no real purpose. If NHC serves no real purpose, though, we're in big trouble.

Re: Helper status - currently not hiring.

Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 7:15 pm
by Corth
Apparently the policy has been in the process of being updated since July of 2005...

(I snark exclusively on the bbs!)