The New Welcome Area

Merwan said "Freedom of movement and access to all existing Governor lands in SL is essential."

An account is already blocked from returning to any of the Orientation Island sims once we leave there, and these are Governor lands and a part of SL, so there has never been freedom of movement and access to all existing Governor lands in SL.

In what way is freedom of movement and access to all existing Governor lands essential? What would be the consequence of limiting access to the entry point to customers Linden Lab considers to be able to behave in a pleasant way to greet new customers? Would a high percentage of people close their accounts and cause Second Life to fold?


I am not saying I support the idea of restricting WA access to noobs and approved group members, but I doubt that having the exact policy we have now regarding Welcome Area access is truly a requirement for the continued existence of Second Life. Most likely people would adapt to a change in access rules, just as they have adapted to other changes in the program and behavioral rules.

The problem with the idea of abuse reporting people who consistently make an area unpleasant is that there are many forms of behavior that will annoy people, possibly to the point of leaving shortly after they enter, which are not abuse reportable matters. The senseless and hateful issuance of negative ratings is one example of such; neg rating for malicious glee is not a violation of any rule, it is just meanness. Another example is arguing, not necessarily with a new customer but just people arguing. I have seen this go on for hours. I don't know if it was a real quarrel or a synthetic one performed for the entertainment of the audience and the satisfaction of the actors' thespian proclivities but I am pretty sure that most of the audience members found it quite annoying and dull. I don't think people having a chat one doesn't enjoy is an abuse reportable offense.

Neg rating does not work on a fair percentage of those who give out neg ratings in an abnormal way, they don't care about the loss of income and don't care about the effect on their reputation caused by negative ratings they receive. There are a number of people with ideological chips on their shoulders who like getting negative rates, they see it as some kind of badge of honor in their war against the rating system.

I don't have a solution to the problem except perhaps for encouraging new customers to get out of the welcome area as fast as they can teleport. Perhaps making the ability to use the Find dialog and map to select destinations and teleport from one Orientation Island to another Orientation Island a requirement to leave the Orientation Islands would help.

This thread reminds me of the saying "Hell is other people."

Maybe more likely at certain times of the day?

I know my last trip to the WA I saw some pretty unimpressive behavior...I actually got bummed out and left. I can see that being a real turn-off for folks who are just venturing in.

Based on what I saw, though, a STRICT enforcement of the PG standard would cut through a lot of the noise. And that wasn't happening. Can't remember if there was a Linden there or not.

-- jj

Wont work.
Some of the biggest players there change their av's every day.

If everyone was under two weeks, then there would just be the newbies and the "entertainers."

Get rid of ratings. It won't stop the abusive people altogether, but it will take away one of their tools.

Yes, it's typically been after Linden business hours and on weekends.



Perhaps the WA should have its own rating of G?

Lots of good ideas and discussion here and nary a soul attacking another person because of their ideas. Yay! A forum first.

I have another idea. How about a big cornfield off to the side of the Welcome Area where the "entertainers" could entertain themselves and not bother decent folk?

A damage-enabled area, with cows to tip. And every once in awhile, just to level the playing field, one of the cows should explode.

Not that there's anybody prepared to meet that technical challenge

-- jj

Haaaaaaa I love it! By the way I am not joking about setting aside a cornfield for the griefers and so called entertainers. I can see a pre-welcome area which is really just an extension of the bootcamp island where only greeters etc are allowed. Once a new citizen passes through the pre-welcome area they would be free to go to the cornfield and either get bored out of their skulls or amazed depending on their personalities.

I, for one, would be happy to put on my mentor hat and commit to spending a few hours each day helping new people. Right now I value my sanity too much to spend any time in the Welcome Area.

I am a BIG supporter of the "get rid of ratings" at the Welcome Area.

I try not to contribute to the negativity, but there are a hell of a lot of people there who think it's funny to whack people with their push weapons, and neg rate. I get on their case when they do this, but ... yes, I guess the real thing to do is to abuse report someone.

However, it hasn't really been addressed (EVER), neg rates. Is it illegal to neg rate someone? No. What would you put in the abuse report?

Used to be normal for someone to have more positives than negatives given. You should see some of the people who are there now.

Liaisons help, sometimes, but more often they're in IMs helping someone.

Another thing: it has become the NORM to trash talk people at the Welcome Area. When did this happen?

Very good idea. Some very unhappy folks hang out there and they have to be giving a bad first impression. Maybe the whole thing could just be put on an initiation island that was open to members of the mentor group. A Tale in the Desert used to do that and it worked pretty well.

Another thought: once the new Greeter system is up and running full tilt (apparently soon), you'll see less "fresh off the boat" newbies hanging around the WA, and instead meeting up with their greeters elsewhere in the world.

LF

I just got a mental image of av's squating and hidden out in a prim corn field. Only occasionally popping up to dish out bad jokes Hee-Haw style.

If that's not a welcome to the randomness that is Second Life, I don't know what is.

/rubberstamp

Further, perhaps the WA needs to be "G" rated.

This isn't necessarily a salutory development due to the funnelling effect.

Will newbies just get too smothered? Not everyone wants or needs the Welcome Wagon experience.

Why turn off ratings? I sometimes give a few posrates out to newb to help them get started.

there may be a problem but closing the welcome area is not the answer. newbies are not children that need protection. merwan is right - keep lindens there and siggy and i will get frustrated and leave.

Don't disable rating in the Welcome Areas. If newbies are hanging out there while they get used to SL, they ought to have a chance to practice/play with the rating system while interacting with other SLers. And since the WAs are not exclusively for the use of newbies, why bar other SLers from rating each other?

Was rating covered in orientation? Is it now? Guess I should whip up an alt and go find out, huh?

And good heavens, anti-AV-sex vgilantes in the WA?!? I've definitely missed a lively time while I've been away...

Most newbs dont' have the money to spare to rate folks... a single rate costs 10% of what they have in their pockets.

LF

I see a lot of suggestions that seem to attack the symptoms rather than the disease.

First and foremost, there needs to be a liaison at the WA, 24x7x365, without fail. That is the root of the problem. Fix that and the BS will reduce dramatically. Seriously, let's see how many people talk about satisfying various bodily needs in front of Lee Linden.

Ratings should be left on everywhere. If someone is being a butt at the WA I want to be able to neg them. Furthermore I think negs should cost more the more you give. Anyone who is in the top 5% for negs should be paying a grand for each new negative rating as far as I'm concerned. Either that or change the TOS.

There is already a restricted newbie zone and it's called Orientation. Restricting the WA to liaisons-only would be the only limit I'd support. If you restrict the WA to mentors/greeters/whatever, it'll be like Prok said. You'll see entrepreneurs joining these groups in order to tap into a captive audience, to the exclusion of anyone who isn't in those groups. "Do you need some clothing? Here, let me give you a landmark to my store/my friend's store/the store of Joe Blow who paid me L$500 to hand out this landmark to newbies. And here, let me give you these free shirts (which have logos of peoples' businesses on them.) Oh, and here are some notecards about various political orgainzations we're sure you will want to join, as well as a list of Persons of Quality..."

Actually, we won't need a Welcome Area once the greeter and Cabinhead projects are fully operational. The Lindens will be able to take it down and auction the sims.

A few of the old rotating hand, Welcome Area Guidline handouts again, those are missing now and were always there..... Many that go to the WA anymore have no idea what the guidlines are. They simply think its just another PG area. If these were put back many people would read them and be aware of them and even if they didnt so many others would be aware and point out when the guidelines are being broken.

BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD idea. The Welcome Area has become Second Life's town square. Open to everyone. Closing it down and selling the sims would be like closing down Central Park in Manhattan and selling the land. The problem will not go away if the Lindens do this.

Like Huns said, you have to attack the disease. Closing the Welcome Area would only make the griefers and whiners find a new hangout.

True, but everyone is excluded from returning to these lands - so there is not a group of players with "blessed access" - access which has special/greater privileges than the rest of SL players.



Basic to freedom is equal access to tools, information and Grid-locations among all players. To do otherwise LL will be creating elite sims - places where only the privileged members of certain LL run groups do their volunteering - places closed to all other members. It's LL responsibility to provide security at the WA - we've had this problem before and it disappeared as soon as the Liaison presence increased at the WA, coupled with other members telling griefers at the WA how uncool their bad behavior is. This is a community/social issue that can be dealt with by peer intervention and good will.

Yes but it wouldn't be a Linden owned and sponsored layout. We don't need a Linden owned an sponsored town square. We're capable of congregating on our own lands. The Lindens are wise to perceive the end of the WA's usefulness. They are equally wise to design a new program that will meet newbie acclimation objectives without the use of a centralized WA.

But that leaves them holding four sims worth of land to support nothing more than a build that a few people like to gather around.

Griefers and whiners will always be with us as will newbies, wealthy merchants, gamers, lone coders, land brokers, and poor people that spend all their money and beg for more. they should be forced to hang out on their own land just like the rest of us.