There is a large amount of people in the community that have a lot of knowledge, a lot of experience either in the real world and/or in Infinite Flight, but there presence is sometimes not felt as strongly as it could be I feel. In question and answer type posts it can be hard to distinguish what the correct answer is and who the authority (person who knows) is.
What if the “regular” title was renamed/replaced by “mentor”. Now before you overreact or jump to conclusions, read the rest. Here’s a short not comprehensive list of people that you could lumped into this mentor group.
IFATC Supervisors
IFATC Recruiters
IFATC Trainers
IFVARB Admins
IFVARB Leaders
Community members with an outstanding amount of Infinite Flight/aviation knowledge appointed by moderators and staff i.e. current regulars, real world pilots/controllers
etc.
I can’t think of any other groups of people off the top of my head. Regarding that second to last bullet, moderators and staff could elect to manually add people who consistently provide detailed, accurate information day in and day out. For example those who are currently regulars but are just outstanding and know their stuff.
The role of regular is interesting but it doesn’t really fit that well in the fact based world of aviation, I feel. Mentors could be shown as beacons of knowledge and could be pointed to as examples to follow for those who are new to community, who want to learn. I think it would really change the atmosphere more towards that feeling of education and learning rather then that of “who has the best forum stats and standing”. What do you think?
I absolutely agree. The tag “regular” means nothing about ones knowledge of aviation.
People looking for accurate answers deserve to receive the most accurate information.
An add on idea here. If someone without the tag of “mentor” answers a question with a detailed and correct response, mentors have the ability to “approve” the response using a separate button or tool.
I completely agree with you here Trio, especially with what you mentioned in regards to changing the atmosphere more towards the feeling of education and learning rather than that of reaching stats and getting a title.
I can see this working well, and people being more appreciative of the information that members of this group would provide.
That’s actually like a really good idea and suggestion too. Something kind of like support, where you can tick it if it solves the problem but the same for an answer.
Trust me, there’s no “farming” when it comes to ranks within IFATC. It poses a challenge even to make it to being an officer, let alone trainer/supervisor/recruiter.
This is a very interesting idea. I agree with you that the regular tag does not signify too much sometimes.
We have to be careful not too let this turn into everyone asking for a custom title based on their role.
However, I really love this idea.
Great thoughts.
Well you would have to ask for some, I mean there isn’t an inherent way for them to know your a pilot or controller like there is for IFATC and stuff, but since you would have to provide some proof I would assume, it does seem like a non issue that people would obsessively ask for them…
The thing is… it’s not even ‘too hard’ to farm. You can’t farm any of the roles in IFATC, especially Trainers, Recruiters and Supervisors.
These three ‘ranks’ (if you want to call them that), are appointed by IFATC staff, and you can not farm them. It’s not like one day you just wake up and bang you’re a supervisor.
TL3 is in place to reduce the moderation workload to a certain extent and this Mentor group that you are proposing should not be used in lieu of Regulars.
If the goal is to have Mentors be beacons of knowledge, a separate group must be created and not be confused with the Regular group.
This is the best idea I’ve seen in my time on the IFC, hands down. I feel that Regular seems like a goal for many people which may dilute the productivity of posts, and I feel that replacing Regular with Mentor will inspire a healthier posting culture and will foster more positive exchanges here.
This is one of the statements that I’ve seen that I agree with the most on the IFC.
As a community and a place for everyone to learn and develop their knowledge in aviation, I please that we would want to inspire a healthier posting culture and more positive exchanges.
I can probably help with the outstanding amount of aviation knowledge. I also have a lot of connections, including knowing about 4 F-15 pilots. Trust me, I have proof.
I also work for an aviation education center. I have a good amount.
Well I’m not sure about replacing regular with mentor. Maybe they should be 2 different things. As @Will_A said, you can be a regular and not have that much knowledge about this kind of stuff.