Mentor's best of SL list..anyone interested?

Its come to my attention that the SL greeters have compiled a folder with landmarks to the "cool places" in SL that they give out to noobs. I thought perhaps the mentors group might be interested in compiling a list of out recommendations for places noobs should check out in SL and give out this list on Help Island and the WA.

I would not want to use the same list distributed by the greeters since their list consists mostly of "escort" places, BDSM, casinos etc and I sincerely think there are many other places of interest in SL.

Anyone interested in this idea? If yes, any ideas how to select the picks to be included in the folder of landmarks?

I usually start by giving them "The Helping H.A.N.D." and Pathfinder's Picks (although a few of those don't exist any more, like Spitoonie Island). There is a reason for it — not showing favouritism by picking my favourite spots, which is always a delicate question in politically correct Second Life

How should this pick list be created? If we do a simple "proposal & vote" issue, the problem will be favouritism (your friends will vote on your picks, independently of any other possible criteria). If a "commitee" is nominated and discusses in-world what the "best picks" would be, people outside the commitee will complain about their exclusiveness (and how would such a committee be elected/nominated anyway). And so on. Second Life is really not great for doing "consensual" projects. At some point, a decision has to be made that will leave some people out of the loop, and those will be the first to complain.

I have absolutely nothing against your suggestion, and while it's certainly not true that all Greeters only give newbies landmarks for sex- or gambling-oriented places, everybody in SL has their own preferences, and it's only natural that you tend to get people to know about what you like in SL. Basic human nature

Also, how would you go about making sure that Mentors would really give out the Official Mentor's Pick List and not a notecard of their own? I can imagine that you could use the Nota Nene notary from Zarf to make sure the notecard you distribute is digitally signed and untampered with, but what prevents a Mentor not to give it out and replace it with another one of its own devising? There is no way to check this out; Mentors are not "screened" or "rated" or anything like that.

Please understand that I'm all for your suggestion (although in my case I don't have anything to add beyond the Helping H.A.N.D.'s suggestions, which are the "usual" ones: The Shelter, YadNi's Junkyard, the Stillman Bazaar, the Library Tower of Primitives, the Particle Laboratory, and so on...). I just don't think we can "enforce" it, and hardly come to a compromise on the "officially recommended landmarks". We're just too anarchistic for that kind of consensus

I never said ALL greeters ONLY give out LM for sex and gambling orientated places, I only said I would not want to use the list that is distributed now because there are several LMs like that contained on it. However, I am a bit uncomfortable that a new person entering SL for the first time be given a list containing sex, BDSM, esccorts, and casinos as whats cool about SL. I think SL is more than that, a lot more.
There really is no control over this since this is not a police state. But as they say at the IRS, the mere difficulty of the task cannot prevent its attempt and completion.

I mean whats to stop me, or any mentor, from giving out a card of my own now. Does anyone know of a prohibition against mentors handing out a list such as this to newbies while acting as a mentor? I would be very interested in knowing whether this is frowned upon, or perhaps even forbidden.

I give out the 4 Pathfinders Picks notecards, the SL Parks and Rec notecard and little set of landmarks for freebies, free housing/store space and learning centers in SL.

I think that the answer is "nothing really stops you" except perhaps a bad conscience and a sense of morals and ethics!

I'm not even sure if someone could "frown" upon it on a PG sim. The boundaries are very thin here — you're allowed to have private communications on IM, and the notecard is not visible in public, so...

It's really a question of ethics and morals.

People don't remember to look at the notecards we give them anyway.

I think it all boils down to simpy using common sense. There is no need for a official list, there would be no way to be sure it would be the one used. All we have to do is use our heads, remember what our purpose is.

I find this thread to be a bit funny. Some months ago I started a thread requesting recommended landmarks from fellow greeters and mentors. I got, zip, nada, nothing.

Since then, I have slowly been putting together a list of LMs, which I have broken down into broad categories. They include the Pathfinder pick’s, building and texture learning centers, romantic/beautiful getaways, alternative communities, clubs/casinos and yes, my personal picks.

I will usually take a newbie to three of these, depending on what he or she has expressed as interesting then ending up at the Shelter, where I drop them off. I make an effort to show them what they might find interesting.

If they have no preference and it is a male, I will usually take him to a racetrack, an alternative community, a dance club or casino then, time permitting to the Shelter. If it is a female, we often go shopping and, that takes the rest of the day.



Jen

seems like a simple request: My favorite place is Telador Isle - it is an elaborate and detailed build that is interesting to wander thru.

Telador Isle(160,76,26)

Garnet and I were talking about this yesterday. Many newbies interested in exploring SL have been asking about where to go after reaching the WA. Up to now, I have given them my personal "cool places" landmarks. It would be nice if we could compile a list of places that we can all agree are nice.

I think the way to go with this is democracy. Something like each of us choosing 10 different cool places and then voting to definitely choose a given number of them.

Also, organizing the landmarks in a notecard isn't a good idea. Pathfinder's picks, for example, look quite bad when you are a newbie (I know, I was a newbie only 3 months ago and that's what I thought). This will certainly require some prim work, GOOD images of each place and a VERY easy to use interface so that even the noobest newbie could use it without problems.

maybe set them up in a notecard and put in a freebie box at HI

Sounds good to me

Uhmmm.. I don't quite agree. Notecards are so awkward! Specially for newbies If at least they were HTML...

Oh, HTML in-world was promised for March. March 2004, that is. It means that it'll be high on the priority list, and very likely ready before 2019

What? Before 2019!?? No way! Havok 2, HTML and a stable client won't exist until at least 2134

Seriously, I'd prefer doing it with prims and textures than with notecards. Builder speaking here, I suppose