Live Help or Dead Disservice?

I love Amy cause I hate her so much. So very much. Or maybe I hate her because I love her so much.

I'm glad you noted he was out of line while wearing the noble tag of your honourable tribe, Lektor. This is real progress and goes a long way to restoring my faith in the institution.

Maybe it's because I had 2 Live Helpers that went sour on me like this that I developed a bit of an "attitude".

I didn't plop you all in the little 5 x 5 cube. Go back and read paragraph one. I have had mainly good experiences with Live Help.

What I would like to see happen is for Live Help to disclipline its own ranks. To interject some note of courtesy and consideration. To tell Live Helpers in some kind of orientation session that you know, giving unsolicitied and arrogant and nasty comments like "hah! you're a joke!" to players is NOT APPROPRIATE. Not while you're on duty, and frankly, wearing that kind of tag in the community at large, not ever, if you want the institution to have respect.

The fact that he could come into Live Help and behave this way has me really troubled. It shows a hardcore and ingrained attitude of impunity. I'm not at all surprised that other Live Helpers are rushing to "defend the uniform" here in this latest episode.

Live Help or Dead Disservice?

I checked my list, and you're not on it. However, I do have an opening on my list. If you'd like to interview for that spot, I've just got a few questions to be answered before I can start hating you.

1. What have you done to offend me, and why should I hate you?
2. If I personally insult you, do you a) insult me back, b) accuse me of being childish, c) leave world, d) pecan pie
3. A live helper takes the 9:00 AM train to downtown Walla Walla, and needs to be there at 3:00 PM. The distance to be traversed is 300 miles. How fast must the train travel, if the conductor wishes to arrive on time?
4. Fill in the blank: _________ baron

I thank you ahead of time, and hope that you respond in a timely manner. Otherwise, I may offer the position to someone else.

It has me troubled as well however, it is out of our sphere to perform the in ranks discipline you speak of. I submitted my application over 2 months ago and was just accepted. I'm not sure what the Linden review is prior to acceptance but feel that it is probably just the normal if you're not a bad dude you get in eventually. You ran into a bad apple but your behaviour and posture here against the LH team as a whole is not much better. If you feel you have been abused, by all means file a report and the Lindens will respond I assure you. They value the LH program highly and will not take lightly to one who has tainted the group. My .02 and I'm done. Good day.

1. eat your house
2.D
3.Fudge
4.lesbian

The term "content baron" was invented by some other player, forget the name, started with an E, somebody on a rant somewhere here. I'm just using it with arch, wry, abandon : )

And I don't mean by "baronry" that they RESELL but that they lord it over others because they make content that others are compelled to buy at a high price.

But let them. Like land barons, I have no quarrell with them. I do ask them to realize they have lots of new CUSTOMERS in their game, people with a DIFFERENT game that intersect with them only in the marketplace, and I ask them to be MORE CONSIDERATE and LESS CONDESCENDING.

I don't wear "panties".

And I could care less about the ratings thingie being $37 instead of $75. Big deal. Geez, I wouldn't count on that to make my way in the game. You get to make assumptions and lay at my doorstep all your predjucies about "newbies" who "get their knickers in a twist" about the stipend thingie? Give me a break. Keep talking. You're exposing yourself. It's all therapeutic. The record stands.

Very impressive answers. Very impressive, indeed. Unfortunately, I'm not looking for a lesbian baron at this time. However, I wish you luck in your future endeavours.

A list of people to um hate? OK, here goes:

1. Nothing, but it's ok to hate me. You love Big Brother. You hate Prokofy Neva. Go ahead, say it a few times, but be sure to stress the SECOND syllable of my name. Pro-KOF-y. Thank you.
2. No, I say you're rubber, I'm glue, whatever you say, bounces off me, sticks to you. End story.
3. 12,000 FPS.
4. Barren

NO!!!!!!!!!!!! *cry*

No. If it had been a Linden, certainly, that argument would hold water, but this is a volunteer you're complaining about, little more than the parent who likes to play crossing guard for the children on the way to school, despite the fact she doesn't get paid for it.

Prokofy,

God help me, but in a way I am agreeing with you, but only one narrow point. I do think there needs to be some standards and training regarding Live Help. I used it the other day actually to ask a question about the distribution of money from a group land sale, and I was surprised at the rude answer I immediately got from a live helper, which was look in the wiki followed by a cut and paste of the URL. Whee, I can look for the wiki myself. Thankfully Lecktor and Nova Linden both answered as well and provided assistance. When I was in Live Help the first time around, I saw the same thing - I would see the way certain people would reply, and I was shocked. Common sense and courtesy both are not so common it seems.

I do think however that it is unfair of you to place any of this on Live Help, even if he was wearing the title. When you are working in live help, you don't sit around idly waiting for IMs. You continue to do things, and take the time to answer questions when you receive them. To get the questions, you have to be active in the group - it was a change they made this time around, since the first time we were deluged with IMs all the time because we were always "on duty". A jerk is a jerk, and not representative of a group. I don't know why you seem to have so much trouble separating the individual, and instead always try to indict the group, but it is quite annoying and very apparent in all of your posts.

Being the subject of the last Live Help "blow-up-thread" in the forums, all I can do is be sad.

Many Live Helpers give up their time in SL to "try" and help out others who are calling for help from Live Help. They are doing the best that they can to help out those in need. Have a little patience as they have to have a lot of patience to help those in need. It's not easy being hit with several Live Help requests at once, and not everyone is versed in all of the ins-and-outs of SL. They are trying to help. And, of course there will be a few bad apples. I can be a bad apple sometimes, as can everyone else.

We are all in this Second Life experiment together.

I don't use Live Help that often and I have found it to be a mixed bag of tasty trail mix crossed with "?!?". Here's why:

The help you're getting on there depends very much on the individual(s) providing the info.

There are times, especially in the wee hours (perspective from Lindentime), where one person or no one is on. And if you've got scripting questions but the only people on happen to specialize in other areas, then you will have to be patient for the answers you seek.

I appreciate volunteering with a good heart, but answers that are not only unhelpful, but rude, are certainly not welcome in my book. It only makes Live Help less... uh, helpful.

I am friends with a number of the fine individuals who are either currently or previously were on Live Help, and in fact, am coupled with one of them now. It got to the point where I became comfortable enough to stop asking on LH, and just went to them directly. I get to know where each person's talents lay, and while I don't burden them with tech questions to the max in our "hanging out time", I am preferentially more comfortable with asking someone for assistance face-to-face inworld.

That being said, I am EXTREMELY grateful for all the help I have gotten. I would not be where I am today were it not for my SL mentors.

What if that off-duty cop goes and insults a guy in public? Are all cops then bad? Are all cops then part of some coddled segment of the populace? Should we start blathering about them on the streetcorner? Maybe start a riot!
I think that the phrase "On Call" is more befitting. That's what spin is all about though right? Making something sound as bad as is needed.

Troubleshooting? I was unaware that Live Helpers had troubleshooting duties unless they pertain directly to a call. Maybe I am wrong.

You are blowing what he said so far out of proportion, responding with profanities, generalizing once again, and obsessing with avatar birthdates again. Was what he did appropriate? No. Does it warrant this pathetic thread?? No. But that's not what this is all about is it? This was just a situation that cropped up and you immediately saw a "reason" to come to the forums and and further promote your position that there is some sort of aristocrat/proletariat dynamic within SL.

Report him. Contact a Linden. Email LL. Phone LL. Quit looking for excuses to incite class wars.

I have never heard that if you removed the names you could post IMs, please direct me to that information.

The Lindens don't help. Live Help doesn't help. The fuck you hedonists control the game and are a serious OBSTACLE (yep, this guy shut down everything that Prokofy was doing that day, with 2 minutes of awkward discourse, even though Prokofy was obviously licking his chops at the thought of the developing situation). You rant and rave at least once a week about perceived victimization. Sounds like you don't much like SL. Why are you torturing yourself?

You're gonna give yourself a heart attack. I can almost feel and hear you mashing your keyboard.

* applause for Nolan *

I'm going to disagree with you on that one. He started a conversation with you, the fact he had his live helper tag on didn't mean he was interacting with you on an 'official' matter... In fact I thought he wasn't in the slightest bit rude at all in his conversation, it more seems like he thought your land wasn't worth as much as you set its price to, and made a remark to that effect... I can't read the log again from here but it doesn't look like he had much to say about it after the fact.

Instead, you went off on a tirade about anti-Live Help to him, and he was as cordial as possible in such a situation... Your comments (at least in this situation) seemed pretty pointed and garnered to bring an irritated remark back from him to fuel your frustration at the time. And he seemed very cordial through the rest of the encounter, including to point out he's not magic, he's not a linden, he's just another player who helps people with his free time.

And just because he's Live Help doesn't mean he has to know all the answers, or understand land trading, the land market, tier fees, just means he has a set of questions he is good at helping people through and tries to help out as he can.

Read the first paragraph of my first post. I'm not indicting the group Live Help.

What I am indicting is that individual. AND I'm using that incident, and describing it here which is always like shouting on a megaphone in a windstorm, because it really is indicative of an attitude pervasive among players who are 1) old 2) content providers or tekkies 3) carrying a chip on their shoulder THIS BIG about "their game" not being what they think/wish/imagine it to be, namely, a tekkie wiki where everything costs $0 or $1 including land; 4) suffering from know-it-all hectoring personalities that occasion them to go around lording it over others and 5) taking enjoyment in other's misfortune.

Now, do all old players fit all 5 of those categories? No. Do some new players fit 3 of those categories? Of course. It's a group, it's a category, that is made up with those who exhibit those features. Are they nice people in RL? Maybe. Are they decent upstanding citizens of SL most of the time? Mainly. But some of the time, or maybe all of the time, they exhibit those unfortunate traits which are major obstacles to the game.

I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness. Cut off my head if you will. But you cannot run the metaverse like a 'small town where all the new people are 'from away' as someone memorably put it here in another thread. It's the metaverse, for God's sake, and that's not a hell of a lot different than the regular meat-iverse and marketplace. Be decent to your customers, for God's sake.

Blah blah blah - the same old player/content provider/wiki bullshit song and dance that you do every time - and it is no more effective here than anywhere else. You are not a voice crying in the wildnerness, you are more akin to the little boy who cried wolf. You make much ado about absolutely nothing, and always somehow manage to tie it to this pervasive attitude that you claim to see. The only omnipresent attitude is your own.

If you were so interested in commenting on the individual, you would not have raised Live Help and all, and just talked about this asshole who came to you and dared to say your land was overpriced. You chose your thread title, and your repeated mentions of Live Help, being on duty, etc... as a specific indictment of Live Help.

I find it ironic you're saying this given

a) the log you posted
b) the title of this thread.

Nolan, what would you do without me? At least once a day, you need to sharpen your already considerable rhetorical skills : )

Well, in fact, when one cop does that, or one fireman does that, the public becomes alarmed. They ask their supervisors to do more training or discipline. They understand that something is awry when a copy feels A SENSE OF IMPUNITY that he can behave that way and abuse the power of office. Yes, we should definitely "start blathering" when people in positions of authority misbehave. Absolutely!

You see, a thing like Live Help is a contract. It requires a social agreement, a trust.
A Live Helper violates the public trust when he uses his office as a platform to arrogate himself over others. If he casually steps out of office and misbehaves, that still counts, because he is expected to comport himself when wearing the company uniform in a certain manner specifici to that live, helping role.

What kind of help is it to come over to someone relatively new and say "What an idiot you are, setting that price on your land, huh, are you a joke? Let me show you how it's done."

It doesn't matter if that person isn't technically in his Live Help capacity at that moment. He is in his older/mentor/knowledgeable capacity that GOT him his Live Help status IN THE FIRST PLACE and THAT is what my point is all about! THAT HE THINKS HE'S ALL THAT.
And that the Lindens pick the "all that" person for LIVE HELP without realizing that much more has to go into it -- training, job descriptions, and some kind of rules of conduct.

Indeed, having other players play the wizards or mentors or gatekeepers in a game is a leftover of geekie culture from offline games and other online games and really, has no place in a broader metaverse. There should be paid professionals who really serve properly under a set of job guidelines.

Really, it's that sense of impunity that gets me. He's supposed to be older, wider, more tekkie, more knowledgeable, nay, the gate-keeper to the secrets dispensed by LIVE HELP.

Yet...he's a fucktard. He doesn't practice what he preaches for one, because he wants freedom of expression for himself, but he doesn't realize that placing the text of a price on your land in this game is perhaps among the highest forms of freedom of expression there is in the game. It represents the freedom of the market and the freedom of the owner that people in other countries die fighting for even if they take it for granted in America.

Furthermore, he gives out misinformation, belying the vaunted title of LIVE HELPER because he's not an UPTODATE HELPER no matter how LIVE he might be.

*shoots milk out her nose*

bottom line guy, you were 10 times more of a jerk than this LH guy in your very first post and now we're on page 5-6 of you beating your scrawny chest and comparing yourself to John the Baptist just cause some guy said "you're charging that? ha!" give it up already.

I know it must hurt or perplex to hear the same old song and dance each time. And I know you don't buy it, and you don't see it, because your wagons are pulled firmly in a circle.

You have to ask what I would get from taking a public position like this. Absolutely nothing. If anything, it costs friends and reputation and influence in a game that is only about friends and influence at the end of the day and not much else.

But I do feel I'm right, and yes, the only omnipresent attitude is my own, because that's something I can claim. It takes nothing away from you, so you can't begrudge me of it.

You may laugh, you may put on your Prokofy asshat, but in the dark night of your soul, as you lie awake sleepless not even loggin into SL, you will wonder: am I being good to my customers? Why don't I have more of them? Could it be that I'm an arrogant asshole?

I must be missing something. How is an individual (live helper or not) making a comment that he feels your land is overpriced somehow a crime against humanity? I really don't see what the issue is here. Maybe it was a little snarky, but so what? This is a very montainous molehill you've got going here.

heheh glad to see that at least some Biblical allusions aren't lost on the generally Godless youth of America.