Mentoring through POTN - suggestion

I've been toying with suggesting this idea - so I thought what the heck lets try!

My idea is to setup a mentoring system whereby volenteer members (the mentors) of the site offer to give time dedicated to a select number of "students" for the purposes of helping them develop their photographic skills within whatever areas the mentors are willing/able to give advice upon. This is to get around the aninomity that is so often a part of a large internet community - whereby those willing to dedicate time to help others can meet with the limitation that they don't know the people they are responding to on a better level than the info they give in the thread at that time. Whilst good advice can come from this a dedicated mentor-student interaction can often unlock more helpfull advice as mentors are more willing to give more time to a known and willing student.


The way this would operate is that each mentor would have a bio of their details posted up to a single thread - the bio would detail their experiences, examples/links to their work/website as well as what they are able/willing to teach as well as any requirements they have of potential students. Students would then be able to contact the mentors direct through the PM system to pitch their willingness to the mentor and from there it would be the case of the two parties to come to an agreement as to how to proceed (if indeed they do - there is no garantee). Further it is recognised that there will be a limit for each mentor as to how many students they feel they are able to advise - and thus as each mentor reaches their maximum they will be removed from the main listing until such a time as they are able/willing to be relisted for new students.


One important point about this is that it is simply a semiformal way for interested parties to find and communicate with each other - there is no exam/testing or proofing for the mentors to pass to be accepted save that they show their own work.
Of course if any were to feel that a mentor was offering more than their understanding to a student that would be dealt with in private between the organiser of this project (me or the site own admin/moderation team if they wish to take over) rather than a slugging match with the mentor direct. I have to also say that when running this in another forum I never had this occurance and it is my hope that it would also not occur here on POTN.

I would encourge that interaction between mentors and students (eg photo critique) in this project remain in the open areas of the forum rather than slipping fully into pms/email simply so that others might benefit from the time that the mentors and indeed the students as well, put into the project. It also allows the students to continue to take advantage of the facilities currently on offer by POTN whilst also getting the aid of their mentor.

The above is a rough outline of the project as I have run it before (and still do) and I would greatly welcome questions, ideas and such from members here. Also if any are willing to be mentors I would greatly appreciate hearing from you since this clearly cannot get off the ground without people willing to dedicate time to be the mentors. Also for a project like this I would greatly welcome the input of the staff (admin/mods) here on POTN as clearly the project cannot take place without their approval and support.

Edit - let me just add a point to highlight the fact that this project is intended to run through the internet (using but not limited to POTN) only and is not intended to encourage or be used for real world interactions. Such interactions are neither discourage or encouraged by this

No one??

Too time-consumingly hard trying to do this thru typed information on POTN. A process best done in person, when 30 seconds of demonstration are equal to 3 minutes of typing a shorthand reply that probably gets misinterpreted.

I know not everyone has one right in their own backyard (in fact, I drive over an hour one way to mine) but this is an area where flesh and blood Photography Clubs, Camera Clubs, Photo Groups, whatever are fabulous resources.

My ability to "see" has grown exponentially thanks to having my monthly group submissions shredded by 20-30+ other sets of eyes. The real strength of this process though is that it is face to face and you can get an honest read on the feedback you're being given. Something that's no where near as effective via typing.

Just my $0.02...

Don't get me wrong, I think a "POTN Academy" could be of great benefit to beginners. It would be a fabulous project to codify some of the best stuff from the stickies in all the different areas. Daunting task to be sure but it would be fantastic!

While I think the idea is good and it would be generous of folks to mentor other members, I really think valuable information/knowledge is readily accessible in POTN already, including stickies in each sub-forum and countless number of individuals helping out others without hesitation. It's really a very unique community we have going here.

I think many folks are willing to help out in this way, however not give the kind of commitment that may be needed to mentor someone.

I get PM's all the time asking questions and generally don't have any problems answering them.

I agree with Jay. Seek out local photographers, or local POTN members and organize a meet. I do this as well, just to get to know some of the members here and have befriended several folks as a result.

I think it's a great idea. I am on another (non-photo) forum and they have a forum dedicated to mentoring. People set up groups and the members post a short bio/intro asking people to join. They usually cap each group off at maybe 10 then. Each mentoring group is one thread. Mentors have to check in often. Those being mentored post questions, etc and they discuss. The thread is still open for others to see so the information aren't locked up.

Wilt wrote in post #10155822
Too time-consumingly hard trying to do this thru typed information on POTN. A process best done in person, when 30 seconds of demonstration are equal to 3 minutes of typing a shorthand reply that probably gets misinterpreted.

I agree with Wilt. Both he and I spend a bunch of time here already trying to teach folks what we can. Unfortunately, I don't have much more time available these days to spend here other than what I do already.

One thing that can be done by those who could mentor without committing relatively uncontrollable tons of time in the mentoring process is to create more technical/tutorial threads such as the one on Perspective Control in Images - Focal Length or Distance? that Wilt, I, and others put together. The collaberative effort that went into that thread resulted in a product that has taught thousands of folks quite a bit since we posted it. We edited each other's submissions and came up with something that's easily understood, well stocked with examples to show/prove the concepts, and is apparently well appreciated by many folks.

I can surely see the need for another similar tutorial thread covering depth of field issues. Wilt and I decided to leave that one alone for the time being, though, as it will take a lot of work to properly write it and create embedded examples that are orderly and make sense to understand.

Interesting viewpoints and certainly some very valuble insight.

However a few things I think stand out - firstly certainly this idea would not replace nor be superior to having a mentor in the field or even just to meet up with in person and yes internet communication is either going to be generalist advice before a shoot and post shoot/event commentary based on results and 3rdparty explinations (that of the shooter explaining the shoot). So yes there are limitations, but no more so than those already present in a forum environment that we already use for such a process on a regular basis.
The key difference though is that it can often take a lot of time (especailly on such a massive community as is here on POTN) for people to become people rather than just a random username and avatar+sig combo (the latter of which can change very often). Thus a dedicated interaction between two people helps to reinforce their understanding of each other - that helps the adviser (mentor) and also the one seeking advice (the student).

In my experiences of this in the past it has also encouraged more in depth discussion around a subject (at least between the two interested parties when held in private and within the forum itself when held in public) or topic or even critique. This is through the simple fact that when we reply to a stranger we might cut short some corners to achive a quicker reply whilst when we talk to a known interested party we can sometimes feel that our time is well spent in elaborating the reply.


At a very simplistic level this could just help facilitate what nicksan already experiences as part of forum interactions - that of people using the pm function to contact key members for advice. A scheme similar to what I outline above that simply makes use of a "bio/description" of willing advisers for people to turn to could easily be used to allow those willing to answer questions to be found and thus contacted by members of the site. The bonus to this is that it also encourages many people to make such interactions since I know myself I tend not to like simply pming people for advice direct unless I know them a little first through forum interactions (I mean they might not like to be pm pestered!).
The other aspect is sometimes people have skills that htey don't always openly display in forum life - for example nicksan might be a fantastic landscape photographer for all I know but if I don't know that fact I can never turn to him for such advice - if that fact is made known then such an option becomes viable.
However one reason I suggested a mentor interaction more over one like I just outlined is that mentorship with students gives the mentor the option to focus and limit contact to a controled group. For popular subject interests this is important as it helps to avoid some people being smothered with pms for advice and being expected/obligated (by agreeing to the project) to reply to them all - rather than a system that lets them filter the replies. Further if interactions are kept in the forum open areas the other can still benefit from the replies.

I see this also as something that can run alongside and complitment extensive stickies and articles not just replace it - I say this because many people can't always learn from secondary sources. One can learn so much from that, but then at some point the information has to be applied to personal and real life situations - an area where an advisor/thread/mentor moves to the fore in being able to give replies that elaborate the situation for that person.

On occasion I have become engaged in a series of exchanges with an individual, via PM sent to me. It is incredibly time consuming to have even a half dozen messages in each direction in a very short period of time. That is time which is not available to general answers to the POTN population, but time spent with only one individual. Such a 'typed' dialog is so time consuming when you have to type every single response rather than speak to someone or demonstrate the answer.

Sorry, if I wanted to be a private coach, I would charge for my time. The advice I give on POTN is freely given. So, to me, the two are a dichotomy.