The New Welcome Area

I don't know where else to post this. and I know it has been discussed before, but I have to say it somewhere and this is not a flame post but a real concern. The Welcome Area has again become a most unwelcome area with all the neg raters and trash talkers present.

I never thought I would be saying this but is there any chance the Lindens could restrict the Welcome Area to greeters, mentors etc to give the new citizens a positive experience instead of the miserable gaunlet they must now run?

Agreed. Restrict it to Greeters and Mentors and anyone less than 2 weeks old.

LF

Yes i agree

Whatever happened to having a Liaison hanging around the welcome area? That always kept the trouble makers in line

they arn't trouble makers, just drama queens and neg raters.

That's not trouble-making? Both of those groups are people just trying to get attention by making a ruckus.

I fully agree with this idea. However, can I add, would it then be possible to establish a similar such area for the Welcome Area 'regulars' to hang out? Clubs are just too laggy and the WA has always been the place of choice.

but a liaison can't do anything about that

A solution to consider might be waiting to get the Cabinhead project up and running; with a goal of turning that into the new resident spawning area within 3 months. That would then be the home base for newbies for their first 90 days, after which their "home" transfers to the WA. So, the hang out remains and will always have a stream of traffic coming in from people who are not land owners for which the WA is "home", but the newest residents spawn into a more protected environment where they have a chance to get a grasp on the intricacies of SL before having to confront the Anti-AV sex brigade and the other forms of street theatre at the WA.

Just a thought...

Susie, the WA is definitely filling with neg raters and people who take the "show off" concept a bit too far. I remember fondly seeing my first AVI mods by creators hanging out wearing them.

The WA has turned into "random graffiti" of behavior... and is not very welcome at all.

Have you considered putting you proposal up as a vote?

One issue to consider however, is that everyone needs a 'default home' in case they die.

Maybe we should make a "welcome area" this has nothing to do with a "home" point.. however that may make it harder for newbies to find or get to.

edit: anyone got more info on that cabinhead thing?

Regarding the neg raters though. How many of you know neg raters who have, for their actions, received NO neg ratings themselves.

If everyone would (and I know it can be hard both technically and financially especially for newbies) just neg rate back, anyone attempting to give out negs would have at least as many in return.

Again look at the people who are at the heart of the problem you describe and check out their neg ratings. No one is hitting them due to fear of being mass neg'ed back by alts or groupies.

Though the system may be best to be thrown out.. it was designed to be used. For those of you with the money to spare, neg a neg rater today.

It's easy enough for LL to set up a scanner that checks each avatar's age. If they're over 60 days, they're ejected from the WA.

This has happened before and can easily dealt with.

Freedom of movement and access to all existing Governor lands in SL is essential. There are too many citizens who frequent the WA and they should not be restricted because of others' bad behavior.

Also, this proposal would give several groups of SL'ers (me included) privileges only available to those who join certain groups, and IMO, this is elitist.

I suggest:

1) LL have liaisons at the welcome area much more frequently.
2) Those of us who are Mentors, Instructors, Greeters abuse report when we see mindless greefing, foul langauage, etc. at the welcome area.

Save your money and the drama. If someone is causing problems and making the welcome area, unwelcome, just quietly report them for abusive behavior. Lindens will look into it and if they have enough infractions, they will be shown the door.

There should be liasons there to keep things in check. I am against censorship in most forms. Plus if you limit it to avie age, people will just make alts, they only cost $10 and that is nothing, and a small price to pay if you have a point to prove. I am also in the WA on occassion to try and promote Discovery Hunt, and I don't feel I should be excluded, because some people are idiots.

True. I guess worse than not reporting are those who retaliate with other behavior.

However, I still hate to see new people with negs under "builds" while a consistently awful person with zero negs under behavior.

But minimally, or alternatively, reporting is also not done frequently enough. I see people in the WA hurt, upset, or ready to grief, who don't even know how to report!

It is sad that ppl seem to get a kick out of ruining new members first hours in SL.

When I tried to report Neg rating abuse a Lindon replied that

We should somehow be able to prevent this in the Welcome Area though.

I think that rating should be turned off in the Welcome Area. That way newbies aren't at a dissadvantage.

I agree with what Merwan said, and I'm glad he stood up and said this, when so many others didn't think to say it.

Only certain people can get to be greeters, instructors, mentors. Allowing only them access to newbies creates a funnelling system where newbies are exposed only to those people, with the businesses, projects, networks of those certain greeters, instructors, mentors. If mentors, instructors, greetors did nothing else but those functions, and didn't have any other profit-making ventures or other reputation-making ventures that accrue other kinds of social capital, perhaps it would make sense, but I wonder why such a sanitized world had to be created.

Given the skill at abuse-reporting that some people have, and their finely-tuned ear and eye for AR-able offenses, why don't those with these concerns about the WA atmosphere volunteer as neighbourhood patrols and staff the WA to AR those who are rowdy?

I've rarely gone to the Welcome Area but happened to visit 3-4 times in the last week and hang out when others TP'd me. I saw Lindens and liaisons on hand, plenty of them, answering questions, and I didn't see any griefing. I can't help thinking that the experience of griefing that people have seen is a slice-of-life not always typical of the WA.

Blessing any one resident's or group of residents' newbie introduction program isn't fair on the face of it. But perhaps the Lindens have already decided to do this. In fact, the system of mentoring and greeting is already a built-in funnel common to most MMORPGs, and at least some people would like to see SL grow beyond the MMORPG culture to be more even-handed, neutral, and even professionally impersonal in the WA and other areas.

There's also no need to quite smother the newbie so much in the claustrophobic embrace of so many greeters and helpers. They're adults, and not the shrinking violets so many assume they are. Some like to explore on their own. Some are TP'd immediately to their friends' homes or businesses and play it from there. And some of the griefing in the WA and other sims is caused by the newbies themselves.

Sad but true and I think something needs to be done about it. I don't like to go to the welcome area anymore like I use to.
I hope something can be done to make it better.

This is a good idea also.

This is the worst idea I have heard of in a LONG time... and I have been around for some really bad ones here...

lets see... not allowing scripts to be taken out of prims? more bans? even more draconian TOS? script tax? any number of insane restrictions on freedom that have been proposed?

Well this is worse then those maybe.



I mean let me get this straight... you want to have an area, where only select people can interact with newbies... (yeah I am sure the selection process will be extremely fair and unbiased... ha!) where they only get YOUR perspective on the world... where they are taught to abuse report and to be intollarant..?


Besides... the WA is the only place that isn't a box dildo club where there are always people.

Bad idea. It is assumed that griefers are all veteran residents. If a chronic griefer returns with a new av, this griefer can beat any age restriction set up to screen out older avatars. The cycle continues. Even IP banning doesn't keep a determined griefer away.

Some of us oldbies tend to spend alot of time in the Welcome Area. Why should we have to become Mentors or Live Helpers to hang out in a PUBLIC area? I have purposely not joined those groups. There is this belief among some newbies that Mentors and Live helpers are Linden Lab employees. They make unrealistic demands, and get pissed when the Mentor or Live Helper says "its out of my hands".

I don't mind helping newbies. If they ask nicely, I will stick around and answer questions. I do this out of common courtesy, not because its my job. If I see a griefer go too far, I will send out an abuse report.

If a global ban on older avatars is put in place, there may be no one to report the repeat griefers who will eventually take over the WA if left unchecked.

If you do not allow ordinary residents to go to the Welcome Area, then I think the newbies will suffer. My friend and I were both there earlier today. Both of us gave clothes to a couple of newbies, answered questions, gave them the basics of how to open a box of clothes, how to wear clothes, info about the events page, and more. I personally do not see why they should be deprived of that by one or two people who behave really badly. They are the ones who should be dealt with by LL, allowing the rest of us to continue to help.

Alexa

Although I understand the motivation behind the suggestion, I'm not thrilled with the idea of a completely laundered WA either.

I want the area to be a welcoming environment to all, newbee and established resident alike, but I think giving the new folk a taste of real world SL variety has much to bespeak in its favor, even if I personally find much of that variety often skirting the line of going too far off color.

It doesn't take much monitoring to keep the place reasonably civilized -- some fashion of authority present most of the time, instead of rarely, to put out the gentle reminder or abuse report as needed.

The simple presence of a Constable-On-Patrol -- or Linden-On-Patrol (LOP?) if you will -- is enough to keep the rowdies from stealing hubcaps and mugging old ladies. Think of when Jill Linden was an evening regular in the WA -- even if all she did was stand there showing off her tatoos and mumbling the occasional "heh", things would calm down greatly.

The more I think about that... the more I like it.

It would prevent legitimate negative rates, but if someone behaved excessively baldy.. one could call a Linden.

I guess I should volunteer to patrol.. after all one person told me "maybe they neg rated you because you look like a cop".

But without Linden blessing would anyone welcome a "patrolling" of any kind. After all isn't that what the anti-av sex'ers feel they are doing in the first place? "Patrolling" and neg rating anyone with a group name that is sexual or "not PG".

We have a group trying to protect us for overly sexy names in the WA but no one to call on the geifers.

And just what is greifing? I saw a post of someone who was called a greifer for saying he didn't like a built. To me I'd thought the standard definition was someone who was disgruntled about something and taking it out on someone.

SL has a TOS, but the WA has a special one.