Oh no, Infohubs

I ended up in the Hyles Infohub, which was a good place to be.

The ONLY problem was that you don't land in the hub. You land outside on a rock surrounded by water and you have to walk underwater to get to the infohub itself. It confused me pretty well and my first question was "What is the deal with the rocks?" The mentors explained the why of it to me... It made sense at the time, but I forget now. It has something to do with I don't know what, and it cannot be changed.

Once you get into the infohub itself, it's great. There are little alcoves that are very clearly marked where you can pick up skins and hair and eyes and clothes... everything is explained very simply.

When I was there it seemed like there were ALWAYS mentors, old-timers.

I liked it so much that I go back occasionally to give a leg up.

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I say we take over Waterhead. I'm ready.

Hey, I'm up for taking over an existing one.

Heh. I have an idea. What if there was a sploder ball that would go off when there were too many avatars too close? It would push the avatars to emptier nearby spots. It could clean up the clumps of avatars at the tp points. Would that be hard to do?

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We need t-shirts at least. And a group with snappy titles. But I'm in.

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Thank you, I'm not convinced that the culture and organization of NCI could be made to scale--especially if I had to add in random LL mandates on top. At the very least, we would have to have some paid full time staff, and that would create problems in itself ("Why is Carl paid, and I am not?"

There are however a number of lessons that LL could learn from NCI's experience, but as the resident volunteer programs seem to be winding down (no new mentors, mentors being ejected, Lindens being reassigned, etc.), so I'm not sure how receptive LL would be.

LL does use some NCI content at Help Islands: our networked FreebieNode freebie walls and SLInfo walls.



I agree. I've proposed several times at various Linden office hours that some level of stipend needs to be brought back for Basic accounts. I would give a pot of starting money like you suggest, and a 50L$ a week stipend for the first four to six weeks.

I know such a system would be gamed. EVERY system is gamed. But I think the increase in retention would offset any losses to LL.

NCI has built "NCI InfoNodes" located adjacent (or very near) to every InfoHub we have been able to lease, buy, or borrow land at. They contain freebies, information, maps, and landmarks to places like NCI, Shelter, Free Dove, Gnubie Store, Yadni's, Ivory Tower, etc.

The Xstreet terminals are a good idea, and someone on staff at NCI is currently looking into those as a possiblity.

BTW--if you own land adjacent to, or with in easy line of sight of a Linden InfoHub that does not have a NCI InfoNode near it, and are interested in selling/donating/renting such to NCI, please contact me in world or via email at [email]j.carl.henderson@gmail.com[/email].

Hmm..in RL a couple of Claymores would be all you would need.

AND the reputation bonus, suitably nerfed.

Caledon Oxbridge is the name. It's open to the public and you are welcome to come explore. Oxbridge is a collaboration between NCI and Caledon and is staffed by volunteers from both communities. It is directly adjacent to NCI's Caledon campus, as well.



I think LL is just trying lots of stuff to see if anything works.

The City OI is dead. LL replaced with a modification of the old Help Island. Apparently, it did not work at all.

NCI's freebie walls are based on the design (but not the code) of the old Waterhead/Telehub freebie dispensers. Unlike the old LL ones, NCI's FreebieNode freebie walls are networked and work off a webserver, thus we are able to update all of them from a central location. The FreebieNode system is scalable. We currently operate 10 at our four campuses, 16 at our InfoNodes, and one for each active LL Help Island.

I think that may be part of the reason LL replaced the old freebie shops on the Help Island with the NCI FreebieNode freebie walls. Complaints can come to me

Seriously--we are happy to accept any PG content, quality freebies. Just contact NCI Freebie Director, Blu Laszlo. It may take us a while to get them up (though since I stopped trying to do the job myself, things are much faster).



I loved those; I wish they were still active at all InfoHubs. I think LL should take it step futher and consider selling paid billboard space at InfoHubs--perhaps even renting out some shops adjacent to them. If they did it right, they could make the InfoHubs a profit rather than a cost center.

That was the idea behind the original set of InfoHubs. Each of the hubs had a resident or resident group as "owner" who was responsible for the build, content, and updates. But different owners had different levels of enthusiasm and time to devote to the project, and as time passed, some left SL, leaving their InfoHubs static.

The best of the LL InfoHubs are those with active involved owners: examples include the SL Hobo's Calleta InfoHub or Prokofy Neva's Ross InfoHub.

For what it is worth, NCI has leased a plot of land just one parcel down from Hau Koda, and will be putting in an InfoNode there shortly. We can't find/afford land near Moose Beach, but would love to be there, too.

The one at Ambat has been in use all this time - I'm not sure why people had trouble setting them up. If not that exact device something along the same lines would be nice.

I think Ahern and Waterhead could be saved with better content and policing.



NCI does not run a single InfoHub. We have NCI InfoNodes located adjacent to, or very near to, many of the Linden InfoHubs, thus it is easy to confuse them. In the past, we've asked about taking over abandoned InfoHubs, but had no luck.



I'm tempted to respond with just a joke, but as any organization grows, there are more points of friction both within the organization and between members of the organization and people outside it.

We also are a private organization, and as such, we don't have to put up with people who are less interested in getting help (or helping others) than they are in causing problems. I make no apologies for that. If you are a persistant jerk at NCI, you will get banned.

A few observations:

* If LL is going to use infohubs as the second landing point after Help Island, they should not also use them to reroute traffic from crashed sims. Almost every unattended infohub has a collection of ghosts and stranded avatars at the rez spot. This is highly confusing and offputting to newbies. I don't know how often I've had to tell a newbie that the attractive model he is chatting up is not a person or not online. Contrary to LL's suggestion that the source of this issue is stranded landbots, my observation is that the infohub zombies are mostly real avatars or store bots. Some avatars appear to be caught in an infinite infohub loop - appearing at one location after another.

* The vibe of the infohub makes a huge difference in the level of griefing. Take a look at a really nice infohubs like Oxbridge Caledon and Tutorial Ayuda de SL. There's something calming about the designs that discourages casual misbehavior - like being in a library. Others, such as Violet and Ahern, seem to attract a rowdy group of regulars that aren't always too welcoming to newbies.

* The existing manned infohubs don't have enough volunteers to staff around the clock, but could do a better job of recruiting more help. Is there a notecard at the NCI infohubs listing who to contact if you want to volunteer? Also, some (e.g., Solace Beach) ask volunteers to sign up for regular shifts - not realistic, at least for this would-be volunteer.

I just finished sweeping and dusting and vacuming Nova Albion. It looks pretty good. The information does need updating and I am working on it. But yes, I am only one person in a group that is rarely online anymore if at all. Those that are are busy themselves and help TONS when they are able. But I will do what I can to keep Nova Albion griefer free and hope to make it a delight to be there again.

There is an invisible scripted prim LL uses to generate the blue "i" on the map. Several InfoHubs are missing it for some reason.

What you are describing is not actually part of the InfoHub. The Linden InfoHub is the swampy space you started in. The place that you found so useful is an excellent private help area run by the Second Living group.

LOL!

Thanks, Carl -- now I remember.

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Might need more firepower.



I agree. I love those as well, and I do use them. No idea if others do, but I regularly add adverts for You Know, For Kids to 'em. They also avoid the "FIC" issue by being available for all to use. A paid system would also work, IMO, whether it was a "Pay L$500 for a weekly ad" or a "with a premium, you have the right to advertise here." Would be nice to see such a thing networked, too, so that a resident could get their ad in any hub, and see if propagate throughout the network.

Either way, I know I have one of those old Resident Advertisement kiosks in my inventory, and would be more than willing to pass said item to those in need for use in hubs.



Ah cool, I think I know the plot. Chev and Zia might be at least amenable to some NCI involvement near Moose Beach. They and Lad are the owners fronting the location.



I agree. The inmates run those asylums. By the same token, I observed a single resident turn Moose Beach from lawless to at least ordered last night in about 15 minutes. It *can* be done.



That's an interesting idea.

Mari

That's what all you grunts on the ground will be for.

Is there a secret to getting IN to Moose Beach? The first week it opened, I spent 10 minutes waiting for someone to leave so I could get in to help out. Since then, I haven't had the patience.