No Clocks Involved

What does NCI stand for? Is it No Clocks Involved?

I've been trying to get to the NCI - Scripting Basics class for a while. Something always turned up to prevent that. As there was one scheduled for 11.30 tonight (UK time), I made definite arrangements to get to it. As a precaution, I used the "notify me" option in the Search panel. Here is the time and location of the class as given in Search:



The above gives the times they have on their website; they are the same as those which appear in Search.

That notification arrived a minute or so before the time I expected the class begin. I teleported to the class ... only to find it had already begun. A rough guess, it must have been running 20 minutes at least before I got there!

Now this isn't the first time a NCI class has been wrongly scheduled, and I'm getting a bit peed about it. I know they are free classes, and I am grateful for that. But they are no bloody use if I don't know when they take place.

How do I find the actual times classes are supposed to begin? There were plenty of people in the class, so they must have found out somehow.

Join the student's group. Ask the corresponding teachers.

Drop Tateru Nino a notecard if you're unhappy, NCI is a wonderful organisation, I've been to a few of their classes, I've never known one to start early.

It sounds like it didn't start early, but a different time to the actual start time was published somewhere.

I don't really want to join a group just for this. But yes, maybe it would be a good idea to contact the teacher beforehand.

Ok, let's say it began at a time which differed from that they published on both Search and their website. How did the attendees know that? And how can I find out in future?

I've no idea - I've never had anything to do with NCI. But I would think that the suggestion posted here would work ok - get in touch with the teacher in advance. It could be that the regular time was changed, that the students were regulars and therefore knew, but someone forgot to change the official schedule.

As an NCI instructor, myself, I follow the calendar to the exact minute in SLT. When my Thursday night class says it starts at 6:00pm SLT, that is the moment I start running my chat range tests. (^_^)

At the same time, class and event announcements come out on the New Citizens Inc. group. I send a group notice with an LM at 15 minutes before the event along with a chat line in group chat with time and a SLURL. I send another chat line with SLURL at 10 minutes before the class. It's a common courtesy I provide, and if I remember right, it's required of me. (^_^)

In addition, today, I did get word in group chat that one or two events faced a change in schedule/venue because of some unforeseen problems. Such is life. We're real people. It was all explained on a timely basis in the New Citizens Inc. group chat and announcements. (^_^)

Each event will have the name of the host/instructor on the calendar. If you ever have any doubt about the scheduling, you can freely IM the person listed as its their responsibility to be online and preparing for the event well before it starts. (^_^)

Also, rely on the SL clock, not your own. I know it sounds silly, but, my own PC clock wanders by a few minutes compared to SL. So, I've trained myself to focus on the clock on the client screen instead of my own taskbar. (^_^)

Such is event planning for a group of typically over 10,000 members. (^_^)y

Sadly, I don't get those notices because I choose not to join groups (for reasons explained on a recent thread: /327/4d/354672/1.html).



The thing is, I had no reason to doubt the scheduling. I took the times given at face value.



That's a good piece of advice. My computer clock wanders in a similar way. But I did take the precaution of using the "Notify" option at the bottom of the class description in Search. And that did warn me, and give me a teleport option, for the scheduled time.



I imagine it can be a nightmare at times.

Let me stress here, that I truly appreciate what NCI does. It is inspiring that you all continue to present free classes year after year. I attended one on griefers last week. It was the first such class I had attended, and it was wonderful. The teaching method works well for me, and I came away with lots of useful knowledge.

But the fact remains that attending classes can be difficult for some whose RL lives are in different parts of the world from your own. Turning up for a class at 2 in the morning can make a heavy dent in ones sleep

So is there any chance that the NCI could make it's lessons available as, say, Notecards? Either free of charge, or for a modest fee. That way, people in different time zones could still use your tutorials even if they can't attend actual classes. I know I'd find this immensely useful.

Don't let one episode stop you from joining useful groups, Kay. I've always been in at least 20 groups, and I've never had a stranger IM me. My guess is that it don't happen so often. Unpleasant things can happen, but the value of joining a group should not be totally overruled by one lonely guy.

Now, you can beat me over the head if you join the NCI group and some think it's The Lonely Hearts Singles group....

It wasn't just that one incident. I joined a couple of beginners groups in my first week, not really knowing quite how they worked. Every time I went in-world, I would be IMed by complete strangers within seconds - really, no exaggeration. It was a bit overwhelming for someone as timid as myself (and I really am not joking about the timidity).

Because the NCI group is aimed at new residents, I suspect joining it will have the same result.



Or we could have a 5OL bet on just how quickly I get IMed by Mr Lonely trawling the member list

Most NCI Instructors make their lesson notes available at the end of the class.

That is very useful to know. Thank you.

I've also dropped in on a few, where lots of people showed up early, and things took off informally before listed times.

I have strangers IMing me all the time.

Pep (After messing with their heads for a while I put them on mute, as my experience is that they are likely to be smartass alts trying - and failing - to get one over on me; why doesn't the OP do that?)

If you are *that* sensitive then I would suggest you reconsider your involvement in SL.

Pep (It isn't going to end well. )

Behave yourself, Pep.

Okay Kay (that rhymed), I will join the NCI group too! I am really curious to see if mr. Desperate SeekingLuv will IM me. Maybe this is more common now than in 2007. I could be too old now, if they only "hunt" for 2-5 months old avatars.

Last but one time I recommended that to someone they took a while to take my advice and went through a divorce and a breakdown before admitting that I was right.

Pep (She was a shrink, though, and didn't want to accept the superior opinion of a lay psychologist.)

Why don't you make a real experiment of it, Marianne, and make an alt and put similar stuff in the profile as the OP has.

Pep (I promise not to cheat by calling you. )

I could do that. I have alts, but they are made in 2007 and 2008 and too old. I don't like to be on alts, I miss all the stuff I have as Marianne, and neither of my computers are any good at running more than 1 SL. I am afraid I would be terribly bored on the new avatar.

Bored? Not with all the offers you would get from Mr SexN00b, surely!

Pep (If you were bored it wouldn't last long . . . )

Not quite SL stuff though - unless of course you're one of those absolute loopers who enjoy punishing themselves in virtual relationships. The OP would seem to be fairly cautious on that front.

I forgo joining groups because general chat sessions make for some extremely annoying interruptions in the course of other things. I'm not even thinking of sinister come-ons from desperate sex mechanics here. Once I was happily beavering away on a build at home when this IM popped up: "Boo!"

I jumped out of my seat thinking someone had come into my studio unnoticed. Turns out it was some jerk in an RP group who had decided to liven things up because it was a bit quiet on the sim. I also had to leave a couple of technically-oriented groups because folk wouldn't quit fighting online. Every half hour it seemed I would have a barney between complete strangers scrolling up my screen.

Maybe group chat can be turned off but I never worked out how to do that.

I've been in the NCI chat for years and don't have any problem with annoying IMs that I would attribute to being in that group.

If I did get an annoying IM I'd just mute the person if necessary and close the IM chat window.

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If you want to use an alt to be in groups with and your computer can't handle running more than one instance of the SL viewer, you might try using a non-graphical viewer such as Metabolt or AjaxLife to run the alt account with.

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The Emerald viewer has an option to "Autorespond" to IMs from non-friends and or people you have muted.

I've not come across that. With the griefers class, the tutor actually waited a couple of minutes past the start time just in case there were stragglers; which I thought was nice.