Random Act of Kindness, 2009 Holiday Season.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to put something out here, and see if anyone else wanted to pick up on it.

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Our world is full of petty squabbles, drama, money problems, and often worst of all: loneliness and depression, which can be particularly hard during the holiday season.

The grid can be a rather tough neighbourhood if you don't know anyone, or if perhaps you are an oldbie whose friends have moved on... or if you are on a retirement income or any number of myriad circumstances.

To that end everyone involved with the Caledon estate group has been invited to wander the world as alts, not talking about their purpose or displaying their affiliations, but to quietly find a deserving, decent person. A person who might feel a lot better if the otherwise hardscrabble world touched them in a good way for a change, instead of dealing yet another blow.

The idea is to pick someone and do something rather nice for them ~ I won't say specifically what, but rest assured that most would agree that it will be a decent thing to do. A number of Caledon merchants, private citizens and myself are involved in that side of it.

So if you see a random broke noob in a sandbox, or a couple of wandering goofy oldbies, or meet someone at a party ~ be nice, and you just might get the surprise of your SL life, perhaps the week or so before Christmas day


If any other estates, or even private individuals wish to organise something similar, then by all means please do.

The real magic won't go to the person picked, but to everyone who had a little bit of their faith in humanity restored along the way, either directly or indirectly.

Cheesy thing to be doing? Yeah, maybe a little. We don't care; there's no agenda and no strings. We may even mess up and pick someone far from perfect or maybe not the 'best one'... okay, whatever, it's not about perfection.


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This isn't exactly a Resident Answer post, but in a forum with threads like "just ignore and let this one die" or yet another thread about child avatars or something, I hope that it will perhaps be the Resident Answer for, well, at least one person who could really use it this season.

And yeah, the plan as described above is flawed in various ways (for instance: it passes over our own residents), but it sure beats sitting around and arguing about stupid stuff.

I hope this inspires,

Des

Shall I shoot myself?

Pep (That would make Rhonda happy at the very least.)

No, but either "smack with cod" or "invite Pep to help" are options on the table! Or both... grin

Some in light, and
some in darkness
That's the kind of world we mean

Those you see are
in the daylight
Those in darkness
don't ... get ... seen ....

I think doing random acts of kindness is a wonderful idea. Just showing others some simple courtesy is not that hard for any of us to do.

Life is stressful enough for many these days. What can it hurt to be kind even once a day?

I just may go over to one of the NCI Centers a couple of times a week. See if I can explain some of the basic do's and don'ts to some newbies. SL was highly confusing my first few weeks and I was very grateful for any help I received.

I do random acts of kindness all the time in these forums . . .

Pep ( . . . but most people seem to interpret my pointing out how they could improve themselves as gratuitous interference. If Lazarus was a forumite his first post would probably say something like "I was having a nice kip and someone woke me up . . ."

Isn't it interesting that basic goodness has to be explained and justified or dressed up as something else to get people interested?

It sounds like Caledon has the true spirit of the season very much in its heart. Let's hope the magic spreads.

I like this idea, although it's probably a worthy idea of pursuing year round.

I'll be first in line for the Caledon Random Acts of Kindness Free Land Giveaway

People are basically good and do the right thing. The media likes to just pick out the people who do bad things.

As usual, Desmond makes a positive statement that reminds us of the good, both in SL, on this forum and in the real world. He sets a good example in his words and actions.

Thanks for that kind act, Des.

Yeah, it is interesting, but whatever the vehicle, the idea is lovely. However, it's something I do, alone, all the time. For me it's giving away Lindens. I'll go to either Virtual Ability Orientation sim, or another noobie friendly place. Last week I went to Noob Island, which I think is owned by the A-Lady group. They have a lot of rules up there, no soliciting, no passing group invites, no this, no that. I didn't want to get banned, and was afraid to give anyone any money. And I found Philip Linden, in 'Away' status there, looking like a 'broke noob'. I got a picture but it's hard to see the Av name unless you really blow it up. (make the picture bigger). Anyway, I digress. Several times I've sent money to people from these forums, if I just feel like it. (not for their upcoming prim babies, that is a baby daddy job). I just do it at random, if it hits me. I don't do it as an alt, and that is a good idea, Des. An alt with an empty profile. I don't know what else to do for people on SL, besides give them some money, to assist in their SL journey. Can you share some ideas of what it is you and your peers are doing, other than giving money?

I also firmly believe that people, in general, are good and kind. I always try and be kind to everyone I meet, even the not so nice ones. Sounds like a wonderful holiday gesture Des! Wish I could participate directly. But rest assured, I'll be being just as nice as usual this holiday season. ^_^

I dont need a day or a movemement to do this, I do it everyday! But, I would love to be involved in something of this nature.

The thing about giving new people L$ though is that they will then expect it from everyone and some, not all will become beggers...

there is some metaphore I could use but it escapes me at this time..

For newbies, I have a notecard I try to keep up to date with information and LMs for things that might be helpful to them. Freebie places, how to open a box notecards, where to go for help, useful SL websites etc. I even have Virtual Ability on the notecard! I'll pass it you later when I get in-world. I've run into some really helpful and kind folks in my SL travels and it's nice to be able to pay it forward in even the smallest of ways, whether it be by taking the time to explain something or a kind word when someone is having a craptastic day.

Suggestions on what to do, instead? I would welcome some suggestions. I've run across beggars too. But usually it's just people who I notice, in open chat, longing for something they can't afford. I did it in a skin place the other day, a girl was talking to her friend about how much she'd love 'that skin' but it was so expensive, and she just didn't have the money. Something I just happened upon, in passing. So I gave it to her and she bought her skin. I get something out of it too, gives me the warm fuzzies.

When I was fairly new...and was bopping about on the grid....(this was before I knew that people did not like you walking on their land).....a really nice gal named Ellen Spark found me walking around her land...and she invited me into her home to look at her things.

She had a Mirror there...you could look into the mirror and see yourself! That was amazing. And she had other amazing things. She had a carousel, too...another amazing find. She talked to me for a long time, and gave me a lot of information about SL. And she sent me home with a Gazebo! I still have that, several years later.

I ran into a lot of people like that, way back when....and they are the reason I stayed in SL (blame it on them)....and they will never get any glory or fame....just in our hearts....(not a bad place for it)....so I think that simply sharing your amazing creations, and the knowledge that you have...(not necessarily lindens or "stuff"....goes a really long way....and we should do it every day. Nice reminder.

I've known Ellen for years, when she was new a group of female avatars made fun of her because she looked like a noob, she cried then decided she was going to help others at all costs. Today she owns 5 sims I think and the largest carnival in the game (that I know of). I have not seen her for awhile, I need to stop by.

Mmmm... I have to be a little careful because we don't want people making an alt, joining Caledon, sorta figuring things out and then playing us for patsy's with a little social engineering and acting.

So it's better that I be a little coy about what we are doing until it happens, and even after that there's no real need to tell the world. We did put a bit of thought into this, though. It's going to be a little bit more than say, helping new residents. Many of us help new residents every day at Oxbridge; this goes farther than that, but how far I won't say.

And even if someone totally fools us, it doesn't matter. We still 'win' ~ the idea of telling people outside of Caledon at all is to make people think of this and just be a little nicer, because, well, you never know who you may be talking to! That's why I posted it here in the first place. And it sorta reminds all of us doing it to be decent (we have plenty of drama ourselves).

* * * * *

It's true, there's no requirement to be doing this in an organised fashion. But sometimes it's a little hard to do this as an individual.

For instance, say a single guy finds a lady facing some hard times ~ doing something nice for her might be misinterpreted as something entirely different, thus creating drama and nonsense and possibly a couple of restraining orders

Or the person might suspiciously demand to know "what's the catch!?" and get angry, or feel weird about it. This can happen a little too easily as some people have very little faith in humanity left. Plus, nobody wants to feel like a charity case. So it has to be kinda like a prize, not charity. Which can be easier as a group kinda thing; individuals don't normally give prizes but groups do.

If anyone wants to do this "better" than us... by all means, go for it! At least one other estate was contemplating their own version, after hearing us discuss this on the group channel. I hope they do.

* * * * *

And if this bombs, I suppose we can do a "Random Act of Griefing 2010" as a cynical follow up. "Congratulations you are the meanest person we've been able to find in a month! A dozen of us will now grief you 24/7 until we find someone worse!" Heh, that might get us in a little trouble if we did... better deny everything!

Or we can send Pep out there to 'help' people with their syntax and grammar...

I had a noob on my sim the other night. He wanted to learn to script, period, the end. His sole purpose for being in SL, he was fascinated by scripting. He'd thought he could teach himself, and had somehow found an area of my sim that the land was open to rezzing. (there was a reason for that, at the moment, and it wasn't for him to learn to script, lol). I gave him a LM to Oxbridge in hopes there was some tutorial there that could help him on his single minded quest. Nothing else would have made him happy, he had a single minded goal.

Thats so sweet!! I hope you share the results with us!!

I will do this. I will give a noob a wodge of money since I can afford it and dont wanna have a boob hang around helplessly in love with me.

Gee...I've given lots of money away and never had anyone hanging around helplessly in love with me. /me laughs. (Jig meant noob, not boob, that 2nd time)

Not before you have been skating with me!

Deira (and don't shoot yourself on the ice afterwards because I don't want to clean up the mess.)

I think this is a wonderful idea, Desmond! I wasn't quite certain from reading your OP if (1) the people participating from Caledon actually have to live or work in Caledon or just be in the group and (2) do those of us in the Caledon group need to tell you who are alt is?

~ ~ ~

I was blessed to receive three random acts of kindness I'll never forget as a noob. Because I tend to be verbose anyway, I'll describe the first one...

I had just arrived (back in my Gorean days) and thought that the only types of clothes were system clothes. I had worked diligently to fashion a "Free Woman" dress but for the life of me couldn't figure out how to make a veil.

I have no idea now, but somehow I found a Gorean market and saw what at the time seemed like the most gorgeous dress & veils ever *and* it completely covered the head and face, except the eyes, as the books indicate (not the "see through" pieces of material that pass for veils on many SL Gorean sims, but that's another subject. )

The price was 300L. It was maybe my 2nd day on SL so I didn't have a clue how to purchase lindens and 300L might as well have been 30,000L. I don't think I even had lindens at the time.

When I returned home to the sim in which I was living at the time, somehow I wandered into a library that I was never able to find later. A FW was visiting. I introduced myself, told her I was new and chatted a bit. That woman had the most gorgeous gown on, much more elaborate than the one I saw, but not covering the entire head/face. I commented on her dress and said that I would need to learn how to earn lindens and become better dressed. Out of the blue the woman asked if I had seen any dresses I liked so far. When I said yes she said to take me to the market, asked which color I liked and purchased it for me!!!! I was absolutely blown away and couldn't thank her enough. I told her I would find a way to repay her and she said just visiting her home sim would be thanks enough (which I did).

If it doesn't compromise future efforts, I'd be very interested to learn more details of this project after it's done. (It's completely understandable that being a bit circumspect is necessary now, so we really don't need to know more at this point.)

Yeah sorry about the error.
I've also thought it might be nice for a noob to spend some time with me. You know like they would in real. "Spend the day (and night) with Jig" - "You can be Jig's best friend for a Day". I could really do some good. And seriously it makes me really go "awwwww" coz they'd be so happy as I lead them to some pretty valtuptuous places. And I'm being caritable for a change coz let's face it, noobs need a bit of charity.
So I'll wait at one of those infohub places and offer myself as a real menter.