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Buddy Systems


Uaithne
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How does a successful buddy system work?

 

I've never had one that's successful.  Either no one signs up to be big buddies, or they do (normally I recruit them) and then they don't really go out of their way to interact with newbies more than they normally would.  (Which in all fairness is sometimes sufficient, but it never seems like there's a true advantage of the system.)

 

But I know that many sites have successful buddy systems, so I'd like to know about how you make them successful.  Or heck, even how you set them up in the first place so that they are enticing to existing members and new members.

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On a site where it functioned, each of the older members got assigned a new one since the approval of the newbie's bio. He had to send the newbie a PM, and to plot for a thread from there. Also he was there to answer questions, to help the new one integrate better in the story.

 

How the appointment was made, who to contact whom? By seeing the potential of interaction of the new person's character with the older member's. From the same faction, or with other common interests.

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Somewhat uselessly, I'm going to say that I've never seen this system work on a small site, whether or not that relates to your question, goodness knows. 

 

A site I was on for a while had a buddy system, but it was a "team" of staff who were like the newbie-team? They were super-duper nice members who always plotted with the new kids on the block; so it was a little different than a traditional mentor style buddy system. It worked very well though, from what I remember.

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I've only ever seen buddy systems work, and well, on large sites, personally. Usually it's large sites that need that type of further handling of members. The best one I've seen was on an HP site where they ask if you(the member) are interested in having a buddy or not(though I think they called them mentors or something) — a good policy as not everyone might want one. The other thing is from what I've seen of sites where it works well both individuals are not only willing, but that they also get along. Just cause you assign someone to a member, they might not mesh well so having an option to change buddy(whether on the part of the member assigned a buddy, or buddy assigned a member) would be important.

 

So obviously your first step is setting up a system — you'd want it figured out as best as possible beforehand. You can make changes after if need be, but you'd want it set up as much as possible to minimize any issues. Can't really help issues that arise, but you can limit them. Your second step would then be finding people who are willing and able to be buddies. Not only that want to be buddies, but that actually have the time. You want people who are around more than they're not around, otherwise it's a little pointless. Obviously people couldn't and shouldn't always be available as this is RP and RL always comes first. However, they do need to be available enough to be of any use to the person(s) they're assigned to as buddies.

 

That is just in terms of setting up a system if you want one, of course. Personally my first step would be doing a poll to see if your members and staff are interested in such a thing.

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I agree that that it's probably only a thing that's needed on large forums. I'm not sure what else a buddy sytem could offer....if you have a few members in your community who drop ideas for plots or threads. I don't think anyone should expect everyone to jump on the new guy quickly.

 

If you do find yourself needing to actively encourage people to plot with or integrate the new person, maybe you can incentivize? Mentors/buddies get a shiny for signing up and being an active buddy.

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