The Helping H.A.N.D. Noobie Yellow Pages

Helping All Newcomers Directory ~ A SecondLife "yellow pages" for Noobies

If you have a service that is specifically for helping out Noobies I have created a Directory
of sorts that will help consolidate everything, and make for easier access for everyone.

Right now its in the form of a notecard and a Notepad on my hard drive.

But don't let that stop you from giving me your information, because the eventual directory will be wonderfully robust and pretty cool.

No time like the present, so I'm starting to gather listings while this is being tweeked and
upgraded.

The following is a preliminary list of the kinds of services that I'm looking for. Any additions, suggestions, and constructive critizisms are welcome.

If you have a freebie and/or one dollar store.
Examples:
Yadni's Junkyard, GNU one dollar stores

If you have a venue thats dedicated to helping, supporting, welcoming and educating new folks.
Examples:
The Learning Center, The Library of Primitives, The Shelter

I am also going to be listing individuals.
Examples:
*If you teach SL Basics classes (Building, Scripting, Texturing, Inventory, UI etc) on a regular basis.
*If you hold Q&A sessions, noobie show & tells, new designer fashion shows etc on a regular basis.
(By regular basis I mean at LEAST once a week every week if not more).
*If you are the founder of a group that helps, educates and supports and/or has services for new people
EXamples:
Awakening Avatars
New Citizens Inc
Support a Newbie Foundation
TigerTor Tenants

This is how you get listed in this Directory:
*Drop me a notecard to my inventory titled: HAND Listing <your full name here>
*Information for the body of the notecard should include the name of your venue, a brief (1-5 sentences) description of what your service has to offer for Noobies.
*Include a landmark to your venue location

*In the case of an individual listing, include the subjects of your class(es)/event(s), and the days and times that you regulary hold them along with the brief description.

*If you are a group founder please list the name of your group, the charter, and up to three other contacts (full names) from the group besides yourself.

Optional but encouraged: A logo texture that represents your service (copy/mod).

If you know of someone who qualifies for this directory and who doesn't read the forums, please have them IM me inworld and I'll give them the information they need

The idea is to eventually have this directory be given out at the Welcome Area, Noobie classes and events, posted on these forums and dispensed at each venue listed. I'd love for the Mentors and Liason groups to give this out as well.

The directory will be updated weekly initially, then bi-weekly and then monthly once we have all(!) the resources available listed.

I'm pretty sure there are other noobie directories out there, I'm all for information exchange and totally open for a helping hand myself in this endeavor.

It's laudable that you are doing this.

It's great, it's grand, and I will send you a card about my classes on tier/real estate/etc.

But do not ask to merchandise to newbies and be funnelled and referred by Lindens and mentors to newbies as they arrive.

The Lindens go to a great deal of trouble to keep the WA free of that kind of clutter, even helpful clutter becuse it unfairly puts at an advantage whoever gets to the newbie.

Have an event like "The Shelter" dances on your land, distribute these yellow pages, etc.

But don't hijack the game company's portral for news, even under the colour of "helping". It's not fair, to all the people who will NOT get on your list, for whatever reason.

Agreed.

This is pure example of techi wiki mindset.

Basically, your idea in helping new users is to bombard them with information.

That's not what new users need. What they need is clarity, simplfication. They need an immediate reason to go somewhere and do something and say:

"man I gotta relog tomorrow!"

They don't need a reason to pour through endless amounts of text trying to pick from a dizzying array of options.

Damn, Prok and Blaze beat me.

TO HELL WITH YOU BRACE!

Do you guys really have nothing better to do than to try to tear down other peoples ideas to make yourself more important? You can't win the internet no matter how hard you try.

Another way of looking at it is a desire to help good and smart people find more productive ways to spend their time.

Let's face it - someone is going to be advertising to noobs in the welcome area. Under these circumstances, I'd rather that someone be Brace.

Great Job, Brace

Blaze does have a point that too much information could be overwhelming - but I think if you found a way to organize it in an easy way - you'll retain its usefulness, and wont intimidate anyone.

I think this is awesome - because there are common newbie questions I get asked I can't always easily answer, such as:

-How do I make money/Where do I find a job?
-I don't have any/much money - where can I rent a home?
-What else is there to do besides dance/clubs?
-Where are the classes/How do I build/script/make stuff?
-Where can I find more people like me?
-Who can help me with X?

Being able to direct new folks to Brace's directory - or even use it myself to reccomend ideas to others - is great as far as I'm concerned

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for all your interesting replies

I'm very well aware of the bombardment that Noobies experience at the Welcome Area. I spend many hours a week there.

I've had to "rescue" a few myself by offering to them to come take a walk with me after hearing them repeatedly say they were on input and sensory overload.

My directory need not be given out at the WA, tho I think it would be helpful. If you have ever spent any time greeting and helping to answer questions there, you know there is flow to how that can go. Most people use common sense when handing things out to Noobies.

Personally, I always ask first. "Would you like a folder of helpful notecards?" or "May I give some free clothes?" or "May I give you a folder with landmarks to the kinds of places you said you wanted to go?" That sort of thing.

I've also been known to throw noobie events like the Shelter does. Threw one just this past weekend in fact, so thanks Prok, I never thot of that idea. It was clearly stated in my original post, that this directory would be given out at those types of events

Techi-wiki whatever - this is simply a way to consolidate all the new folks helper services out there. I THINK a lot people WANT to help new people. There are a few extant directories for various other services in SL already. Nothing wrong with those, and there is nothing wrong with this idea either.

The only reason I mentioned the LL groups (Mentors, Liasions etc) was simply because, like many members of mine and other noobie helper groups that I mentioned as well: they spend a lot of time helping newer residents, and spend time at the welcome area. (you know, where the Noobies are).

Bonnie and Clyde were once asked why they robbed banks. They answered: cuz thats where the money is. Not a great analogy but you get the idea. I'll be happy to give the directory to recluses who never clap eyes on a single new person ever, but that defeats the purpose wouldn't you think?

There is no nefarious plot here. I'm a very direct person. In a nutshell: This is an idea to consolidate all the wide-spread Noobie helper services into one notecard that you can give out whenever, wherever and to whoever.

Occam's Razor. When you hear hoofbeats think horses not zebras. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar etc and so forth.

This isnt an advertizing opportunity cuz I have nothing to sell. If you want to sell things to Noobies other than one dollar items you won't be listed in this directory.

Every listing submitted will be checked out carefully. The directory will be simple, organized, user/noobie friendly and very easy to grab the specific information that one is looking for.

TY to those who actually read my original post
I know Prok, its surprising to find a person that actually has no devious plan going on behind their actions.
I was new once.
I was helped a LOT, and as a consequence had a great experience and a good start here in SL.
I want to pay it foward.
This directory is part of that machiavellian secret bad bad plan I have to do just that.
Check my profile picks and group lists for all the other horrid things I have planned for Noobies.

I'm sure you are a wonderful person and no doubt I'll get called out here, but I think introducing new users only to stores that sell things for 1$ is absolutely the worst idea possible.

A big part of the techi wiki that I didn't mention is this race for the bottom. Everything should be free and shared as if it were free.

Unfortunately, what this means, is that what we all do here is basically worthless as compared to things that are not free.

Brand newbies have L$250 to start. L$1 items will introduce them to a variety of things that can be had in world without breaking their bank. Eventually they will discontinue using cheap newbie freebie stuff and move up to vendors that are selling wares they desire. The L$1 arguement just doesnt hold water, no matter how many times it is brought up.

Introducing specific stores in a newbie help guide at the Welcome Area is a touchy subject though. That is close to bordering on advertising, which is not permitted down there. My personal policy on this subject (while in the Welcome Area) is to be generic as possible. Instead of telling people where to go, I explain how to use FIND to locate things of interest. The only place I suggest by name is the Ivory Tower Library, which only offers instruction and has nothing for sale.

I will recommend places of personal preferences to new people in IM, if they ask in IM.

Yeah, what he said. I don't know what's with you people. We don't have a lending feature like they do in There, so how the hell are noobies supposed to dip their toe in the great content SL has to offer without instantly investing a wad of RL money into GOM and such?
Stop whining about how there should be something utterly amazing to make them wanna come back and keep coming back. Be constructive. Go make it, or hire people to do it for you.

Lets get something strait, blaze.


One person decides where I spend my time. Me.

The same goes for everyone else.

You don't get to decide. You could like to decide, you could suggest, but ultimatly it's not your buiesness where other people spend their time.

As for your tirade against 1$ and free items...

When I started playing this game, the freebies kinda sucked. There were the linden freebies, and then boxes of crap that mostly was useless and stupid, like sparklers. Everything I saw cost an arm and a leg. My first few weeks basicly sucked until I saved up enough money to do anything. It was NOT an experience compelling me to log on again and again. The only reason I did was because a person I trust said the game was worth it. Turned out they were right, eventually. But it sucked at first. There wasn't the huge wealth of help for new players back then; some crappy freebies, and a few dedicacted but overworked mentors was about the extent of it.

I didn't stay for the content creation tools - When I first came here, I couldn't create jack. I had no experience or talent as a modeler, texture artist, scripter, you name it. Now I'm decent-to-pretty-darn-good at all of those things, depending on which you refer to. I sure as HELL didn't stay for the socializing; hanging out in an ugly club with random new people while my machine overheated and bogged down isn't an improvement sure didn't beat hanging out in IRC or FurryMUCK with my friends. Now those things are what I stay for, but they sure weren't to begin with.

I stayed because a few days into the game someone gave me a decent plane - I think it mighta been Hawk Statosky - and I fell in love with the game. I couldn't have afforded it; my palty sum I got for being born was spent on, of all things, a linden freebie that someone had marked for sale (You can see why that is a particular hot button topic of mine).

Make of that what you will.

"whining"?

Give the deragatory language a rest. You just make yourself look dumb when that's the best you can resort to.

Chip has stated that people get this mentality that they don't have to pay for things. I believe it is places like the 1$ store that create that mentality.

Yes, I forgot to mention, that is completely true of the mindset, the race to show off who can provide the more free and the more helpful thing, always with one's own vanity and sense of self-satisfaction as the guiding light.

There are just too many free things for newbies, and too many free things that are not modifiable, and too many free things merely leading to overpriced expensive things, and too many free things that sap newbie initiative and kill the inter-newbie market, and too many people with their hands out to grab newbies as they come in the door.

I'm glad for that reminder that advertising in the WA, even under the guise of providing 'newbie services' is not allowed.

Absolutely.

And if you took 2 seconds from your feted inner forum escapades to actually get to know Brace, you'd know she's not one of them.

There are a lot of people around to help new people out, but there is not "far too many". If you spend any real time in the Welcome Area, you will see there is actually a shortage of people offering no strings attached help.

Well, the key is offer some help without the philosophy.

For example, answering questions about how to customize your avatar, how to use the "events" button and the "find" button are great, how to use animations and other things inherent in the client is a very admirable service, but telling users where to actually go steps over a line that should not be crossed if you want to say you're 'just helping newbies'.

Otherwise, it kind of reminds me of the JW's that come to my door. Oh, they want to help you alright..

For example, if I opened 15 free shops all across LL would you include them all in SL? What if I plastered all sorts of signs around them for advertising? Who exactly gets to be in this list and who doesn't? Your techi wiki friends or absolutely anyone?

It's a process which is open to a lot of abuse.

It doesn't matter how nice Brace is. The world is full of nice people. On Brace's card are dozens of people offering services who might NOT be nice, and one NOT NICE thing they do is use the freebie on a looped circuit sponsored by Lindens to rope newbies into making an expensive high-end purchase. No thanks.

yes. it's important that you never, ever, ever offer a newbie (or anyone else!) an opinion of your own. and for gods sake don't ever make a recommendation or mention people or content you like! you might entirely color their SL experience forever, because obviously newbies don't have minds of their own.

So obviously the very, very best thing you can do for a newbie is advise them to steer well clear of the forums, lest they read a post by Prokofy and Blaze and have their entire SL experience distorted.

Btw, WHY hasn't anyone started a thread called 'SL must move beyond the Prokofy and Blaze mindset?'. I'm genuinely disappointed

Also a reminder that my directory idea was not and is not specifically created for the WA.

90% of the freebies I recieved were completely modifiable, and the little bit of scripting that I understand (supplemented with a basic scripting class) came from tearing those neat things apart and learning what makes them work.

I wonder what you think it is that folks do when they help out new people? We speak to them, answer their questions, help them learn how to use the UI to find the things they are looking for etc. I'm not sure what is meant by "grabbing newbies as they come in the door".

If I am sitting at the WA and someone approaches me and says "hello I took a building class yesterday but I'm still having problems with x, y or z"
Am I "grabbing them" if I then take them to the nearby new users builder area and go step by step with them over the things they are having problems with?

If I am hanging out somewhere and a new person comes up and asks me, "I'd love to get out of these new person clothes, but I can't afford anything, what can I do?"
Am I "grabbing them" if I then walk them through the process of creating their own clothes in appearance mode, and/or hand them a folder of clothes free of charge?

You'd have to be BLIND not to realize that things in SL cost money. The idea that giving broke new folks a break during the first few weeks in here, gives them the idea that everything is free is perfectly rediculous.

One of the most constant things I hear from new residents, day in and day out is how expensive everything is, and how they can't afford to buy anything. Believe me they KNOW all about it. Tossing a few freebies here and there and having 1 dollar items available makes no dent whatsoever in that perception.

I see no reason why a person can't get some clothes to wear for free, learn how to make their own or have fun items to mess around with for free while they are just starting out. As Loki stated, yes, you DO move on from that stage of things as your circle of knowledge expands.

And I'll thank you NOT to lay your ideas of why you think I'm doing what I do. I've already stated why. I don't care if you think I'm wonderful and all that. That's on you, not me. And this isn't about me, other than my desire to give something back.

If someone else wants to step in and do this directory I don't care. As long as it gets done. That's the important thing. Thank you for the encouraging IMs and listings

Ok just read this and I would just like to say...

Blaze really REALLY overuses the word Derogatory... so

BLAZE THIS IS FOR YOU

Derogatory
adjective
Definition: offensive
Synonyms: aspersing, belittling, calumnious, censorious, contumelious, critical, damaging, decrying, defamatory, degrading, demeaning, deprecatory, depreciative, despiteful, detracting, discreditable, disdainful, dishonoring, disparaging, fault-finding, humiliating, injurious, malevolent, malicious, maligning, minimizing, opprobrious, reproachful, sarcastic, scornful, slanderous, slighting, spiteful, uncomplimentary, unfavorable, unflattering, vilifying

Antonyms: appreciative, approving, complimentary, flattering, praising

Source: Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.1.1)
Copyright © 2005 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.


OH... and wtg Brace

Brace good for you!

I've seen Brace at the welcome area many times patiently assisting both newbies and others, myself included.

Brace,

I think this is a fantastic idea and if you think it would be helpful, I'll drop off a copy of the note card that I have been giving out and you can perhaps cross check it with your yellow pages. I would really appreciate it if you would drop off a copy of your yellowpages to me or tell me where I can pick one up so that I can hand it out to new people.

Kudos to you and all the work you put into this!

Rose

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