How unethical was this, exactly?

This account, an alt for me, was made last fall, when newly-registered people were sent directly to Help Island.

My guess is that none of the Help Islands are currently being used for new accounts--or at least the ones of the type used last fall. I guess this because when I log in under this account, I'm the only one on my Help Island, and it doesn't show on the map.

I rather like having my own private island. (For free!) I have that nice freebie house, and a sandbox that does work (though of course I'd save to Inventory anything I make, rather than leaving it out.) I like just walking around, enjoying the space.

My question is: how unethical IS this?

The real question, of course, is: how much does it cost LL (in server resources, mainly, I'd think) for me to log in there?


The question is fairly moot, now (and thus in the past tense in this thread's title) because last night, a Mentor showed up. It was way past my RL bedtime so I Quit before having a conversation with the person, which I rather regret, now. Because if it turns out that I WAS using a lot of LL resources, then the next time I log in, the only ethical choice will be to click on one of those 'Ready to start your SL?' signs that I've been so carefully avoiding, and go to Mainland.

The fact that a Mentor was sent rather seems to indicate that LL would like to shut down these old Help Islands.

Yet that raises questions, too.

Each old Help Island probably has dozens, if not hundreds, of accounts that were initiated there, yet never transitioned to Mainland. Many of those people will never return to SL, but apparently LL is giving some time and attention to those who might, for which I think kindly of them.

And my Island might not turn out to be private--if I logged in as this account more often, I might encounter other would-be Robinson Crusoes wandering around, enjoying what they assumed to be solitude.

But here's what puzzles me: I had occasion to log in with another alt last week, to test a product, and tried logging into my Last Location. I got a screen that said it was unavailable and I'd be placed somewhere 'close'---and this turned out to be an InfoHub.

So I conclude that LL has the capacity to shunt all non-premium, no-Home accounts to an InfoHub on log-in, should they wish to do so.

But....with this account, the one 'living' on an old Help Island, they haven't done so.

Is this because they are giving the 'never have gone to the Mainland' accounts more careful handling, on the theory that those accounts are more likely to become paying customers than are the no-Premium, no-Home accounts that have been tooling around the Mainland for weeks or months?

Or else the mentor just wanted to see if you, well, needed help?

"The wicked flee where none persueth."

Getting routed to an infohub is what happens if the sim you were previously logged in to happens to be down.

Actually the scenario you suggest would please me greatly: if LL was fine with me staying there, I'd stay there.

(Which is one reason I regret not having stayed to converse with the Mentor, but I truly was dropping from exhaustion and decided to put it off.)

And hey: NOT wicked.

Just curious about the economics of having these old Help Islands up and running for those who never left them.

I created an alt last week to help a new person who had jsut come into sl- i hadnt had a new accoutn since before the change so imagine my surprise- here i am telling this guy- before i logged in- to go do the tuts- and he is like uhm- what? so i logged in and ended up in another island than he was.Fortunately there was a mentor nearby who i asked to bring my friend where i was and she did it. I the ansked about the tuts and was told i had to go to an old OI Public- fortunately the mentor had an LM and we went there where i set him u with the tuts.

Sad that LL has thrown new users to the wolves as it were - Mentors are Residents- not even paid employees bt people that love our world enough to want to invest their time in helping others- amazing the crap the Company is doing to us on that level. I think LL really is god- set ur creations free and forget about them

They aren't leaving it in just for you. If they wanted to shut it down, they'd pull the plug and you'd login at Waterhead or Ahern next time.

I wouldn't worry about it.

No tutorials on the new entry-points?

Seems like an odd decision, since it's not as though anyone was FORCED to go through them. They were just...available.

(Your friend was lucky to have you to help him through.)

Well, I know: as I said in the OP, there are probably dozens or hundreds of accounts, per old Help Island, that are 'in limbo' as far as never having gone to Mainland.

And no doubt LL knows that the majority will never log in to SL again.

So it's really to their credit that they leave the islands up for those who DO log in. I'm just curious about how much server space, and even how much basic costs like electricity, these islands cost them. (I realize that people posting here don't have exact figures, but I also know that many who post here are more knowledgeable about the business side of LL than I am; hence the thread.)

My point is, no one is in limbo. If they unplug the server, the next time any of those avatars log in, they'll just be moved to another region.

That's a good point. As I mentioned, with the other alt I was summarily moved to one of the new InfoHubs---but the difference between that alt and this one is that that one had been on the Mainland.

Which does lead me to believe that LL made a considered decision to treat the 'never gone to Mainland' accounts more...gently.

I'm speculating that LL has the capacity to classify a log-in as "non-Premium, no Home declared" and cause the avatar to materialize at an InfoHub, even if the requested log-in location IS available.

But that speculation could be mistaken, of course.

As far as I know, you stay there until you set home elsewhere in the world.

Also there are some hubs or islands that are only good until you leave there the first time.

I wouldn't feel guilty. Linden Labs has pledged to devote more resources to improving the 'first hour experience' not less. They seem to want to encourage 'retention' or people liking SL enough to stick around. So the hubs are likely to be important.

I'm not sure why they don't have more (or any?) paid mentors, though. Who knows. I guess that's all left up to report abuse and support tickets in case of problems.

I think they must of forgotten you or maybe they aren't as diligent as they were two years ago. When I registered, just over two years and two days ago, I got exactly 48 hours on Orientation Island before they dumped me in with all them hobos at Calleta.

You did have a home location, it's the Help Island. The reason you didn't see yourself as having a home location is it is reset everytime you logged on to the help island, "Prelude" sims (which is a special estate setting in the god tools) reset your home every time you visit them.

Prelude sims also do not show the map correctly while you are in them, that's why you thought the sim was not on the map.

The mentor teleported to you becuase he saw your dot on the map.

When you logged on that last time, the sim was offline, hence you were sent to a welcome area.

Nothing special happened here, you are not being discriminated against based on account type. Everything was working as intended.

Additional Protip for mentors: If you do not want your home reset when you visit a help island turn on "View Admin Options" in the Advanced menu.

There's no such thing as "No Home". You *always* have a home sim, once you hit maingrid, because teleporting from a help island to maingrid sets your home position... even if it was already set. Mentors have trouble with this when they forget to leave Help Island by going home, and get their home position reset to some random location...

Is Calleta a welcome area? I recall being threatened by a blinged-up pimp and his trick in my first ten minutes there. A-holes damn near crashed my graphics card. Some welcome.

Ah, those were the days.

More info:

The reason the sim you were on was always empty is simple. Account creation uses a load ballencer to determine what island you will start out on.
Except for rare situations where a flood of new residents sign up at once most Help Islands are kept empty by the load system, and new residents are kept clustered in reasonable ammounts on just a few islands.

The hobo yard? I think it is just a sim someone set aside for newbies.

Quite a few old timers there. Least there were last time I looked.

It's about the only place I get genuinely nostalgic about in SL. Ain't that strange?

Oh yes some stay there and never buy or rent their own home - it's true. It's kind of a cozy sim. I know someone who's been there the entire time he's been in SL and has no plans to change things.

No, not strange. Kind of nice. I wish I knew what people felt about sims like that, what draws them and keeps them - I'd try to implement that in some of my future things. I want to make places the public feels at home and enjoys. Not for profit although seeing this month's statement I might have to start selling something, somewhere, in SL. Lol

I could say the very same - don't know what stops me apart from the fact that everyone I know who's involved in business in SL seems to be involved with primarily that and I opened this account to get something different to what I already have in RL.

I think that's what I appreciated about Calleta from the first rez: the place is full of stuff that shows you what you can do with SL and the avatars I met there were so eccentric - even for a complete newbie as I was. - and there were plenty of them, which immediately gave me the impression of a community.

Also you could, and still can, walk around the corner from Calleta to Arcadia Asylum's pawn shop and top up your inventory with full perm versions of all her builds for no lindens at all, which is miles better in my opinion than what's on offer in most of the crass freebie sims - then or now.

Another thing is I knew a real hobo encampment when I was growing up so perhaps that adds to it: the people there had opted out from the usual run of things by choice and their lifestyle and attitudes reflected that, which is contrary to the sad-assed favellas I see around me, these days, every city I go to. Make-do is fine if it's a creative exercise but it's heavy shit when it's a matter of necessity.

I guess I feel honoured by the introduction of my unceremonious arrival in Calleta.

It's not illegal to just stay on Help Island. There are a couple of problems with making it your home though...

There are about 30 or so identical Help Islands. Which one you go to on login is determined by the load. If the one you were on last is full, you'll be shunted to a different copy of Help Island.

They have Autoreturn on, so you can't rez something there and leave it. In a few minutes, it will be returned to your Lost and Found folder.

You can leave at any time. But if you teleport to, say, a mall to buy some new clothes, you'll find you can't get back. The Help Islands are ONLY for new residents, and travel is one way only...unless you are a Linden or a Mentor.

I met someone on Help Island once (actually the older Orientation Island) who was over a year old. He didn't speak English, and had never realized that there was more to Second Life. I managed to get the idea across to him finally, and he vanished in a flash.

That Mentor who showed up? He or she wasn't checking up to see if you were Up To No Good. Mentors have a HUD that tells them how many avatars and other Mentors are on the various Help Islands and Infohubs. Many of them look for islands with only one or two avatars, and jump there to make sure you aren't stuck, or lost, or confused.

Based on my experience in the Mentor group, Lindens never send mentors anywhere or ask them to check on anyone. I don't think there is anything in the least wrong in staying where you are, as long as you are happy there. Nothing in the TOS requires you to leave.

True. Second Life Mentors is a volunteer position that is intended to be a rescource that gives information and Help Island land access so that people who choose to volunteer and stay in good standing can be as helpful as they desire to be. (^_^)

There is no real roll call (except that one time with the survey) and Mentors aren't "sent out" to attend to anything. Typically, the Mentor group will announce events, requests, and informative postings and it's left up to the individual Mentor members to decide how they'll follow through. I do the Help Island Dot Hunt once in a while just to be sure I'm landing in a living HI where I can genuinely offer assistance. Recently there's even a HUD, used by Mentors, to identify the top ranking busy new resident locations. (^_^)

As for the OP... Hundreds, if not thousands, of people use Linden owned land as their home every day. They're all servers like any other and surely are acceptable overhead for the sake of accepting and retaining new residents in Second Life. You decision to 'make camp' on the Help Island you landed in is pretty valid use of the place. Though, I think there may be a moment when your account times out and you're sent on your way to the main grid anyway. But, I could be wrong. I never put it into practice, myself. (^_^)y

Mentors are not "sent" and they are not official agents of Linden Lab at all. They are just volunteers who have signed up to help people, sworn to be tolerant and patient and try to be helpful, and they operate entirely on their own. They cruise around the Help Islands randomly, and they sometimes summon each other for help if the crowd is too big to handle alone, or they don't speak the right language, or need some other Mentor who is more knowledgable.

Doubtless the Mentor who appeared on "your" island just noticed that there was a lonely individual there (by looking at the Map) and went to see if you were stuck or something.

I think it's hillarious and cool that you have your own Help Island!

(Yes, I'm a Second Life Mentor too.)

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