The New "Help Island"

The situation in the WA needs to be addressed if a pleasant enlightfulment experience is given to each new user. A lot of the posters I see here don't hardly even go to the welcoming area anyway to help out.

The Lindens aren't baby sitters, and neither are we. I'm not a greeter, nor mentor, however I go there to help out. At times the conversations have been on an unacceptable level. Closing off the welcoming area to non-greeters etc seems to be the way the Lindens would beable to get a grip on the situation.

It's been brewing for a long time, but unless someone has a better idea, I honestly don't know how new users can benefit from the vulgarness.

He's right!

I am a Mentor and Live Helper (mostly LH these days) and I have always enjoyed being able to help new people when they need it. But, just because I have signed up to be in a help group, it does not make me elite or anything. There are many, many people who are a great help and inspiration to new people that have no title at all.

I like the idea of a Help Island, but this is how I think it should work.

The Welcome Area should remain the first point of entry after orientation. A new resident has just spent twenty minutes or an hour learning the very basics and are probably anxious to see what SL is all about. I think a forced teleport to even more training maybe a turn off for many. So, let them do the orientation and go to the Welcome Area.

Help Island should be promoted as the answer to "What do I do now?" It should be second nature for every resident to know about Help Island and offer it as the place to go to answer any sort of question that comes up. New people should see so many signs for Help Island and will hear, "Have you been to Help Island yet?" so many times they will not be able to avoid a visit.

Help Island should be open to everyone, any age, regardless of group affliation. But, it will have a strict guideline of behavior designed to promote a friendly and educational standard. These rules (whatever they are) should be easily understood and enforced. Residents that are one month or older will lose the right to visit if they break the rules. People that have been denied access will still be able to help or get help through normal channels, just not on Help Island.

Im not sure about the actual layout of the place or how the help will be available, but if you go to Help Island, your main focus is to help or be helped. I see a lot of the same issues come up in Live Help all the time, it would be great to see some sort of interactive FAQ area to solve those problems.

I dont think I have ever said this before, but, "thats my two cents".

So you think it should be open to the members of such a group as Regulars of the Welcome Area who specialize in neg rating others for their own perverted pleasure?

This is a Good Thing. The WA is a much nastier, less-welcoming place today than it was when I showed up just over a year ago. Back then it was actually welcoming. Today the WA is an immaturity pissing contest: "I can be the most annoying and vulgar!" "No, I can, watch!" etc.

I think a more placid and controlled environment will go a long way towards helping folks along into their new skins and lives. Long overdue!

Yes. But, if they break the rules, they are out of there.

No, Forseti, I'm pointing out that some people give classes now and get $500 for it. What is going to happen to that?

And if they are worried about retaining people, I'll tell you what they need to do to retain people, and I've been saying this for some seven months now: They can tell people how to set their settings so they can move!

When I got on, I could not move. I mean, I could, but only in fits and starts, that would leave me way far from where I meant to go when I finally did move. I searched everywhere for something on the web site that would clue me in as to what was wrong, and could find nothing, or at least nothing clear. And there was nothing in the game on my screen or anywhere in the game to show me what was wrong, either.

Then Barney told me to put the draw distance down to 64, and some other stuff. The draw distance alone made all the difference. If they would just put some big sign in every welcome area about how to set your settings so you can move, that would probably up the retention factor 25 percent right there!

Better yet, I think they should do what some other guy - a new player - suggested on the forums some months ago, which is to put the default settings down to the lowest to begin with!

I keep thinking they keep thinking that there are all these other things causing people to quit, like they are so appalled by running into other players that don't act just so, when in fact it's the fact that they can't bloody move! It's like the house is on fire, and people are standing around thinking it might help if they painted it a different color.

I almost quit over it, and I already had friends in the game to motivate me to want to stay. If it hadn't been for them, I would have quit after the first half hour.

And no, I don't think new players should be forced into this environment full of quasi-Lindens, i.e., "approved" other players. Having mentors and helpers and all that is great. But if I got on the game and had to dance with them a while before I could actually play with regular people, I wouldn't appreciate it. It's not like we're a bunch of kids who need to be protected or anything. And it's sure not like the rest of SL is some kind of nunnery, if only we can be spared the blight of the Welcome Areas.

Having it as an option - like having the Library of Prims there for anyone to access - is one thing. But having the whole thing made into yet another official "business" and setting up the game so that all new players have to go through it, and have to deal with sanitized players only, that doesn't seem right.

My own experience was like my own experience on other games: I ended up in the Welcome Area and knew it was just a jumping off point. I had no desire to spend any amount of time there whatsoever, except to read the signs and play with the shooting range. I don't think people like getting on the game and have a bunch of other people tell them how to play it. I think people like to be more independant than that, and to explore on their own.

Then, too, we'd be back to the same place we were with that other welcome area some of the players were trying to get together, I forget what that was called, and all the problems inherent in that - for example, the idea of limiting it to people only 30 days old or less. In that case, as in this one, lots of people may not play much or do something else like hang out with their friends, and may want to go back and learn some of that stuff, and they wouldn't be able to? That doesn't seem fair. And what about people who want to greet new players, but aren't mentors or whatever? That doesn't seem fair either.

Plus I guess I just don't like ANY idea that exists to protect new players from existing players.

Then again, I have no idea what they are thinking of doing, really, so I am speaking somewhat prematurely on the whole thing. Course, we all are.

coco

P.S. What Loki Pico said was a good idea. (And is what the welcome areas could have and should have been.)

Yes Loki but neg rating and being an asshole is not against the rules. All we would be doing is moving the Welcome Area.

Neg rates are history in 1.7 anyway. As far as being a jerk, its not against the rules I know, but Help Island will be (should be) set up to not allow it.

I see no purpose for the greeting area to be public if it's going to be unpoliced.

Public? Police it. Or else only let the competent and helpful people greet the newcomers.

The WA as it stands now is not an accurate portrayal of the average SecondLife experience. In fact, the WA is quite possibly the WORST place on the grid.

Maybe it's serving some secondary purpose right now as trash quarantine.

Hehe I agree that the neg ratings that the halfwits enjoy giving to others will soon be history but they are still A-holes. You probably know me well enough to know that I can be a total jerk but I try to not show that in the Welcome Area.

When I put my mentor badge on I am all professional and I don't enjoy all of the negative comments from the little wannabe griefers. Give them a corn field somewhere to entertain themselves in I say.

As I said, the Lindens aren't baby sitters. Neither are mentors or greeters. We don't need to say to someone 'stop' a million times because they simply will not listen. Policing isn't the answer. That will just eat up the man hours, that the Lindens can be doing something else.

Having it locked down to the helpers is the way to go. If we want to do anything about regarding the welcoming area.

I think this is a good step in the right direction.

I applaud any place that serves as a mid point between being totally alone, to being faced with 10's of weird shooting, shouting peeps.

I never objected to greeters, mentors, live help only.... even before I became a greeter.

Yes I think there should be a place where someone can "get a grip" on SL before they are subject to the whole population and after they have run O.I. alone.

This plus possible changes in how new residents are paired with greeters is going to create a great incoming experience for new residents.

Hurray!

All I see left of the "WA's" original purpose has all but fled.

Why in the WORLD would anyone return to it as a "hang out" where they are on their worst behavior except to fulfill some horrible exhibitionist desires. (this does not include box head nude noobs).

The WA has had it's chance and since people did not leave it to it's purpose it is being replaced. Leave it there, take out the tutorials, and call it town square.

Wow. Are the WA "regulars" (griefers) really -that- afraid that they won't have fresh meat to f*ck with anymore? Damn. This brings a tear to my eye.

Are you guys all pissed off about 1.7 taking away negs, too? You sound like a bunch of babies who are having their lollipops taken away.

LL needs retention for SL to stay viable. Your "fun" is at the expense of this. Go find another MMO to screw with newbies at; there are plenty.


Let's see, given negs for the "welcome area regulars"

-66
-41
-2
-11
-0
-151 (!)

Yeah. You guys are *excellent* at welcoming new folks.

I think there's a misunderstanding here. There is no intention to bypass the Welcome Area. The intention is merely to provide a waystation where people can meet with mentors who will help them make sure their settings are correct, their appearance is what they would like it to be, and they've mastered some basic skills. If they want to grab a landmark and head to a club, follow a Greeter or go straight to the Welcome Area, it will be up to them.

It's never our intention to force people to do something (except maybe not bomb anyone ). We'll give newbies as much freedom as we can, while still trying to make sure they're comfortable and successful as they leap into the main world.

* mumbles something about the Lindens co-opting the WWW and 'what about the children!' and that mentors should be certain they are propery sanitized and Cory Edo is the anti-Christ and Cabinhead is dead, vive le Cabinhead! *

Finally someone got it.

"make sure their settings are correct" - that is good.

coco

I hang out in the Welcome Area regularly, usually for at least 2 hours a day. I'm not a Mentor, but I usually end up helping out at least 2-3 new arrivials per day, and teach at least 1-2 people per week how to build in the Sandbox. I believe that if you are a person who has benefited from the enjoyment that Second Life has to offer, it's your obligation to let other people know the possibilities that SL can offer them.

As much as I like the WA and some of the people who hang out there, I am in favor of Help Island. As the first impression point for new users, there is far too much soundclip, particle, and stupidity spamming going on in the WA.. A new player's first SL experience shouldn't be listening to the Six Flags theme looped for 10 minutes over a bunch of crazy animations and particles that reduce even the fastest gaming rigs to 4fps mud. Last night a griefer was picking fights arbitrarily in the WA (even with new players), then hitting them with a scripted weapon that ghosted them and forced them to relog (or never log on again), whilst other people in the WA cheered her on. A sad state of affairs.

The WA is a great place, and is almost always busy due to the fact that it is the nexus of SL, but having it mobbed by people who have no agenda of ever helping anyone out really can have a negative effect on new players. When a new player asks for anyone to help them out, and there are 15 people standing around and all 15 people ignore them, it portrays a really awful image on SL's society. Even if it means I couldn't hang out at Help Island and greet/help new players since I'm not a Mentor, I'm cool with it- the overall professionalism and proliferation of SL is more important.

Someone get this broad a Mentor badge.

Great post. Your sense of social responsibility and citizenship is remarkable. A breath of fresh air!

Oh but come on. That's funny! Even the 1500th time! It's still hilarious!



You just (don't understand their kind of fun), (can't take a joke), (it's just a game), (need to take things less seriously), (insert other tired excuse of your choice here).

Ok, not really, Katiahnya. You make -the- perfectly valid points.

Seriously though. Bring on the Help Island, and bring on 1.7.

Keeping newbies away from the WA, LL, *WILL* improve retention and conversion. As will taking away the experience of a confused newbie getting negged for absolutely no reason.


-- Right now, the WA acts as a "negative filter"; those who have the same attitude as the WA regulars stay; those who don't find that sort of behavior palatable, leave.

Once the initial attitude and experience changes for newbies, I think we'll see better people show up... people who want to do more than just neg and loop inane sounds.

I think we'll start to see some "asshole displacement" soon, Enabran. I think this is all a move in the right direction.

Lord knows, come 1.7, I'll be out there in the frey again like I was in 1.1; who knows who else will venture out more now that morons can't hit you with much more than a poorly structured insult.