The New Welcome Area

"Maybe these people would like a club that isn't all about escorts and "hooking up," but more of a clean hangout. These places might exist in SL already, but for these regulars to leave the WA and start visiting these other places takes away the familiarity that pulls them to the WA to begin with.

"So maybe LL should build such an area.... and have it branch off from the WA. Then when newbies arrive and see the dividing paths, they can choose for themselves whether they want to head to the building area, or head down the path to "Club Linden?""

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I think this hits it right on the head! Also, maybe because the welcome area doesn't have as much lag.

In fact, after following this thread, I was thinking of hanging out there myself! Just to meet the (nice) people who hang out there, if nothing else, lol.

But you're right. I would certainly welcome a nice place to gather that isn't a bunch of dancing and other big-time lags, and where people actually talk, as opposed to in many regular clubs. Maybe a coffee-shop or park. (Definitely NOT another place to dance, or at least have a coffee shop or park option in addition.) Branching off in a visually pleasing and obviously accesible manner would be great, too, cause otherwise no older player would switch to the new area.

I think this is one of the best ideas I've read here in a long time.

But also, still allow anyone to go to the welcome area, but increase Linden presence to ensure that it is a good place to start ones game. I'm not sure, but isn't there just one welcome area now? (And maybe there was more than one before?) If so, it can't be that hard to schedule Linden presence there for much, if not most or all of the time.

And the old "resources better used elsewhere" argument won't work with me on this one, because people quitting right off due to a bad welcome area is the absolute worst thing that can happen to a game.

coco

There's more than one welcome area, but the one in Dore seems to be the main one? Or have the most people?

After reading all this complaining about the WA, I went there yet again, and saw it was filled with a couple liaisons in IMs sometimes slowing answering questions, a couple of oldbies giving really blatant product endorsements and trying to push newbies towards a certain hair maker and store (then denying they were doing that), a few newbies spread-eagled in appearance mode, a few very clever newbies who had done some really interesting things with their outfits, either purchased or made.

No griefing, no negrates, no Lindens, but well, it was a long weekend at 3:00 a.m. EST.

I agree with Coco it would be good to have a "Central Park" that wasn't about grabbing the newbie stream but was just a hangout.

I noticed that when Phil chose to make An Appearance in The World recently, he chose Dore as The Place of His Appearance.

I mean, he could have gone to the Linden Village in Ambleside and hung on one of those clever builds, but instead, he appeared, wearing his "Linden Villager" group activated, among the people on his walkabout.

Couldn't we just leave well enough alone? I really think there is a fake problem in search of a solution that is about providing justification for more funnelling.

I think those so concerned about "newbie mistreatment" should just volunteer to go to the welcome area more. I personally just seem to run across a lot of newbies in the course of things, maybe because of traveling through Waterhead, and I just help them as I run across them. If everyone did that, we wouldn't have to have any artificial sanitized WA.

I think we keep the WA as an education center, by decentralize the welcome area.

Have the greeters apply to be spawning areas. For example, at the end of orientation island, give the newbies several "posters" to click on... one showing a club, one showing a sci-fi scene, one showing music, one showing shopping, etc...

Have the landmarks of various greeters areas by theme passed out randomly to newbies. The only landmarks that would be passed out would be areas that currently have the greeter present. If not greeters were available at any spawning point, the landmark would not be handed out. Then have them port to the area of their choice.

Yes, it needs a lot of flushing out, but I think decentralizing is the best way to remove the virtual "bull eye" that's currently on Ahern's back for griefers / schmucks / negative attention seekers.

-Flip

I haven't experienced this "neg rate" problem in the WA either, personally. To me, that isn't my concern. My concern is the misrepresentation that the WA gives new people. The WA is the first impression most people are given of SL. I'd suggest visiting more often, and at the bussiest of times, to fully grasp the atmosphere there.

As an example, the other night I observed this.... A somewhat new player (but older, mature person) came through during one of these times when the WA is something to be less than proud of. What he saw was a bunch of gesture spamming and sound effects to the tune of "your mom's a whore" and "I had your mom last night" kind of crap. This guy said in the chat channel "ahhh, this is all very pleasant" and he left. Whether he logged or just ported away, I don't know. I personally sat there in embarrassment. But THIS is what new people come in and first see... MUCH of the time. The kind of people who get off on and enjoy this kind of play... are those the kind of people you'd like to see SL fill up with? People who are intelligent, pleasant, and looking for a creative outlet typically aren't going to be impressed by this scene, and whether or not you realize it, a large portion of SL's potential leaves with those new players who are disgusted with the game as soon as they hit the WA.

This has it's place in SL just like any other type of play, but when new people come in they should get a taste of every aspect of SL, not just this one. It's misleading.

A number of people have now posted that they went to the WA recently and saw none of the behavior being described. You must realize that this behavior is not a 24/7 constant thing, it happens at select times when the right mix of “entertainers” is in the WA and there have been no Linden sightings for too long.

When it does happen, though, the WA turns into the most obnoxious place in SL. Please, put yourself in the shoes of a new resident, right off Orientation Island, faced with figuring out the user interface, trying to stop walking into every object and AV in their path, not having any idea where they’ve just been ported to. And there in the chat window is somebody stating that “SL is one just one big whorehouse” (actual conversation in the WA just last week. The discussion spirals downhill from there…. )

This is your welcome to SL. Now, yes, portions of SL are one big whorehouse , but the consternation that many of us have regarding the WA is that it would be less traumatic on new residents if they were allowed to find the wild side of SL on their own, without having it waved in their face before the buildings are finished rezzing. Many are signing up for just that side of SL, but many are not and it is nothing short of polite to not dump that impression on people their first 5 minutes on the grid.

Probably the single biggest thing those of us concerned residents who hang at the WA need to do is to IM any Linden online when we see the storm approaching and feel like things are out of hand. We need to do this aggressively and consistently. A new set of WA guidelines would sure be a good addition, and it would be nice to see those posted in all 4 corners of the WA. It is sad that Wuvme was banned for merely saying penis, since it is usually the 2nd or 3rd question male newbies ask. A more appropriate action would have been a quick IM to remind her that it was a PG area and conversations involving sexual content should be moved to IM, where questions about who makes the best prim penises and general costs of acquiring such can continue in private.

You are blatantly twisting the truth. Someone asked where they could buy some hair, and I answered by recommending a certain place that has some quite nice hair pieces. Furthermore, the person who asked was *not* a newbie, he had been here since September. The same age as YOU.

Yeh, let's break out the smurf av's, baby!!! w00t!!!!!!!

Usagi, who are you talking to? I didn't form that group.

From what I've been reading as this thread has being going along is basically this: More Linden presence at the WA cuts down the type of behavior that is undesirable.

However while there, they need to be aware of certain things. That whole penis thing for example. Wasn't that movie ET rated PG? There's a line in it where Eliot says "shut up penis breath!" at the dinner table.

I'd be more concerned about the elemetary school behavior and griefing than a few clinical terms for human anatomy being tossed around on occasion.

I'm in agreement with the many posts suggesting upping the hours the Lindens are present at the WA as 24/7ish as possible; try that for a month or two and see how things go.

No, I'm just reporting.

What is new? I think of myself as newish, but not a newbie. Sorry if I didn't see that person you were talking to specifically was from Sept. but since there was an actual fresher newbie nearby it seemed reasonable to note that you were doing product placement, and that's what it is, and why sugar coat it?

And you were not the only one, another person I happened one was doing the same elsewhere in another convo.

And what of it? I actually am not the one bothered by commercial activity of this nature, I just want to point out that everyone so eager to wipe the WA clear of all preying up newbs and vulture-like commercial activity should start with doing stuff like, I dunno, taking their blimps out of the area with their notecards *cough* and not consider that what they do to do product placement and endorsement on things like hair or whatever is somehow "ok" but someone else walking around selling something is ebil.

I dunno, I saw some pretty racy convos there but I figure this is an ADULT game and all this PG stuff isn't something newbies especially grasp right away. If they aren't there for the sex balls themselves, they'll get it and fly away. I do think this over-protectiveness is out of place.

Isablan, I quite agree that seeing the WA at any given slice-of-life is totally misleading. That's why I'm saying don't characterize it as a cesspool.



Yikes, Brace, why be so generous with the Lindens' staff time? Is this REALLY necessary?

Do we really have any newbie "victims" here that we can really show? Has anybody tried doing a more scientific "exit" poll here, i.e. have Linden staff follow up with all new customers within 30 days and get a take on their WA experience?

Fllow up polls with newbies after 30 days won't do any good for the ones who quit on day 1 because they think SL is full of nothing but immature jackoffs.

... And where I come from, "Your mama is a whore" doesn't qualify as "adult" conversation. It's in a category of it's on, filed right under stupid.

It appears that most posters agree that the Welcome Area has turned into an Unwelcome Area but what to do about it is the question. I would be happy to put something in the voting thingy but it would be 20 pages long if I included all of the great suggestions!

Of course the easiest solution would be for the current Welcome Area trash talkers and "entertainers" to learn some respect for others but this ain't going to happen.

I have no idea where to go with this but I guess I will continue to go there and take my neg ratings and wear them with pride.

I've never seen this, but then, I don't hang out at the WA and never have.

I think people can move on if they hear that kind of talk. And if SL is filled with so many of these types, well, are they well within their rights to move on? We don't want them to move on, but, well, is it really up to us to modify their entire entry experience?

I had many negative experiences when I was new. I'm still new, and I still have many negative experiences. That doesn't make me leave the game.

I talk to newbies who experience some of these things but most of them are so overawed by all the wonders of SL that some trash talk in the WA isn't going to stick with them, but the awesomeness of SL is what attracts and holds them.

I think the only solution really is that those who are most concerned about this issue who feel it really is a problem should make it their business to be on hand at the WA. But I do wonder if all of this is bogus, and just a bid to have a funnelling system and justify it with "security measures". I still don't think they case has been made for newbies leaving.

And polls can be taken 2 hours or 22 hours or 22 days, you can set it up to be a popup even, that's not the issue. You just have to be determined to get the feedback.

I know a person who quit the game because of what she saw and heard in the welcome area, Prok. I was surprised, since I hadn't had that kind of welcome area experience at all when I joined.

All of the suggestions for solutions aren't wonderful, of course - but I think any significant occurrence of turn-off activities in the welcome areas is a problem, and does need to be addressed. To my way of thinking at this point, increased Linden presence is the best answer, cost or no.

coco

I went by the welcome area last week and found the following:
1) One guy in a hitler AV - not a big deal, he wasnt hate speaking nor had any nazi symbols.
2) Another guy clearly spewing racists comments. For the most part he was saying/timing things so they were boardline comments that clearly were meant to be racist. And sometimes he would slip up and just be flat out racist.
3) Several groups trash talking back and forth about who's friend got banned and other related BS/drama
4) People spamming mature gestures/sounds or just spamming in general. Arnt the welcome areas PG?

If you took away all the people I described I think there was 1 or 2 people standing around that might have been there to greet newbies.

You made the comment about it with live no help...........

Your first paragraph sure. I made that point in my last post.

Second paragraph: Yes I'm generous with the Linden's staff time - they HAVE liaisons, they HAVE mentors so where are they? If they need more they can bust out some of that 8 million and hire some.

LL has shown that they consider any welcoming area to be critical to increasing their customer base. Right now the current WA has degenerated into something opposite to those goals.

Third paragraph: Umm how they gonna get a hold of the ones who took one look at the WA and tossed SL into their desktop trashbin?

Its been explained quite thoroughly in this thread that those who stay are 1) Referred residents and their friends scoop them up, totally bypassing the WA experience, 2) Those who like the childish, inappropriate behavior and griefing just fine 3) Those that happened to enter the WA when there were no fucktards around.

Here's a simple solution - it allows everyone to control their own destiny and removes the problem of alts created simply for neg-griefing:

http://secondlife.com/vote/index.php?get_id=400

BTW, this is Flip, not Jennyfur... I left my laptop at work!

-Flip

"Its been explained quite thoroughly in this thread that those who stay are 1) Referred residents and their friends scoop them up, totally bypassing the WA experience, 2) Those who like the childish, inappropriate behavior and griefing just fine 3) Those that happened to enter the WA when there were no fucktards around."

Excellent summary. I fell into category (1).

coco

It seems like these people love the WA because it's Linden owned and they most likely won't get banned there by an owner of the place (though they can still get banned from the game).

I think it's a tricky topic because at the same time I would want people to hang around there, but I also don't want the people who don't hang around there responsibly to be there. So really the best solution would be Liason support (they have lindens around the world now so it shouldn't be hard to get one there 24 hours a day), and to be more vigilant with banning people who don't follow the rules.

Although the mentor, greeter, Linden, and newbies only rule might work if worst comes to worse. Prok would tell you that this would be funneling but to what? Well adjusted players? As far as i've seen all you need to be to be in that group is to want to help newbies, to have played for more than a month, and have followed the rules. It'd be somewhat better then being exposed immediately to all these club types who're just looking to hire another stripper. People could get professionally answered questions and not have to be exposed to product placing (unless they ask, as Lo said "where can I get hair prims?".

Either way it wouldn't be horrible for them to learn about the game without people bring their drama for them too.