Shiny forum things

What is great about these forums? I have some free time, and instead of frittering it away building an unnecessary bridge (oops did that already) I thot I'd do a little marketing for the forums. Here and there.

But I need talking points.

What have we done that we're proud of?

What do we do well here?

How could I best present how much support we provide to people?

And, do people have any ideas for new pet projects that the forum might take on? Things to better people's experiences in SL?

Ready, set? Let out your inner smarm. Overwhelm us all with forum shininess!

p.s. if anyone would like to provide specific quotes, or point to specific posts, that are positive about the forums, I'd love it. If I do an article, that sort of thing comes in handy.

I would definitely point to RA for general help, and then all the tips forums (scripting, technical, texturing, building, etc) for specific help.

The Hangout!

Ideas: organize tours of cool places? Get Carl at NCI to set up a class for build optimization, i.e. prim usage and texture usage?

QFT

The Forum girls are the hottest in SL. Every one of them is a beauty. All of them can carry on a conversation. A combination lacking in most of the world, I guess we have them all here.

It's a good starting place for those confused about land, thanks to this sticky: /327/3d/174599/1.html

Which really needs to be renamed to something more general. I'll ask Aki to do that for us.

So easy when you have a bunch of imperfect ventriloquists pulling the strings

BTW - that's actually a compliment to the guys, although an obscure reference.

The best thing about the forums is the amazing amount of time and help people offer, whatever the problem.

The one thing that makes the forums shine is then seeing the "helped" quickly become the "helpers". It is self-sustaining, and gives me a warm glow!

I >heart< the forum.

I have gotten so much help here. When my land was griefed I raised a distress call here and got help both on the forum and in-world. As I've started messing with building and scripts I've gotten help with those questions too.

I've learned about great places to visit and interesting vendors I might not have found otherwise. I jot down names of places and shops almost every time I read the forums. I learned about Mystitool. I've learned tricks that have helped me start on the road from rank noob to power user.

And - maybe best of all - the forum hangout, now one of my favorite regular haunts that I visit almost every day for the nicest people and the best conversation I've found anywhere in SL.

What more can I say? I >heart< the forum!

Oh hey what about Ray's Land Answers group? That was basically an offshoot of the forums.

Everything. Completely, everything.

If I had not found this forum, and subsequently the Hangout, my experience in SL would have come to a complete and sudden halt about 2 weeks into it. From the help given to me when needed, the intelligent and ridiculously sublime conversations at the hangout, the parties, the friendships I've made, the love I've found, the forgiveness when I've said something stupid, all of it has been incredibly unexpected and sometimes, I'm at a loss for words at how much it means to me.

Alice said: "When I get home I shall write a book about this place... If I ever do get home." Truly, this is my other home. Mad it is, but it's a mad I love.

Elora: Beautifully stated

I second everything she said. It is exactly the way I feel. Couldn't have expected to meet such lovely, helpful people.

Ashe

I've been on SL since last February, and my husband was on several months before that. So, I had a lot of help when I started, and managed to avoid some of the "newbie" mistakes. But once I found the RA forum, I learned a lot more. And still do. And I like being able to share what I learn with my husband, since he really hates to read. I've learned little tips that aren't published inworld anywhere, I've learned shortcuts and just loads of other useful information. And that's what people do here.....very well! You can quote me.

This is why we love him so (besides some of his other nice qualities).

QFT!!

flatterer

Don't forget the technical part of the forums. There are quite a few very wonderful people who spend most of their time there helping out people with texturing, building, animating, using sounds, making sculpted things, scripting, etc. It's like a magic mirror that will answer any questions you pose to it.

Excellent point Bree!

The forums have given me so much in the form of technical support and advice on topics ranging from texturing, to animating, to how to getting the dag-burn client to run better that I cannot imagine my SL experience without everyone here. In addition to that, the discussion of cool places to go for sightseeing and shopping shape my time in SL for the better on a daily basis.
Oh, and, of course, the great land buying advice from both Ray Figtree and Ava Glasgow have been invaluable!

Thanks everyone!

I (and all of my alts - I'm always tempted to uyse the term "we", but I know that would just be creepy and pretentious) ... am absolutely 100% in agreement w/Chris Norse.

I've had the few technical questions I've raised answered, received information that helped me on some things later on, but mostly, I've been enlightened, entertained, amused, annoyed, and made to think. Also most of my inworld friends are the result of this forum as I tend to keep to myself when I explore. I don't have a lot of experience in forums, but I think this one works pretty well, and I don't think it needs to change.

An attempt to sort the current results into categories that might match Linden business objectives--and to solicit any new categories or examples:

Improve customer retention:
- Reduce frustration of new residents by answering their questions on product usage.
- Provide a welcoming social environment and community for all residents (e.g., Forum Hangout)
- Improve "stickiness" by deep engagement of residents: the "helped" quickly become "helpers" committed to their SL experience.

Increase revenue per customer:
- Provide guidance on the complex process of land purchase, thereby reducing buyer anxiety and increasing premium memberships and tier.

Enhance content quality and access:
- Supply specific expert advice and expand total resident knowledge for existing and new features, particularly in technical areas of scripting, building, textures, animations, etc. A recent example is the propagation of techniques for sculpted-prim modeling, for which knowledge and tools would not have been discovered and disseminated as efficiently by any other means.
- Disseminate information about new and established content, venues, and services that benefit resident experience and in-world economy.

Reduce demand for support services:
- Provide near instantaneous answers to questions, assistance with difficulties, and confirmation or refutation of perceived service disruptions, reducing volume of incorrect, redundant, or unnecessary support tickets.

Improve service quality:
- Expedite identification of service disruptions and partial outages.
- Quickly spread knowledge of workarounds.

[/smarm]

Did I miss any? Can anybody think of other "hot buttons" the Lindens may have? Are these compelling and valid? I added a few as I went along, so they may be, uh, "idiosyncratic" (read: "full of sh*t".

One I didn't add, but wonder about: I've heard it said that the blog was created because somebody in Lindenland believed that forums "do not scale." This is exactly opposite of what I'd have thought: they *automatically* scale with new resident count, at no additional cost to LL--in contrast to the increased support costs they'd otherwise incur with a growing customer base. Am I just misunderstanding "scalability" in this context?

How about

"Increase bug reporting efficiency by alerting users to current JIRA issues and proposals."

Bilbo's comment on another thread to the effect that he would pay to be a forum member made me think of resurrecting this thread, given that it's Friday, to gather some more testimonials like that, lol! The feedback in this thread has been great, I'm a forum enthusiast and some of you have brought up things I would never have considered, like Oryx's post above mine.

I hope we're not beating ourselves up too much right now to remember how helpful and valuable this place is

So, any more shiny thoughts? What's good and valuable about the forums?

(oh and while i'm here let me add one final pimp for the Jira on forum moderation, WEB-448, /327/4a/234101/1.html. It is intended basically to preserve the forums in their current state. )

Nika, dear, it's only Thursday. For most of us I believe anyway.

pfft oh goodie, now i'm going senile. or maybe its the lack of coffee ... *stumbles blindly into the kitchen*

As a mentor I always tell new folks to come to the forums if they need help and get get it quickly in-world. One of the things that impressed me soooo much here, and kept me coming back.....was how quickly my questiones were answered. (even if only to offer pie lol) But.....like someone pointed out....those who request help often stick around to give help so it's ever growing population of folks with varying degrees of knowledge on just about anything~!!! To me.... the forums are much more effective and helpful then linden labs can ever hope to be on a day to day basis.
LL has a big show to run.....so obviously they knew what they were doing when these forums were set up......but kudos to all you guys....cause more than once you have just totally made my day~!!! And kudos to Chris for having such a wonderful lap. (Chris do you perhaps have an easter bunny costume cause I bleve that's the next big lap sitting occasion! *giggle* I missed my chance santa's lap but I heard alllll about it)