Hi. I’m new. I was in the rookie help chat the other day and I noticed some people lurking in there pretending to be new players, but whom were bashing some folks and had an in general, toxic attitude. I couldn’t help but notice it after people were blocking them and stuff. I just wanted to know if this is normal, and if not, what could be done about it? Is there another help chat channel?
Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.
Hi, and welcome to EVE.
Sorry your initial experience was a poor one. The people who genuinely want to help in Rookie Help are great folks, but it’s a challenge to get useful help there due to the potential presence of toxic folks and the fact that there are many conversations going on at any one time. I’ve tried to hang out there, and my brain just can’t take it 
I’ll leave it open to others to comment on quality in-game channels.
What I will say is that there are a lot of us here in the forums that are more than happy to help out if you have questions. If you are interested in joining a corp to get a bit more guidance, started corps like E-Uni are always welcoming and helpful:
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Applying_to_EVE_University
Even if you don’t want to join, their wiki is essentially the manual for EVE at this point.
Ultimately, don’t let the jerks get you down or discourage you. EVE has a rep, not entirely unearned, for something of a toxic environment, but there are still lots of us here that are happy to help if we can.
If you have questions, fire away.
o7
I will say that some of the folks who were helping, were also not very nice… and had a rather harsh attitude. I too was even called troll and spy, I mean its just silly at that point of the game. Ive been bombarded with convos and messages to join alliances and fleets and been threatened already in Jita, was already smart bombed in Jita too… I just kinda wonder if this is a no rules kinda game? or say, no ethics…
Oh, EVE can indeed be a very harsh place. Some like that, but there are definitely ways to avoid the drama and crankiness As I say, some of us are actually rather pleasant.
Jita is, well, the “hive of scum and villainy” in EVE for lack of a better metaphor. It’s the busiest trade hub in the game, so there is all sorts of chaos, scamming, and drama going on there. I would definitely suggest moving a few systems out for a little calm, depending on what you want to do in the game.
As to the folks trying to help on the channel, don’t bear them any ill will. Many of them live there, and if you were burnt out after a short spell there, imagine how they must feel 
As I say, feel free to ask questions here and we are always happy to help out.
a lot of people take this game a lot more serious than need be. Some are assholes because they can be, and its probably also to make up for lack of something they have in their real life. But there are corps that try to help new people, I try to help when i can.
Rookie chat is a special place. The insane pace of the channel can leave an impression of brusqueness. The channel works best when both questions and answers are as concise as possible. Some of the less well-received responses I have to give sometimes are “Your question is broken, ask a better question” or “that’s too complicated for this channel, google it”. Some questions get ignored because they are too long, badly worded, or sometimes too obscure. The normal help channel is a slower pace where they can go more in depth (find it with f12 > join channel.)
The pace of rookie chat can drive people nuts, but the pace is what I like… it turns EVE into a rapid fire trivia game.
Jita is like that Cantina in Star Wars. you only go there when you have to and the sooner you get set up away from there the better.
Rookie chat moves quite quickly so an answer to a question could be easily missed. However if people in that channel are being troll asshats, they should definitely be reported.
There’s also other ways to get answers, you can ask questions in your Corp chat channel and hopefully a few older players in there will answer.
Probably the best way to get answers is to do google search.
when i started my last alt i saw its really unfunny
its only bad jokes, harassment and recruting … sorry but this rookie help should be closed …
was better after blocking arround 30 guys in there
@Leikr you can allways ask in your corpchat and here in the forum … google and youtube help a lot too or you just write a message
JuuR
Rookie help is notorious for being horrible. Not sure what the mods / admins are doing or actually why aren’t they doing something about it.
I highly recommend joining the e-uni help channel, which is listed under the “help” category in the channel list, not even have to search for it as it is openly visible in the list of channels.
The good thing is e-uni help is available even if you become 30 days old or older while you will be removed from rookie help after that time… but as things are as is it is rather a positive thing anyway, the less time one has access to it the better. Sad but true.
Yeah, generally rookie help can be a cesspool. The problem is, a lot of people like to troll, and even more people like to hook in and trick new players into joining their generic, crappy corporation in order to milk them out of isk.
The forums is a great place to go, always has been, always will be. Tons of helpful people here, always minimal trolling for people who are asking for advice in the new players section. Honestly, they should post a link to this forums in the beginning of the Help channel, and have it repeatedly post itself every 5 minutes or so.
Unlike a chat channel, the moderators dont need to come in 5 minutes after the offensive post in order to moderate the channel, so thats why the forums are generally better imo.
But feel free to ask questions in this forums, were always happy to help.
its because of people… will always be people.
The English Help channel exists, but is arguably just as bad as the Rookie Help channel. Trolls are a constant presence and ISDs are often absent. There are also some special snowflakes in there currently who, apart from flaming everyone, will sometimes post vaguely helpful-sounding answers that are either plain wrong or not relevant to the question, thus wasting everyone’s time and confusing and/or misleading the person seeking help (who inevitably gets flamed if he figures out that he’s being trolled).
The official help channels are thus best avoided. Your best bet is to join a corporation or alliance that specializes in helping new players. Maybe even one that works in the area you’re interested in. But Eve-Uni is a good start until you figure out what works for you in Eve.
Always petition them. Always.
You do every single one of us a favour, both old and new people alike.
When the situation gets out of hand …
… and there is no ISD around …
… petition in “Stuck”.
It will get attention within minutes. The “Stuck” queue is the highest priority one, and when some jerks in the help channel start to be excessive, allow yourself to be excessive as well. The GMs will not punish you for things that need attention fast and the help channel is visible to every single new player within his first 30 days, so asking for swift action is right on the spot.
The damage these suckers do is insane.
Just don’t use it for anything else but things that really actually need their attention, not “I WANT ATTENTION BECAUSE I AM IMPORTANT I LOST MY SHIP/STUFF WAHWAHWAH” kind of ■■■■■■■■. Thinking of others first is what makes sure you won’t get your ass handed to you by a GM, if you use “Stuck”.
Also: Ask them about chicken sandwiches and Pasta. : - )
I’ve been in Rookie channel for a few weeks now and apart from some spammers and really basic trolls I’ve not seen anything the like.
Speaking as one of the long term occupants of Rookie Help? Yes at times there are trolls here (I hope I am not counted as one of them) We try to cycle through questions as efficiently as possible but yes, we could use a few more mods in the channel as a whole. But the ISD are spread thin and they cannot be everywhere all the time
m
naa man, ive been there, people, and myself included, ahve asked legit logical and sound questions and have received the same BS troll behavior the OP is talking about. It actually, imo, ruins the game. people are so set on determining what htey know about the other people, prejiduce, judgmental etc… im not trying to add fule to teh fire, there is no more fule that can be added. people are people, that is all they need. just get them behind a computer and talking to each other and you will quckly discover, they become different people…
this GAME is toxic… its bred for toxic people to thrive in, and its difficult to avoid, I JUST STAY OUT OF THE “help” CHATS lol
Sometimes things in Rookie help can get out of hand, but I would guess that is to be expected if you stick that many ppl into one channel.
The thing that bugs me the most in there is that people can not keep their personal bias out of it. There are way too many people in there who push people in a certain direction in the game. As now people are over and over again pushed into exploration.
Yes it is not a bad source of income for new players. But pushing them into that direction without giving people a real chance to just find out what they enjoy in the game is not the way to go in my humble opinion.
ISK / hour is not everything and rather meaningless if one get´s the feeling to just be grinding rather than enjoying the game.
My personal advice for rookie help is:
If you are new to the game:
Don´t let people push you in a direction you are not interested in. And even if it is something you are interested in, try out other things too, you never know if you don´t enjoy something else even more. You can even jump between different activities, even that means you do not reach the maximum effectivity in any given area fast, that way. Just do what you think you enjoy and not what other people enjoy!
Block the trolls, scammers, recruiters and ppl who spend most of their time in there with off topic discussions and stick to the people who actually are there to answer your questions. If you need detailed explanations do not hesitate to start a private conversation with the helpers, where things can be explained without having to go through all the comments and conversations that have nothing to do with your current question or problem.
If it is something that is answered quick like the common question of: How do I split a stack? You will get an aswer quick and to the point, but more complex questions can not always be properly answered in the channel itself.
A good example where a private conversation is a lot better is questions about fittings. If you ask that question in rookie help you will get 50 different biased answers and none of them will explain to you, how to use the ship with the given fitting correctly or any explanation on why you should fit a ship in a certain way with a certain tactic in mind.
In such cases, don´t just take the fitting and run with it. Ask questions about it, if you are not 100% clear why certain modules are fitted. Somebody who actually knows how to properly fit ships will be able to explain his fitting and how to use it. If he/she can not do that, ask somebody else. That way you get an example of how to fit a ship, but you will also have the chance to learn the logic behind fitting ships for certain tasks.
If you are an older player trying to help:
Leave your personal bias outside of rookie help. No matter if it´s your bias in regards to eve politics, your favorite ships, your preferred profession. If somebody asks you what you do, or what you prefer in regards to their questions, it is totally fine to give them an answer, but do not push your personal bias onto new players every time you reply to a question. Keep it neutral and stick to helping them solve their problems.
On top of that, help the ISDs and CCP to keep the channel clean. Report people who break the channel rules over and over again, send relevant chatlogs to CCP, with timestamps and a date (to make it easier for them to investigate).
Don´t let people drag you into endless discussions, it only makes the channel less readable and a lot harder to follow for everyone. If you feel like you really need to discuss something that is not directly related to helping players, do it in a private conversation, where you do not distract people from actually helping or asking questions.
This was the ONLY part of what you said that I slightly disagree with.
I tend to prefer to answer in the Rookie chat because for every person willing to put themselves out there and ask a question there are a ton of lurkers who watch and hope to pick up scraps of info.
So I tend to try to answer in Rookie chat as opposed to side channels.
m
Yeah, remembering my time in rookie chat, I just read questions and answers to learn the basics, so I appreciate answers in the same chat. Sometimes the answer can be a link to zkillboard, eveUni, or perhaps this forum here for a read, that is also helpful. Because despite Google, Rookies need links.