Brookline Quinn wrote: 9 Jun 2026, 16:52

Tes Cadell wrote: 9 Jun 2026, 15:47 Hi,
I was wondering why we didn't give mentors automatically to new members as it will make monitoring the site so much easier and they wouldn't feel as lost instead of waiting for them to reach out or make a mistake and then saying "Oh btw we have a mentorship program" and wait in queue for them to get a mentor.
I'm aware we would probably need more mentors but there's a few in the waiting line so it would allow current members to have a responsible role whilst making daily tasks on HiO more efficient and helping new members get a grip of how to navigate around.

Hello! I don’t know all of the answer to your suggestion/question, but I do know that some new users don’t prefer a mentor. Some sign up for it, and then decide, oh, I can do this on my own. Like for me, for instance, I didn’t sign up for a mentor and I was fine. I asked a few questions and that was it. Some users need a little bit more help, which is completely fine. This is one of the reasons why we have a mentors program. I also know that we mentors try to keep on the ball on the mentee queue. We’ve recently increased our max number of mentees to from three to five, so mentees wouldn’t be waiting for a mentor for so long. I hope this brings more insight to your suggestion.

I suppose that makes sense, thanks!
I was wondering since there's quite a lot of new members who are highkey lost and involuntarily break rules, so maybe we could ask them if they want to be assigned an automatic mentor?

Tina Carille wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 02:09

Remy Break wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 00:13

Tina Carille wrote: 9 Jun 2026, 23:29 I noticed that there isn't a Grand Staircase forum and it's pretty important in the storyline...

I used the corridors for it with the thread between Prat and Clark

While that would be practical I feel like it should be included…. I don’t know why but I feel quite strongly about it

Omg that's such a good ideaaa, even the Bell Tower, Bridge, the whomping willow, random storage rooms and I assume the Shrieking Shack is limited to werewolves (maybe the Whomping willow too, sighh).
Even niche places like Malfoy Manor/Riddle Manor/ The Burrow/4 Privet Drive etc would b so cool

Adding new forums has been discussed many times, but from what I remember the reason they aren’t usually added is because the staff are required to moderate the forums and check them which just adds more work to their already busy lives and it’s something not exactly necessary when you can make certain forums work with for example using the grounds for the whomping willow.

Tes Cadell wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 19:36

Tina Carille wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 02:09

Remy Break wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 00:13

Tina Carille wrote: 9 Jun 2026, 23:29 I noticed that there isn't a Grand Staircase forum and it's pretty important in the storyline...

I used the corridors for it with the thread between Prat and Clark

While that would be practical I feel like it should be included…. I don’t know why but I feel quite strongly about it

Omg that's such a good ideaaa, even the Bell Tower, Bridge, the whomping willow, random storage rooms and I assume the Shrieking Shack is limited to werewolves (maybe the Whomping willow too, sighh).
Even niche places like Malfoy Manor/Riddle Manor/ The Burrow/4 Privet Drive etc would b so cool

I'll say right now that there won't be any locations that are tied to canon characters ever added, like Malfoy Manor, Riddle Manor, The Burrow, or 4 Privet Drive. We don't allow users to have relations to canon characters, and adding the locations of where canon characters lived would sort of defeat that purpose.

I'll also second the idea of using the corridors for miscellaneous places. There are so many locations at Hogwarts that we certainly can't add forums for them all - adding new forums is already tough as staff have lots of forums to moderate already without adding even more! The purpose of the Corridors forum is sort of to work as a catch-all, and the Grand Staircase is part of the corridors anyway. Plus, it allows users to make threads moving in and out of the grand staircase and into other corridors without having to make a separate thread in a new forum to continue in this "other location".

Avery Gray wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 19:43 Adding new forums has been discussed many times, but from what I remember the reason they aren’t usually added is because the staff are required to moderate the forums and check them which just adds more work to their already busy lives and it’s something not exactly necessary when you can make certain forums work with for example using the grounds for the whomping willow.

Maybe they could accept more staff? Just a suggestion. And there’s the community helpers…

Tina Carille wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 20:15

Avery Gray wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 19:43 Adding new forums has been discussed many times, but from what I remember the reason they aren’t usually added is because the staff are required to moderate the forums and check them which just adds more work to their already busy lives and it’s something not exactly necessary when you can make certain forums work with for example using the grounds for the whomping willow.

Maybe they could accept more staff? Just a suggestion. And there’s the community helpers…

Just adding staff adds more stress to the admins, to the teams, then to have to find work to delegate when the amount that we give staffs currently is already enough, but to split it up even more would probably reduce staff workload to the point where they might not even be needed.
(ps, staff needs to be trained in their job, their team they join, and need to actively monitor whatever they are tasked to monitor on top of performing other jobs or adhoc tasks tied to their roles.- They need to be given responsibilities that justify their roles. We don't need 500 staff members, personally I feel we need less but that's highly unlikely to happen and I don't want to make people leave the roles they so dearly love)

At a certain point, you end up with too many people and not enough meaningful tasks, or jobs for them to do. Just adding forums does not add to the rp experience, when you could very easily use another forum for that small thing.

Regardless, we don't need to have forums for everything. The whomping willow is quite literally in the grounds of Hogwarts. The Moving Staircases are quite literally part of the corridors. Some forums aren't even necessary, so we don't need to give one to every tiny thing mentioned in the books.

Remy Break wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 20:33

Tina Carille wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 20:15

Avery Gray wrote: 10 Jun 2026, 19:43 Adding new forums has been discussed many times, but from what I remember the reason they aren’t usually added is because the staff are required to moderate the forums and check them which just adds more work to their already busy lives and it’s something not exactly necessary when you can make certain forums work with for example using the grounds for the whomping willow.

Maybe they could accept more staff? Just a suggestion. And there’s the community helpers…

Just adding staff adds more stress to the admins, to the teams, then to have to find work to delegate when the amount that we give staffs currently is already enough, but to split it up even more would probably reduce staff workload to the point where they might not even be needed.
(ps, staff needs to be trained in their job, their team they join, and need to actively monitor whatever they are tasked to monitor on top of performing other jobs or adhoc tasks tied to their roles.- They need to be given responsibilities that justify their roles. We don't need 500 staff members, personally I feel we need less but that's highly likely to happen and I don't want to make people leave the roles they so dearly love)

At a certain point, you end up with too many people and not enough meaningful tasks, or jobs for them to do. Just adding forums does not add to the rp experience, when you could very easily use another forum for that small thing.

Regardless, we don't need to have forums for everything. The whomping willow is quite literally in the grounds of Hogwarts. The Moving Staircases are quite literally part of the corridors. Some forums aren't even necessary, so we don't need to give one to every tiny thing mentioned in the books.

Sorry for being annoying…Thx for the explanation