Job Idea - Rewarding Mentors

Hi,

I wanted to get general feedback from all on an idea for a new 'job' in SL. We've had lengthly debates over the economy lately, and one thing I hear repeatedly is that the existing 'reputation bonus' is in a sense the only 'job' - and not necessarily a very fun, accurate, or predictable source of income.

Additionally, when we talk to new folks, what they often tell us is that they stayed/converted mostly because of the help they were able to get from existing users in learning SL, going to events, etc. So it seems critical to have new users get connected to 'veterans' as quickly as possible.

So let me suggest a new job, and a means of compensation - "mentoring newbies":

When a new user converts their account (decides to convert from trial to paying), we could allow them to name an existing SL resident (or not if they didn't want to) who would receive a one-time payment similar to the referral bonus (so a good chunk of L$).

This would incent meeting and creatin a good relationship with newbies, with the formal idea of having them 'choose you' to receive this bonus. I would think that one could easily exceed the amount that can be obtained at the upper limits of the rating bonus ($7K/week or so) in this way.

Does this sound interesting? It seems like something that would allow those who wanted to spend the time to make a bunch of extra money.

Thats a good idea, but its still volunteer work if your arent referred. Everyone will be asking the newbie to refer them and they may be made to feel put on the spot.

It would be easy enough to add a line to the subscription form, "Did someone help you out during the trial, would you like to reward them?" Maybe that could be multiple choice so more than one could be selected and Mentor(s) rewarded accordingly.

How about hourly L$ pay for time spent in the Welcome Area? Something along these lines maybe?

I think a L$ hourly 'salary' would be too difficult for us to manage, as it would be very difficult to review how helpful folks were being.

Yes, a salary would be difficult to monitor, just throwing out ideas. I made a revision to my post while you replied to my original entry, did you see this...


Thats a good idea, but its still volunteer work if your arent referred. Everyone will be asking the newbie to refer them and they may be made to feel put on the spot.

It would be easy enough to add a line to the subscription form, "Did someone help you out during the trial, would you like to reward them?" Maybe that could be multiple choice so more than one could be selected and Mentor(s) rewarded accordingly.

Yes, the "Name a person who helped you out" method is exactly what I am proposing.

I think one entry is simpler than mutliple (and often appropriate), but we could consider multiple.

Here is an idea. Allow players with less than a certain amount of play time to select a mentor, rather than put it on the conversion form.

then reward people daily or weekly based on how many new players have chosen them as a mentor.

I would suggest that anyone playing less than a month could select a mentor, and only players who have played for a month can be mentors.

I think this system encourages better mentorship than a one time payment, because for the 1 time on conversion thing the only real people getting help will be trial users. And while getting that first months subscription is nice from them, we do want them comming back right? Also mentors will have to continue to not only help people, but be the best helper to that person as they can only have one mentor.

All right thats a little off because lots of people get help now with no such systemin place and I know that. Just making a point I think.

I enjoy Mentoring and am very patient, but I dont really want the responsibility in being a "sole" Mentor to a resident. I am not skilled enough in a lot of aspects of the world and refer people to others frequently. I do check in on people I have helped and it is always a pleasure to see them flourishing.

It would be nice to be rewarded financially for Mentoring, but I knew it was a volunteer job when I took it. Helping out others and having their appreciation is my real reward.

I would like to see a slow day in the welcome area, with a bunch of hungry mentors circling, waiting, waiting for a newbie, then the feeding frenzy.

ROFLMAO

yea no offense but when I hear this I think of when some players followed new members around demanding they trade cards 'cause if they didnt it was considered rude.

I would not want to be pounced upon when I first got inworld. Even if I did and *thought* it was a nice welcome.. if I later learned it wasnt about being nice but rather about self gain I'd be displeased. Not exactly the first impression one wants to make.

Mentors get money for events. Just hold more in the trial area.

The more I think about it, the more I agree with MJ.

I would hate to see "newbie training" implemented as a paying job. The ones that want to do it are going to do it anyway.

I would hate to have newbies harrassed or pressured into refferring someone already in game because of kindness extended. I dont see it as a problem right now, but things change when money is involved.

mj, loki....RIGHT ON



wednesday...sometimes you make me nervous

I have to agree with Misnoer and Loki. Sounds okay on paper, but I think it will turn into something less than friendly and more like competition and begging (hey noob, pick me ME ME as your mentor). I believe that most of the mmorpg's curently out have zero compensation for their player helpers/guides/mentors. Those that enjoy volunteering and helping don't mind the lack of compensation -- it's the "thanks" payment that matters.

Teach because you enjoy and believe in the system, not because noobie_00 means $L.

Hold more events that cater to newbies.

Boso

Not only do I love this idea, but I've been doing it a lot, and being paid for it would be incredibly awesome. Great idea!

Pay people to help newbies. Great idea.

*rolls eyes*

Candie

editing to say:
Just looked at my post and realized it looks as if it's directed toward Dave's post. Just wanted to say it's not at all. Sorry, Dave, if it seemed that way.

Thanks,
Candie

Instead of a one-time referral bonus, why not hire mentors to stand around the welcome area for a block of time? Have a Linden around or script up something to make sure they're not wandering away or hiding in Gibson, and put up signs telling the trial users that questions go to the guy in the Mentor T-shirt?

What's wrong with it? Would you rather the Lindens pay people money to help you?

-=-ScHwArTz.GuIlLaUmE-=-

lol. They'd go bankrupt with as much help as I need

Good Samariton Tickets?

A linden catches someone in the act of helping out a newbie and gives em a $100 tip.

Beggers are fined 1,000 cuz thats just annoying.

But I do like the mentor idea.

Playing off the Good Samaritan Ticket idea, rather than the Lindens handing them out, I'd let each player get a "book" of them at each pay period. The tickets are "given" without the receivers knowledge in reward for anything the owner likes, good personality, nice build, helping out etc, and the tickets are totaled for a bonus at the end of each pay period.

The number of available tickets for any given week regenerates slowly, as to stop players from dumping their reserve on someone right before the next batch comes.

This idea would work in tandem with the current ratings and vote/visit booths as yet another way to foster cooperation and general friendliness. Say someone helps me figure out a problem with a script I'm working on... bingo! They get some of my tickets, say it was something I was really racking my brain over, they get more. I see a build I like -> click on it to get a "give tickets" option in the pie menu, help a Noobi, bingo more tickets etc etc.

The major plus of this over simple ratings is once I rate someone all's done and done, while with the tickets, I can keep giving positive reinforcement over and over.

leP i like the idea. im sure there are gonna be plenty of "the problem with this..." posts, but it haw real possabilities

imho

An interesting design idea worthy of a separate post. Lep do you want to do that?

That is a very interesting idea.

Ama brought up an interesting idea of having different types of rating systems for different activities. This would seem to be a good way to do one.

I'd like to see it set up in a way so the person recieving the tickets wouldn't find out till they got there weekly report though.

I really like this idea. This way everyone will know that there are Mentors in the Welcome area and additionally, it will help hold down the numbers of Mentors so the new people don’t feel overwhelmed by 10 Mentors answering the same question. As we all know, there is usually more than one way to do just about everything in SL, and all this info hitting a new person at once can be really confusing and overwhelming.

-TK

agreed. Limiting the numbers of mentors "on" is a good idea. Im sure helpful members will hang too so there should always be help when its needed.

I'm all for rewarding people but I guess it saddens me a bit to see the transition since it used to always just be a "pay it forward" part of our community. People helped me when I was new just cause they wanted to. I did since it was so great I wanted new people to have that same experience. When ppl told me they felt bad taking my time I'd just tell them, no problem and that it wouldnt be too long before THEY were helping new folks... and you know what? They did.

Let me say again Im not against rewarding people. I'm sure theres folks who will still help just because. I just dont want to see the day where ppl tell new folks to go find a paid mentor to get help.

I think I ought to point out that Loki in particular, as well as a lot of the other mentors - has been out there, even though we DO NOT get ratings from the trial members. I personally like to meet and help new residents and take a little heat off the liasons, who often have their head spinning by the end of a shift. I don't know if being paid is merited, but CONVERSELY, if we are out meeting and greeting, we obviously can't be home in our wizard's tower, creating scripts and building great stuff that will get voted on.
One idea that comes to mind is the specialized mentor. I am always getting hit with scripting and technical computer related questions. If we had just a few more talented scripters helping the newbs, I wouldnt have to refer all the questions to Water and Chris Omega who are always willing to help with a script without being surly or charging thousands of lindendollars.