After the long and heated ZU GENDER WARZ it would seem that the Universe has great potential to form a neighborhood-like community in terms of fun and games, but like Anime_Queen a.k.a. Asia has pointed out on many occasions, ZU still needs a little more to give it that true neighborhood block feel. I noticed recently that the ladies of ZU made their own advice thread for lady-issues, and I figured in the spirit of community it would be fitting to do the same for us guys.

Not that we really need the advice... or DO we?

While we don't have too many male-specific problems-- i.e., lack of all things pregnancy-- I think most people still benefit from having a male support group, so this is what we will supply.

So *snips ribbon* I welcome you to the

ZU MEN'S ADVICE THREAD
Also known as "ZUMA"

Here you'll be able to solicit for a wide range of advice, from how to approach a girl you like to whether your friends and family members are treating you fairly to help with your general wellbeing. In general, most advice will probably fall into one of the following categories:

General life advice-- Anything that doesn't fit into another of the categories can still be asked here. Maybe you need to straighten your priorities or you're having grievances with an authority figure, for instance. The only thing that we ask that you not solicit for is an expert medical or psychiatric opinion-- we're not doctors, just normal people who like to help others deal with the trials of life.

Romance and relationships-- Having trouble talking to that cute girl in third period? Suspect your girlfriend is cheating on you? Don't know what to do for a date? Ask it, and we'll answer. Of course, not all of us are pros in the romance department, but at least a couple of us are engaged and/or married, so we'll do the best we can.

Family and friends-- Talk about problems you have with your family, or just that your family is having. A lot of families these days suffer from being dysfunctional or have abuse or alcoholism, so it's important that we have support groups set up to help people cope or respond to these problems. Also, rumor has it that annoying siblings are increasing in number in recent years. If you're having a spat with a friend or just need a friend, ask about it here.

General wellbeing-- Just feeling down about yourself? We'll try to give you the best advice we can to help pick you up by your bootstraps and get you looking up again.

Grief and crisis management-- We can't properly deal with these problems in most cases, but if you need to vent or talk to someone about a lost loved one or an emergency crisis that really has you stressed, we'll try to be available to hear you out... which leads me to the next element of the group--

The Advice Team

Among the many men on ZU, several have been nominated to help with this thread based on their wisdom, life experiences, and prior contributions in areas such as this. They will all, in some respects, moderate this thread in that they will be the primary sources for advice for those who feel they need particularly good help. Feel free to ask for advice just from the general community if you choose; the Men's Advice Team exists only to ensure that you get quality attention and care to your grievances.

These outstanding persons are:

BigGoronSword
Fox McCloud
MDK
Myself, Mr. Lexxi Aileron
Power Shot
Rew
Sabbo
Slur
and gdwarf on somewhat of a trial basis.

Please refrain from using this thread for anything but asking for, giving, or receiving advice; do not, for example:

- Do not ask to join the team-- you may PM myself if you wish to join, but remember that this group, while volunteer-oriented, is based on nomination and prior accomplishments on ZU or for members of ZU, not on self-proclaimed merits, in order to ensure the highest-quality advice possible;
- Do not hold side-conversations unrelated to giving or receiving advice;
- Do not spam/troll (you WILL be infracted)

Also, the idea of the Advice Team exists so that ZU'ers may have the option of soliciting for team-only advice if they so choose. ZU'ers reserve the right to ask for a team member to respond to their questions or problems if they feel they need a more trusted opinion. In cases where the advice of the team is specifically sought, please do not post advice if you are not part of the team.

If you'd like only team members to respond to your concerns, please indicate this by posting "TEAM MEMBERS ONLY" somewhere in your post. If you'd like to open up your problems for anybody to respond, please indicate this as well by posting "FOR ANYONE." If you indicate neither, it will be assumed that anyone can reply.

You do not have to be male to ask for advice or to give it, but in general this thread is designed to be a male support group, so please try to keep it that way.

ALSO::

ZUMA Chatroom

If you want more immediate answers to your questions, you can reach ZUMA's IRC channel by logging into the chat and joining our chatroom. To do so, just type "/join #zuma" (without the quotation marks). If one of the team members is standing by, they'll assist you. If you just want to discuss your problems with others in a chatroom without all the bile in #zelda, feel free to do so there as well. If no one's around, just post here and we'll get back to you when we can.

ZU "Big Brother" project

we're going to be implementing a man-to-man mentoring project, which may be split off to another thread. It's similar to the adoption process in that it involves someone taking another under their wing and offering friendship and conversation, but will be directed through this group instead of through the New Members forum, and is available to anyone who feels they could use a "Big Brother" on the forums and not just new members.

So far BigGoronSword has expressed interest in serving as one of ZU's "Big Brothers," and I will serve as one as well. We may decide to have all team members participate in this, but that depends how comfortable they are with the idea. It's also possible that we'll allow anybody, team members or not, to volunteer to be one of the ZU "Big Brothers." For now, anyone who's interested will be grouped in the following list:

BigGoronSword
Mr. Lexxi Aileron

Anyone interested in being a ZU Big Brother, please send me a message (don't post in this thread as doing so will distract from its purpose). Anyone who feels they need a male mentor, you may ask for one in this thread.

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Thank you, and I hope this thread and the Advice Team and panel of Big Brothers will serve you well should you need to use it.

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