Taking land answers where they are needed: Inworld.

? oh, you mean you would have to go somewhere to pick up the HUD? Probably, yeah. Once you have the HUD in your inventory, you would be able to attach and use it wherever you are.

If a person has group space, certainly just joining the group and sending out a group IM would be easier.

Please follow up with me on this. It seems like it will be a neccessity. Can "online now" accommodate and display 35+ residents at once?

where does the kiosk go? each member has one?

I missed the part about it being a HUD. I thought it was a stationary "online now" type of display. A HUD like this would be great. If it can be included with the kiosk, it will be. Thanks and sorry I missed the gist earlier.

Anywhere you want to rez it. As soon as it exists...

Yes, I was planning to talk to Lucrecia about adding our info to the freebie box. Thanks.

so if i'm hanging out at a friends, i can just plop it down, and if someone calls upon me i can help via IM? or choose to go help them where they are, as arranged via IM?

Hey! You skipped post #90. *sulk*

Just kidding Ray, great idea.

it will be necessary to hand it out to all who already have the box too, which i expect is quite a long list at this point. i am volunteering to help with that, when the time comes.

*hugs*

Yes, once you are in the group, you are making yourself available to answer questions via IM. You could certainly make a housecall if you want.

The kiosk will have notecards with all kinds of land information and answers. In addition, thanks to some new brainstorming, it may have a HUD you can take that shows which land experts from the group are online. Lastly, it may itself have an "online now" notifier so people can see who's online to answer their questions.

I did skip it.

You get full credit for having the idea, too. Plus you now get a coupon for a free Figtree slapfest.

ANIMAL CRUELTY! ANIMAL CRUELTY!

Oooh! Do you spank... er... slap me? Or do I slap you?

Can't read the fine print. Whatever suits your mood.

I don't see anyone better suited for this than Ray. He's smart patient and knows his stuff. As for the possible problems mentioned..Theres no way in hell to have a 100% problem free project like this. I'd hate to see this project halted or stopped and people miss out on much needed help because someone is worried about spam or to many groups or any other trivial problem.
I don't see a way to make a group totally spam free, but if its regulated well and enforced you can keep it to a minimum. I have a freebie group with over 1000 members and we very very rarely have spam because as soon as we see it, we boot who did it and make the group very aware that we frown on it.
As for groups, like Ray said above, most people needing help are most likely not in 25 groups, and people always have the option of joining, asking the question and leaving. Even if joining the group to ask a question isn't an option for everyone, it's a perfectly fine option for several others, so theres no doubt in my mind that this group will be able to help a lot of people, if not everyone.
Stop stressing out, this project shouldn't be so stressful and doesn't need knit picked or perfection. No matter how the kiosk is, or the sign is, or how it's set up, it's a good thing and it's going to help others and the good feelings Your going to get out of that should outweigh any stress or worries.
Keep this in mind, Right now there is NO live help for people with land questions. ANYTHING we do is 100 times better than the options people have right now.

Can an object send an IM to a group? If so, what we would need is a pager of sorts that people can submit questions to, and then inquirers could get answers from whoever was online at the time. This would eliminate the need for group membership to submit questions.

I agree 100% with Sarah. I think this is an absolutely brilliant initiative and I take my hat off to Raymond. I'll certianly join once I can get myself inworld, although I'm not a real expert.
At the same time chaps and chappesses, we can still use this forum. The poor guy from #36 is still relying on MY advice (god help him) and the advice of one other person while you all josh around and congratulate each other on how funny you are. I find that a little disappointing when Strife has allowed you so many threads to be funny in.

Still, a cool idea)

To the best of my knowledge, no, sadly. When objects send IMs, they don't go to IM windows, but to Chat History. Corrections to this by more knowledgable scripters gleefully accepted.

The easiest way I can think of to do this would be with a bot (looks desperately in inventory for a tin hat). We could either put it together ourselves (but then we would need someone to host it always being up), or, better, simply get one of the existing bot vendors to do it.

But, again, perhaps swatting a fly w/a 2x4. Seems to be my theme today

Wow, could we have a bot standing there in a central location that someone could IM and he'd relay it to group IM? or someone could "click" him but actually they'd be clicking an invisible shield around him, which would generate a touch-chat, that the bot could pick up and relay back to Group IM? we could move the bot around to different info hubs and stuff too.

There is soon going to be an object available inworld that lets you IM with people offline. I will check with its creators and see if it would work to IM groups as well.

Stepping back for a minute...the big idea is to have resident land experts available for live help inworld. The best way I can figure out so far is to create this group and have people start a group IM or IM a member who is online to get answers. I wish people could see our online status in the group window even if they are not a member, but they can't.

Is there a better way? Could we get LL to put a Live Land Help icon in the menu and let us talk to people via it like the old Live Help? Do we close the open enrollment and instruct people to just work their way down the member list until they find an expert who's online? Do we create an avatar named LandAnswers McGee, that we all have access to and take turns being so he/she is always online and available to anwer questions? Your suggestions are welcome.

The kiosk with notecards is nice icing on the cake, but in the end just another version of info that most people will never utilize because when they need answers, they may not be near a kiosk, remember they have the notecards in inventory or know where to look for the answer in the notecards.

Wow, now we are getting creative.

I still feel the best solution will be a way for folks to contact the experts from their own land where the majority of the questions are going to occur...

The bot could be sitting anywhere and you just IM it like any other avatar, no need to touch it. I mean, ew, touching a bot! *shudder*

ahem.

It could either IM the group + the question asker, or even just IM the members of the group who are online + the question asker, in a "conference".

But really, I personally think it'd be better to just give running this like a standard group a try, with questioners joining and starting a group IM. If spam turns into a problem, time enough to reach for more sophisticated solutions.

Initially, I think the bigger issue will be getting word out to enough potential land buyers that you actually have people asking questions.

Yea I think Your right. The biggest step will be getting word spread. It will be a process, but I think it will slowly take off and become more known. Might be a good idea to start telling mentors about the group. I'm sure they get land questions a lot.

about the notecards.... if we each have a copy in our inventory, after we've been contacted we can give a copy to the person asking questions, and then take it from there. might cut down on a lot of repeating onesself. i'm pretty sure we can talk someone through land issues via IM, so i don't think having the kiosk available at any given moment is going to be completely critical. at worst, we can TP someone to our location and let them access the kiosk.

this bot thing sounds pretty cool, but it presents the same problem as the kiosk, that being the need to be present to use it. or did i miss something?