Mentors Chatting in the Mentor Group Chat

Although I have spent many hundreds of hours hanging around the Welcome Area in hope that someone will ask me a question I can anwer, I haven't been a member of the Mentor group for long at all.

At first thought, to my novice Mentor brain it seems quite logical that Mentors would use the group chat to ask for help from other Mentors with questions from new customers they don't have a quick answer to.

One person did ask such a question and was met with quick answers and no complaints.

The next person who did it may have received an answer, but they received a great deal of complaint about using the Mentor group chat for any reason at all. At first this seemed kind of harsh but after a while I started to see that the group chat mixing up with the regular chat is a real pain.

If you are not only a Mentor but also in other help oriented groups (not to mention active socializing groups) your chat can become so cluttered it is pretty much impossible to make any sense out of the main chat display.

I am wondering what the official Linden position on this question is and would like to hear what the rest of us Mentor folk have to say about this.

Yeah, it can be quite a pain in the ass really.

If someone asks a question, I usually hang around until it's answered (or if I can answer it), and when it is, I leave the group IM.

I haven't seen it become a real problem personally, but maybe I'm just not around for the bad ones.

When Char was the Linden-Queen of the Mentors she made it very clear we were not to use the group chat for back and forth conversations.

She used it exclusively for Mentor admin. coms, and for much appreciated support.

I have no clue who the assigned Linden-Mentor is now.

Char is missed....

I suppose one could send a message on the Mentor group chat asking the Linden in charge to speak up and identify themselves.

But someone might kill you if you did.

I'm not aware that there actually is a designated Linden in charge of the Mentor group after Char left.

Good I am not the only one that thinks this...and I have talked to a linden on it as well....thanks for posting this Suezanne

Jeska Linden is in charge of the mentors group.

This issue brings to mind at least several good discussion topics.

Why aren't we all aware of which employee is in charge of or responsible for the group? Is there someplace we should know look to find out about such stuff? Is the, umm, Linden-Queen, I believe the title is, too busy to deal with this group or has there just not been much reason to say much because things are going ok.

That's all one question there.

Some of the questions I have heard were fairly basic, something I would think a mentor would already know. Do we need to try to help educate not only noobs but also each other?

If the official word is keep the Mentor group chat quiet, this is not a normal used created group so it's different than one, the group chat is for the Lindens to tell us stuff basically, then should we make a separate MentorsHelpingMentors group or is that a lousy idea?

Can we work on the Second Life Support Wiki , i.e. the thing at secondlife.com/help and make it a well organized reference tool that by virtue of it's extremely good design would enable a Mentor to both learn by reading at leisure and also the use as a rapid lookup tool for common questions?

The Live Help group has a set of notecards of Frequently Asked Questions. Do we all have that source of answers also?

SHOULD WE PERHAPS HAVE GROUP MUTE SO IF WE ARE SUPPOSED TO USE THE MENTOR CHAT FOR ASKING QUESTIONS WE CAN TURN THE DARNED THING OFF WHEN WE WANT? This would have the added benefit of giving everyone else who is a member of a group this same wonderful option.


I could go on but it's late.

Erm the answer is in the notecard you should of recieved with the rules, why there is a group? easy, so you know who the other mentors are.

"** MENTORS- do NOT instant message the whole Mentors Group. Use the
member list and find out who is online to ask a question."

Interesting. In Live Help channel, we pretty much goof off

Thank for pointing out the notecard, Nathan.

Here is the complete text of the notecard I have that includes that quote. It's a shame we don't have creation and modification dates on inventory items. Some folks may have older, different versions of an official Mentor notecards, those might be worthwhile to see and most likely would be welcome at the SL History Wiki run by Eggy Lippman and Oz Spade, along with other official docs. (hey, if they want old LSL guides they must want everything, right?).



Note that while the directive to NOT use the Mentor chat is clear and unambiguous, the offered alternative does not serve as an effective method of getting an answer to a question in realtime for delivery to the resident who just asked us the stumper.

We want the answer to the question NOW!!!!! right now without having to wade through a list of areas of expertise or worse yet randomly asking people and there's no real way to know who can answer a question, sometimes someone who doesn't even understand the question can answer it because they just heard the answer from someone else.

Note I am not challenging that Don't Use the SL Mentor Chat clause, just expressing the desire for a better source of Instant Answers Now!

Of course we could refer the inquirer to Live Help or tell them RTFM or such but it is a lot more satisfying to be able to give answers instantly, plus appearing to be omniscient is just plain fun!


One answer to the need for the Instant Correct Answer is to greatly improve the documentation - namely the document at secondlife.com/help, the Second Life Wiki. We can all edit it. For finding rapid answers to questions computerized text search can be ok but I frequently find that human generated organizational schemes may actually be easier and faster. One way of making it easy to find answers is the FAQ format. Many of us are used to the structure of the forums, with the familiar Design_&_Texture, Building, etc. categories. I made a page in the SL wiki for Forum FAQ structured sets of questions and answers. I would really appreciate any attention or help possible with the page, the url for that page is http://secondlife.com/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=Discussion+Forum+FAQs
One wouldn't need to include the answers, just putting in questions would be of benefit. There are little "stub" links for the of the sub pages there, just click one on the small link and a new blank page gets produced which can then be edited through normal wiki editing methods.


Also there are some groups that can be useful in getting instant answers at times: the USL (University of Second Life), the Scripters of Second Life, Scriptin'.

Groups like USL can be joined and left at will, effecting a crude form of Group Chat Mute .

Time is up, gotta get ready for work.

Groups and groups within Groups and Live Helpers helping live avatars and Mentors instructing Instructors mentoring Mentors, and Greeters greetings Linden - who can keep is straight?

Layers upon layers of duplication.

Little messing around is ok, but when other are screwing around too much specially in times of need like one mentor said in one of my SOS messeges ( Hey (no name) come on over and dance with us hun we are having a event) Now this really pissed me off and i was not happy having this people blowoff my sos with her uncaring rely to her other mentor friend.

A little messing around is ok, but when people call for SOS then i think you "SHOULD THINK BEFORE ADDING A REPLY TO THE IM". We are all adults here and mentor is suppose to fun and helpful to those that need help. But Image is also important no?!

There are times when I can see that the mentor's channel is useful for mentors helping each other. However - as Pituca pointed out above, the "so and so has left the channel" scrolling is a nightmare for the last unlucky soul to close the window.

I don't mind it when its a genuine request for help. When it's spam however, as we've been getting all too much of lately in the mentor's channel - it can make my blood boil.

Spam = "Come to my event"
Spam = "Hey, anyone want to come see what I built?"
Spam != "Anyone available to assist X newbie"
Spam != "Does anyone give any tips I can pass along regarding X?"

I'm an instructor not a mentor but I'd suggest that you don't want to form a new group. Groups are rationed in Second Life- I have to deal with the effects of this much more than any prim rationing

Most people running in world businesses will have 15 groups - if you require more groups for things then people would most likely just withdraw.

I'd love to be able to drop Instructor as the group itself seems to have no purpose except as a list of who is an instructor. I imagine there must be better ways of doing that which don't involve eating up 1/15 of a valuable resource.

I note that group IMs only go to online members, thankfully. I'm not sure that sending an individual IM to a several online mentors (as many won't know/won't answer) is less spammy than a group IM.

I'm not sure LL has a grip on what the group tools are for. They don't seem to serve anyone very well.

Roberta, Your right on target

I think when most mentors stoped classes and LL opened it back up and didnt even look at who they were installing to our group we saw the change in the usage of this group.
that so an so is asking for money is just as bad as the person doing the asking.

all these groups are basic death threats if you try and use them. unless your part of a land or rental / vendor system that makes you have to be in one, why would anyone join a group. Hell this post is filled with folks who can flame Ass enough in them. anyone asks one question in any group and I mean any group For sure one reply will be " Stop spamming " holy shit its a vent for a free drive-by shooting and not have to own it. Just the idea of the group should bring comradery of like folks, but nooooo not in SL the group is used as a free shot to let out what we wanted to really say but couldnt do it in person. And as far as a group metor asking if anyone can help a newbie with something Iam glade someone is on duty.

From the desk of a guy who knows how to close a group chat if I dont want to see it.

Waves

I hope I don't drift us too far off-topic, but I think this exemplifies an overall problem. The complaints we're seeing with the mentor's group is just one example of a larger issue.

I do think that Linden is beginning to understand that groups, and chat for that matter - are due for a much needed overhaul. Its just a matter of prioritization now.

It seems that people who are doing the spamming in the group are not even repling to this problem. Another factor is treat being a mentor as another for of game. They neither really help or even show up in for meeting or see helping people. They use it as status symbol. I am sorry But i had to let this out after seeing some going on.

I am a new mentor. The other day in the WA, somebody had a question that I didn't have an answer for, and it wasn't in the WIKI (about new accounts). I tried to use the group list the way that it was prescribed, but it took forever to actually see the member names, and then when I did, I had to hunt and pick online members who might want to help answer the question. The officer names never rezzed.

If it's something specific to the mentor job, sitting in the WA trying to help newcomers, are we allowed to send out a concise question? Or should we look for officers of the group instead? I appreciate lack of spam as much as anybody, so I wanted to get your feedback on this.

Thanks.

Probably better to use LiveHelp for things like this.. People in LiveHelp only get the messages if they have their group tag on, so they have the choice, where as if you IM the mentor group, everyone online, group tag or not, gets the message.

Why is it only the Live Help group that can choose to get or not get Group Messages?

Why not extend this as an option to all groups?

Do the Live Help calls appear in a distinct dialog box or is it in the normal IM window where other personal and group IMs appear?

How does one put the tag on? Are they just joining and quitting a group? If so does that mean there has to be an officer around to invite them?