What do you do on Help Island?

I am wondering how people handle greeting new users on Help Island or the Orientation Islands and how different volunteers spend their time while on Help Island or the Orientation islands.

I have found that saying hello, welcome, etc. most often produces no response from people who have just entered and are still on O.I.

I just tried starting IMs with a bunch of people and only got one response.

Inviting them into a group like NCI seems to work ok, but it is tedious and I can't remember their names ten seconds after inviting them.

Trading friendships gets response but then you get all these people in your friends list who aren't really anything but perfect strangers, some of who might be grid crashers or alts being used for scams of some sort.

Standing around in Help Island waiting gets boring.

If they are having severe technical problems they may well quit and not come back because they never found the people waiting to help them.

Live Help doesn't seem to offer any response at all, with some frequency.

Do you use gestures to emit pre-written messages?

Do you drop them a notecard?

I generally use the notecard method. I like to wait until they are at the exit area and clearly looking around trying to figure out what to do next. I avoid dropping a notecard on someone who is in appearance mode or still working their way through OI.

That said, I liked the suggestion in another thread about making the "exit" for all OI's on Help Island. I would like to see a "where am I" notecard pop up when a new user crosses into Help Island that tells them what HI is about and how to exit to the mainland from HI.

I take a softly, softly approach. I fly over the OIs regularly to see who's coming in and how they're getting on but I don't interfere with what is a precious time when concentration is most needed. I sometimes sit in various parts of HI but as often as not I'm walking or flying about and landing somewhere near to newbies. I let them see me and then generally say 'Hello' and wave. I then often ask something simple like 'How are you?' or 'Need any help?'.

After that it all depends on the response. I don't attempt to give them all the instruction they could use because a) they don't take it in and b) most of them just want to get out there and play

I often offer friendship so they know they can find me if they get stuck out in the world, and it's a handy way of introducing them to the map while on HI. I play hide-and-seek sometimes depending on the person

I've started dropping the help manual - after telling them that's what I'm going to do. I don't drop clothes on them just yet because I haven't finished the long job of weeding out some of the frankly disgusting rubbish that's in the freebie boxes.

That's my general approach anyway. I know we all have our own style but it suits me

My Bad. I didn't realize this was the V&E forum until I posted. I read the OP off the New post search

I think you may have Help Island confused with the Weloome Area. Help Island opened November 16th of 2005, not long enough ago for "I used to drop by about once a month" to apply.

Yup, I thought you were talking about the help area.

I generally just say "Hi" and let them know they can ask me any questions they may have.

Personally, I'm glad I wasn't assaulted by IM's, group invitations, or people trying to help when I arrived on Orientation Island. I had the island all to myself, with a chance to explore it and do everything at my own pace. I wasn't rushing to get through it or anything because I actually thought it was SL. I mean, I didn't realize that SL would be a large community of people at the time.

I suppose some people who arrive at O.I. are alts, not needing help. Others have friends who are already residents and who may be chatting via offline IM, telling the new resident what to do. Others may be reading the notecards or building an avatar. I was on the island for maybe an hour myself, walking over every inch of the isle to ensure I wouldn't miss anything - sorta liking walking along the original DOOM walls, repeatedly clicking to find the hidden areas.

OMG !!!! I did the same thing hehehe

Apparently there is is a problem with people leaving and never coming back.

Among other reasons for this, some people are trying to use low spec equipment and have horrible performance. They might judge the problem to a lousy program and quit, since their is no shortage of amusing things to do on the internet that do work fine on low end equipment.

In other cases, the person who just entered is not a gung ho computer user but is one of the many who are afraid of their computers and would like to have their hand held during the starting process.

I think this quit in the first few minutes problem was one reason for creating Help Island, Help Island Radio, and whatever else they have in store.

So to you, if I read you right, Help Island and it's volunteers is not just a waste of resources but actually of negative value, more likely to annoy people than retain potential customers, and should be scrapped, or at least kick the volunteers off of it.

I wasn't asking what the new users are doing, rather what the volunteers do when they are there.

If I remember correctly, you, like me, have trouble reading some web pages owing to eye troubles. If you haven't tried the Opera web browser, you might want to give it a try. It has a zoom function that works better than Firefox or IE. Plus in has built in text to speech that can be useful.

I took DoteDote's comment to refer to OI not HI.

Help Island was created because people quit while on Orientation Island.

If people trying to help is going to bother you on OI I would think it bother you next door as well.

IF they quit before they get to HI then HI and the volunteers there are a waste, aren't they?

I was asking what the volunteers are doing with their time while they are there.

Is everyone busily chatting away with friends in IMs? Writing scripts? Looking at the forums on another machine, like I am?

Not exactly, but you have a good memory. I have no eyesight trouble, especially while at work when I do the majority of my forum posting. Work is boring between 7 & 10pm. However, I used to have a problem reading nearly any text within SL itself. That was remedied by this thread: /54/79/76041/1.html.

I don't agree that people who want to be left in peace on OI won't want help on HI afterwards. We know some do. I also thought the problem was not that people quit from OI but went straight into the hellmouth that is the WA.

I've already explained what I think people need; no point in me repeating it.

How do you know the people who want help when they reach Help Island didn't want help while they were on Orientation Island? Do new users say "Boy, I sure am glad I was left alone over there on Orientation Island, but now that I'm here on Help Island, I want some help."?

Suez, what do you do when you are on the Help place? You must not be real happy with it or you wouldn't be asking these questions.


I wish I could at least get to see what is like there. Maybe someone could make a flying around video like that Jupiiter planets thing.

I scan the orientation islands periodically. I try not to interfere with folks there. There are scripted stations. Not much point to having them if we're going to meddle. That said, if I see someone having obvious trouble (trying to walk through solid objects, or sliding off down embankments), I'll check to see if they're having technical trouble and see what I can do.

At the final station I don't have a lot of luck convincing people I'm not a bot. As a bot, they don't have a lot of interest in talking to me much. No, claiming I'm not a bot doesn't work. Tried that.

Still, anyone who comes down to the island, I try to make sure they get a card full of helpful info and landmarks, if nothing else. I try to give people a friendly greeting, and ask them a question ("Are you doing alright so far?". People are more likely to answer a question than respond to a greeting.

And I like to just chat. People only put up with so much of the Q&A model normally. Many more people like to have a good chat, and lots of questions get asked and answered. You can cover virtually every topic in SL during a friendly chat, and people get better socialised. You can also make good friends that way too.

Not everyone's up for that. I try not to pester people who don't respond (though I may try a couple times - they might not have noticed me speak at first). Everyone learns in their own way and their own style. There is no single approach that works optimally, otherwise we'd just script it into Orientation Isle and have done.

And yes, I've got a notecard with a lot of common answers, some free clothes and notecards and landmarks embedded in it.

I also use gestures that are prescripted with some of the statements or answers I find myself typing most frequently, and tweak them when I find situations where they are less than clear.

I try to keep some personal notations on the newbie's profile, but as it turns out, I'm not so great at remembering to do that.

EDIT: Dropped a vowel. It rolled under the fridge and got stuck, and I didn't notice it at first.

when i get a greet request i send this
hello and welcome to sl hope u enjoy it, anything u need help with or any questions u have feel free to messege me and i will be glad to help, no question is dumb or silly cant learn if we dont ask, and yes im a real person click on the im button bottom of the screen to reply to me or send me a messege


seems to work for me most write me when they log on or soon after

I just do my think there when there is help needed. I ty to stop by as offen s possible.

If you are go to Help Island and you are the only volunteer there, and there are no new users on Help Island, what do you do while waiting for a new user to arrive?

As a greeter you are getting this greet request from someone who picked you, and you don't have to be on Help Island to get such a greet request, correct?

It took exposure to OI and HI to really see that some citizens come in having trouble walking and talking, while others grill you for how to make RL money, and after you give then some notecards will ask "can I sell this".

I try to be there to say "Hi and welcome to second life noIamNotaBotTY"

(the last part being a growing necessity )

Each person is different, I'd like to think that all are on Help Island for just that.

I do scan the WA for "lost" noobs and I've found many wondering "what is this money for" and worse... .who had skipped OI and HI all together.

Now as far as what I "DO" there... I scan for new people either at the temple or on Help Island. I give a "hello" and leave them be if they ignore that.

When I try to help proactively I get a mixture of responses. One person even said "shut up" after I'd only said "Hello".

I scan the area.. look for the drowning and lost.

I really just make it up as I go.

But I have one thing that is fairly effective. Without turning HI into my own playground, I find that just "doing your own thing" is a great help to noobs.

If a few mentors decide to dance quiet noobs may quickly speak up and a few moves on the floor turns into a lesson about animations, gestures, and attachments.

I can sit and build a chair and get more response that trying to say "hey you know you can build here?"

Just keeping HI free of negative actions and being courteous, attentive and polite does as much or more that a full blown tutorial.

I do want to recommend that the titles "Second Life Greeter" and "Second Life Mentor" be changed to "Live Greeter" and "Live Mentor" because the Live help seems to make sense to the noobs that they are "real" while most games will label bots with the name of the game. Thus "Second Life Anything" seems more like a bot than a spokesman.

I'd settle for "Second Life Greeter (not a bot!) " LOL

So in summary.... I just do my own thing while keeping and eye out. Creating something for a noob to notice and join in on has been my best experience with helping. The WA was once like that.

Blueman Steele offers some great ideas...

As a Newbie myself (or nearly new...) I would be inclined to watch someone building or dancing and read nearby notes for more detail and ask only if I got stuck or felt like opening up...

Another tactic might be for a pair of volunteers to chat together where new users can overhear. This can reinforce the reality of other users as well as perhaps a safer environment for the chat shy.

Finally - does everyone need to TP into the Welcome Area? Perhaps there could be multiple welcome areas... or maybe newbs materialize at a random infohub and get a system IM that reminds them one more time of some of their help options - and maybe a one day pass back to help island if they realize they are in over their heads. This option could be in the form of a newbie HUD... (Help! / Where am I? / Take Me Back to Help Island!)...

For all of you who volunteer to help orient the Newbs, thank you. Your efforts make a big difference and help keep SL civilized.

- Electric Golem

I've been wondering if it may help if LL sent out some random emails to new residents asking for input as to if they went through OI or skipped it. If they went through both OI and HI and asked the new player themselves for input as to how it can be improved.

I stand near the spawn point with an exclaimation point above my head. People run right over to me.

That's sheer genius, Burke.