I have an idea, something I personally think would be pretty cool if it actually worked. I would like to start a linkshell specifically geared towards helping people. Hear me out before you completely disregard this idea. The linkshell wouldn't be your main linkshell, as in you keep your main linkshell(s), but if you're not doing anything important, or you know it's going to be a looooong time before you get a pt invite, you equip this pearl and talk with other ls members, seeing if it's possible to arrange some type of help party, where you'd go as a group, or even solo, to a low level area like valkurm, and maybe offer your services to kill gob links or help the even newer players get their sub job item.
Now, what would you get out of this? Several things in my opinion. First, you help people, and I would imagine all of us appreciate it when we get help, and also have a good feeling inside when we help others right back and get the millions of thank you's and /kneel or /bow at the end. So that's #1.
#2 - You can farm while helping people. Take, for example, the tunnel leading from the Port Jeuno zone to the main Quifum area. There are times when I see lower levels waiting by the zone or in the middle of the tunnel because a weapon is waiting there. As we all know, weapons drop kaiser swords, which aren't worth a ton, but is gil none the less. You could potentially clear all the weapons on the island, which I don't see lower levels xping off of anyways, thus farming and killing pests at the same time. This can go for wights, banshees (they sometimes drop an escape scroll right?) and gigas, who drop some decent gil. Also, if you help people get rank 4, you can clear all the gigas in the tower for some decent gil while making some people happy.
#3 - You can skill up some weapons that you're interested in using, like staff or polearm. Maybe the higher levels of this help linkshell can arrange a time and day, and then /shout in Jeuno for anyone interested in getting their Genkai 1, or even 2, done with. I assure you there are a ton of people who need it. So you could help people get this frustrating quest done, and also skill up. Sound fun?
#4 - You can make friends along the way. You never know who's out there, could be someone really cool that'll make this game even more enjoyable for you, you just don't know. Also, you can make friends with people in the linkshell, establishing new contacts, new friends, and new team mates.
I'm sure I could list more but I'm done for the moment. My main concern with this idea though is would anybody be interested? Like I said, this isn't a full time commitment in any way, shape, or form. If you're going to farm, level a lower level job cause you're bored, or if it's been 5 hours and still no pt invite, why not just throw on the pearl and lend a hand? It can kill time and fulfill monetary or item based goals. Please reply on the thread if you're at all interested, OR if you have a better idea for linkshell or just for a group of people who like to help. You can also /tell me in game, the name is Phildo. Thank you very much for your time, and good luck in game!!