holy cow: i have the exact same situation!
really wierd… people yeah
Umm ok…
Anyway I think that this would be a good Idea, also maybe Q can add a feature in our profiles that says if we are a tutor or a student and who is our tutor or student, also maybe the student could have different levels too.
i don’t know just some random ideas…
Nothing wrong with that. That is how things get put into action, someone throws out an idea and everyone discusses it.
It is a good idea. I like the idea of giving people (especially new people) a personal connection to someone. I am just not sure how it would work in practice. We have so many members. Some are on line all the time while other people only come on once in a while. It might be hard for tutor and student to connect.
Anyway, it is something to think about. If you have more thoughts on it feel free to share.
I think not every one needs a mentor, or wants one. I guess seting people up by request. But let them know the option is there.
I just wanted to point something out incase you guys didn’t know (I read the posts and didn’t see it mentioned if it was sorry), the Dream View forum has a system like this setup up on their forum. I think that they call it adoption.
I’m not involved in it, but I think that in general it’s a good idea for beginners.
I was involved in sealife (before when I was able to visit, sheesh) for a while and what I liked about it is the “dream team” aspect. It’s nice to interect with people on a one-on-one basis, plus it helps with your intention.
Anyways…
ypm.
But why aren’t they satisfied? Isn’t “Can I practice chess” and “Can I practice music” the same question when the answer is “You can do anything”?
Isn’t “What’s the best technique” and “What’s the easiest technique” etc pretty much the same question, especially considering there shouldn’t be straight answers?
Isn’t “Will this work” and “Will that work” the same question when the answer to both is “maybe”?
I find it strange that people want personal answers even though there are plenty of threads out there which answer them perfectly well.
…Sometimes even with appropriate titles.
r3m0t, I play guitar. I learned as much as I was going to learn by myself from books in about 3 months. After that I was stuck making the same mistakes, making bad habits, worse. It wasn’t until I started playing with someone that I actually started getting better. LD seems to be like any skill you have to learn. You get better as you go. But if you think you are doing something right, you will keep doing it even if it is wrong until someone tells you so.
Also, I have about 3 posts that haven’t even been answered. Or if they have it wasn’t the answer I was looking for. I don’t blame anyone for that, I realize sometimes posts get lost in the shuffle. But I am not going to fill the forum up with the same question, just cause it got missed.
PS: I realize the people with experience come here to help others, more than to learn something new and If this comes off to you as I don’t think your doing enough. THAT IS NOT WHAT I AM SAYING 
. Sorry.
Well yes and no. Ld4all has become a huge site and I could see how someone who is new would have a hard time finding what they are looking for. Even the obvious topics like the big sticky topics cold be a bit overwhelming for someone who comes here knowing nothing. It is just one of the consequences of the success of the site.
So, new people looking for advice start a new topic and we end up with lots of people asking the same or similar questions. It does not bother me so much to take a quick second to answer them. Will a mentoring program help with this? Perhaps but, I think no matter what you do there will be people asking the same question.
Yes i have a wonderful idea, basically when you say lucid tutor, you mean someone that will be your shadow, you know or sheperd, thats basically a term used in schools as your personal helper, when i was in school i was assigned to one he was a year older than me and he would help me in my first year and make sure i was happy.
Anyway this whole idea on this topic is very interesting, i believe there should be a seperate thread where people could sign in and the moderator for that thread will assign one shadow (tutor) per person for help in lucid dreaming and i believe that the shadow does not have to be an experinced lucid dreamer because there is not that many nearly perfect lucid dreamers here, or i would imagin. But i thought that even if we were not assigned as shadows but more like partners who would help eachother throught a year, then i find just communicated in this sort of way would probably make us lucid dream a lot more than we are currently doing now. So perhaps a member part should be made on this forum for this. Where each day we will be sent an automated email telling you that you must singn into this part of the forum and meet up at such a such time to mentor your LD partner and vice versa.
Thats just a thought, i think it will make it the best part of the internet, such a idea would be better than reading a book or doing anything else. Just lucid dreaming.
With a mentoring program there will only be more people asking the same question.
Imagine, for example, a new category in the forum, and each thread is titled: “{name of student} mentored by {name of volunteer mentor}” - How would anybody find anything useful in there at all, apart from the students?
“Ah, they should post as normal, but with an LD mentor to answer” you might say. Well, are you discouraging other people from answering? Are you saying that the mentors’ answers are implicitly better and that students should generally act upon or believe their answers over others’?
Are we starting a certification course? “Post bought to you by {person}, has been mentor to sixteen people”?
Only joking. I just thought it up.
El Gordo: How can I say this? Playing guitar is different. With lucid dreaming, all you need to do is follow the actions, think the thoughts (and then always some more), be confident and remain patient. That’s it. Right? Surely? Pretty much.
People can’t lucid dream together, or at least, I’ve seen few mentions of it in the forum. To experiment with shared dreaming is something different again - obviously you need a partner! (or two, etc…)
honeyjigga: No, there aren’t many “nearly perfect” dreamers around. Or maybe I’m just seeing my end. 
Anyway. What stuff was your personal helper there for? I would list: Bullying, problems managing homework, getting lost, being shy/not finding friends, anything else?
Do these apply to a forum?
El Gordo again: “If this comes off to you as I don’t think your doing enough. THAT IS NOT WHAT I AM SAYING cheese . Sorry.”
At first, I read that without my punctuation adder on, and you seemed to be suggesting that I’m not doing enough. Consider making your posts clearer
EDIT: The quick reply box is kinda thin so I didn’t realise that I was alternating text lines with blank lines. Now a bit more readable 
r3m0t, if there is a request for this what is the problem with providing it?
“newbie adoptions” is a popular activity seen on many modern forums(not just dream related.) It’s something that helps people “get their feet wet” and learn not just about dreams but the operations of this message board or technical questions. Maybe a visitor here is new to the internet all together and might feel more comfortable if a friendly person offered to help them along with any question they might have.
I’m just arguing that having this will increase the redundancy of the stuff posted here. I mean, if people are really willing to answer the same question again and again, or to read the same answers in different words again and again, fine. I’m willing to, but I don’t really like it.
There’s a similar thing, called “adoption” at DV. There are some good things about it - new ppl can get answers to their questions in real time, and there’s less repeating topics…
Generally it helps people to get to LDing faster
The solution for you then is very simple. Don’t volunteer to be a tutor or mentor or what ever it is eventually called. Of course, that’s if Q decides to do it at all. I was not all that warm to the idea at first either but, it is starting to grow on me. Besides people seem to want it.
That was originally my feeling as well. If new people post their questions to the forum as usual they will have the opportunity to get a varity of answers. However, with a mentor they get just get one opinion. We all know the path to lucid dreaming is different for everyone, so IMO getting more feedback is better. Also, I did not want to discourage people from making regular posts. The thing is that some people it seams want a one-one connection with somone so, it might be a good idea to have that option. Becides, if it helps some people enjoy the forum more then why not do it.
r3m0t,
There would not be redundancy in questions. Like dreamaddict suggested, we could use the chat room, or better yet PM someone. Things learned can be put into the forum (if not already there), and the rest would not. And yes, TO ME, LD is like paying a guitar. It is a learned skill (not to have spontaneous ones, but to induce them). I was farther along on the guitar in 6 months than I am with LD’s.
I am pretty new to this, but once I feel I have something to contribute, I would like to help someone to have an LD. Walk them through, Check up on them. Say “hey, did you do your reality checks today”. if “no” then get on them and motivate them. It feels more personal, like someone cares that they get an LD. It would motivate them more. Not all people learn this way, But I am sure I would have.
Also sorry if I wasn’t clear, I think you guys are great!
r3m0t Anyway. What stuff was your personal helper there for? I would list: Bullying, problems managing homework, getting lost, being shy/not finding friends, anything else?
r3m0t shadows were around for pretty much what you said, but also they were always very helpful and try to make you feel really at home, but they did not all do such a good job at that, and they also made you enjoy your self as a whole.
Also im sorry but i meant that there are not that many perfect lucid dreamers here that can lucid dream at will. Or so i believe.
Hi everybody !
I must say that I had to think a lot before posting in this so fuzzy topic ! 
Trying to make some order in it, I think now there are three different problems in it :
- internet newbies who don’t know how to click
- LD beginners, new and lost on the forum
- advanced LD’ers, who want more information
I hope you’ll agree to that the three problems cannot be solved in the same way.
As for Internet newbies, the only thing that can help is forum interface usability. It’s my first forum and it didn’t take me a lot of time to learn how to find a topic and make a search. When I have some questions about the interface, I use the Helpdesk.
I don’t think there is much more to say about Internet beginners.
Concerning LD beginners, we can find a particular sub-case, ( sorry, I’m working in computers : 
), it’s LD beginners who want to manage on them own :
About this point, I think that three things could be improved on LD4all :
- the intro section, which is a bit messy ;
- in the forum index, the main topics are somewhat unclear. You often don’t know where to post, and therefore where to find a topic. I would need a reorganization, or explanation sentences could be at least more explicit.
- what seems to me more important, the search engine, which is not powerful enough. For instance, there is a big problem with acronyms : if you’re searching for RC, you’ll find all the words with ‘rc’ inside ; you can’t make a search on topics titles, etc.
But if those beginners want to manage on them own, they don’t need a tutor. So it’s out of topic.
So we just have to handle the following cases :
- LD beginners who want to be assisted
- LD beginners who want personnal answers
- advanced LD’ers who want personnal answers
LD beginners who want to be assisted
Who and where are there ? Moreover, it don’t seems to me that the “Adoptions” topic triggered a lot of enthusiam, nor amongst the beginners, neither amongst the potential tutors : 10 answers and it just lasted one day.
LD beginners who prefer to have personnal answers than to read the previous topics
Though beginners are informed of reading previous topics, everybody knows that they ask a lot of personnal questions indeed ! and have a lot of personnal answers too. When some answers are not relevant, it’s very common that a more experienced LD’er gives a more judicious reply.
Saying there would be no redundancy in questions is not right, cause tutors would have to manage with redundancy, just the same way they are doing yet.
Moreover, I think that redundancy is a good thing. Redundant postings are what gives life to the forum. There are always more beginners than experienced LD’ers, and thus more basic than very interesting threads, about new techniques or specific helps. Remove all the redundant beginners questions, and you’ll have a sort of Lounge and Playground forum, no more related with LDing.
On the other hand, beginners posts are good in such a way they asks sometimes strange questions which lead you to change your mind about your own techniques and experiences. As one said, “others want to learn too from your questions and the answers.”
That’s why I think that beginners questions have to be kept, and not to be hidden in private messages.
Advanced LD’ers who want personnal answers
The problem is that there are not so many expert dreamers in LD4all. You can count them on the left hand fingers. Moreover, I don’t have the feeling that they all are available and interested in being tutors. What to do with so few tutors ? In such conditions, a one-on-one based interaction is impossible. And the problem will be worse than what I exposed above, cause you will no more see potentially interesting posts yet.
About what I’ve read, I saw two good ideas :
First of all, the possibility for people having things, interests, projects in common, to group and share help and experience. It could be a structure for that, but it has not to be the LD4all main goal. It could be a sort of extension of the Lucid Laboratory. I don’t like the sealife system, ( though I don’t know it very much, I just chat a little about it ) cause it seems to me that the groups are so much closed. You don’t know what the projects of other teams are, and what they do. And as with fewer people, there are less LD, they found the trick to share their ND diaries on a weekly basis to maintain motivation in the team, and of course, this is secret, so it makes the team more withdrawn.
In my opinion, the basis of such a team system could be common projects, for a limited duration.
Second point, someone said that the LD4all chat room is misused. I agree with him. I went there four times and it was chatted about anything but LD. So it could be a good idea to plan meetings on the chat, at certain time.
Long post, soory. 
wow basilus what an exellent reply there.
i have been following this discussion and i’m open for a ‘teacher’ tutor, ‘buddy’ kind of system, but we need to introduce something that will work. What basilus now says are mainly my own thoughts too (private is not viewable for others - also it will get a strain on the tutor if too many ppl PM him/her)
how do you see the group thing? Another forum not hidden, where members (‘students’) join for a project? Like the lab you have to be member of a specific group to post? and all members can read?
The chatroom, well #ld4all can get way off topic, that’s why we have created #dreamtime - that is the LD4all chatroom for only LD related topics.
(we tried to do it the other way around by making #LD4all the LD only room and making the #lucid_lounge room for off topic conversation but that didn’t work)
Nice reply, basilus
pasQuale, isn’t there already a “lab” for that sort of thing? The Lucid Laboratory?
But I agree with r3mot: New LDers just post their question without seeing if something similar is already posted, and if the answer is what they’re looking for.
I think there should be a FAQ for this sort of thing. Like:
Get my point?
EDIT: Nevermind, we alreayd have an FAQ
OK, I hope I don’t offend anyone but the Point of the Tutor is lost. This forum is a great forum there is nothing wrong with it. IT IS NOT CONFUSING. The idea of a tutor is to have a personal 1 on 1 with an experienced LDer.
Holy crap, how did we get from asking for a tutor to beating up on the site? 