
Show HN: Who's Mentoring? - quickthrower2
http://www.whosmentoring.com/
======
zwischenzug
My experience of 'mentoring' like this has been not requests for mentoring,
but 'solve my problem please, and do it for free'.

I was thinking a 'solution' to this would be mutual mentoring: exchange your
expertise in X with another's expertise in Y.

~~~
fiatjaf
If you go to codementor.io you'll find exactly that. Apparently people do pay,
but they don't want a mentor at all (also, the sheer majority of people who
request a mentor end up not hiring any -- or even replying to their messages).

The whole thing is a mess.

------
quickthrower2
Thanks for having a look at the site. I have added the 15 or so new
submissions - except the butcher (!).

Tech stack, if you are interested is: Hugo to generate the page. Originally I
had to create one "post" markdown file per entry. That got tedious, so now it
reads from the CSV I download from the contact form. Hugo supports this
natively so no coding.

Hosted on Google cloud storage. I presume there have been no problems with
slowness!

------
tiuPapa
Hey, I am not sure how this works. I am learning on my own and have occasional
doubts where I can't find a clear answer via googling and would love to chat
about it with someone. So do I need to pay for such mentorship? If so, how?
Monthly? Hourly? Is it like a consultation where I have to pay for each
session?

------
j_s
In the longer term it makes sense to implement Craigslist-like email proxying
and eBay-like (-ish) reviews on behalf of both parties involved in mentorship.
("I didn't learn anything" vs. "never answered an email in less than two
weeks" and all the other things that will go wrong as various motivations
limit particiation.) Perhaps an opt-in to publish interactions could protect
both parties?

A larger focus on simplifying the process of preserving mentorship sessions
with the intention of developing a collection of recommendations made
available publicly could provide monetization options down the road. Recording
Skype sessions, integrating a collaborative editing environment with archival,
etc. A tremendous amount of value is being transferred and any attempt to
capture and multicast that could pay off even just in allowing a later read-
only opportunity to learn. (I would encourage anyone signing up to perform
this archival themselves with full awareness and approval of both parties
involved.)

Tie in deep LinkedIn and GitHub integration to tick all the buzzword boxes on
future resumes and recommendations (somehow without driving the wisely
paranoid/most experienced mentors away) and this tool could really help people
improve their standard of living by getting a better job!

------
jansho
This is a really nice address book, thanks :) The UI is bare but does what it
says on the tin. I hope this list keeps growing!

------
destrynd
Is the expectation that mentors get compensated hourly? I'm not sure how this
arrangement works.

~~~
luckydude
I wouldn't expect compensation if someone is sincere in wanting to learn and
shows ability.

As Confucius said: If I hold up 3 corners of a square and the student does not
hold up the 4th, I do not go over the point again.

------
gfredtech
Apparently, it was inspired by this HN post which was flagged by mods for some
reason:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15148619](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15148619)

~~~
j_s
> flagged by mods for some reason

It is uncharitably disingenuous (at best) to imply there somehow remains any
confusion as to why the post was flagged. A complaint about someone having to
ask for an explanation might be legitimate.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15151412](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15151412)

>dang: _we 're pretty rigorous about moderating this sort of thread out,
because it's not the core focus of the site. HN's core focus is the goose that
lays the golden eggs. Taking care of HN means taking care of the goose and
(mostly) foregoing everything else_

Props for the link to the previous discussion, and props to the whomevers
persevering through to this implementation of an MVP getting which will
hopefully support getting this process off the ground.

------
SolaceQuantum
There is not much here to tell a given mentee if they should expect to pay
people for their advice or if the mentor expects to be treated like a
consultant.

------
dorfsmay
For programing subjects, what is the advantage of this over a specialised
subreddit or mailing list / usenet?

------
techaddict009
I am surprised to see no one in blockchain/cryptocurrency in the list.

~~~
tiuPapa
Ye, I too have been searching someone knowledgeable about blockchains.

------
pagade
Details field should not be allowed to be blank.

