Purpose of SL Mentors v. Lindens

Heya, wanted to address a few points brought up here, as there is some great discussion happening...

The "new" volunteer program is coming up on a year old, and we've implemented lots of what we knew would be necessary for scaling the system to accommodate what was a backlog of thousands of applicants who, by the then-current prerequisites, were to be accepted (The group entry requirements have been raised for new applicants). There have definitely been growing pains, as the ongoing discussions of how the chat channel should be used shows, but that's to be expected. If you haven't stopped by my office hour (Wednesdays at 4 SLTime) please do...chat channel use is a not infrequent topic

One of the things that the new volunteer program is meant to accomplish is to provide for what volunteers have oft requested, which is to acknowledge the range of ways in which people would like to help, rather than simply being asked to greet people in the new user areas. The removal of Live Help from the client was a very painful change for a lot volunteers whose high level of SL proficiency enabled them to chime in and answer questions on a huge number of issues posed by the box-head and power user alike. Roles like Linguist and Coaches are a shift of responsibility from Linden to Mentor, yes...a shift that had been requested, debated and implemented.

Of course, like every aspect of this program, participation in voluntary...you being volunteers. If there are things you don't want to do, that's great. I've seen a couple of highly valuable volunteers burn themselves out which is going too far, whether your donating your time to RL or SL causes. You can't further your goals or the goals of the team if you can no longer contribute. If it's not providing value to you....don't do it! Take a break and come back later. I know that should go without saying, but it bears repeating.

The general topics in this thread aside, let me address a few points more specifically...

"All I ask is that the lindens partake in what should be their business and hire more lindens."

We did! In the past, the volunteer program was run by one Linden...the most awesome Jeska, and then later, the dynamic Pathfinder. We understood that this couldn't last forever and we'd have to discontinue the program or bring more Lindens on board. This year saw the creation of the VTeam, comprised of Amber, George, Lexie, Mia, and myself. Clearly SL doesn't have an infinite budget, so for the time being you'll have to settle for a 500% improvement ;p

"Meetings which once held question periods(and the lindens answered them) now instead are used for promoting morale in these meetings."

Actually the meetings still have Q&A periods that comprise 1/4 to a full 1/2 of the meeting. Because we saw the value of this kind of back and forth with you, and questions sometimes range into the technical (you really don't want me pretending to know technical stuff) we have started, just this quarter, what we call the Q&A Series bringing Lindens from specific departments to the SL Volunteer Islands to explain their projects and do extended Q&A specifically for you, the Mentors. So far, the Lindens involved in the Q&A Series has reported that these meetings have been of great value, and the feedback from you has been outstanding, as you know best how you use SL.

Of course, if you are not finding value in the meetings, which are designed to give you updates on the state of the program, and not to teach mentoring, then you can feel free to skip them, although we certainly do appreciate your participation. As I may have mentioned, your participation in any part of the volunteer program remains....voluntary!

"And Blue was (Busy) for the first 20minutes of the meeting. "

Yes, that's because I get on average 3,683,122 IMs when I log in and wanted to focus my attention specifically on the meeting at hand, without being rude to my adoring fans ;p

Oh yeah, to those of you who stop by my office hour on Wednesdays to talk volunteer program stuff...THANKS! To those who don't...do!




<edit> Oh, and mentors were never paid, just FYI

Heya, wanted to address a few points brought up here, as there is some great discussion happening...

what was a backlog of thousands of applicants

As for new incoming mentors, the requirements do indeed need to be raised, many new mentors barely know SL.=( They lack knowledge of its vast features and are thus of limited assistance to new players. Perhaps mentor coaches could hold classes to accept/decline mentors...(Although I'm certain there will be bias issues with that.)

I would say it depends what kind of mentoring you do. It requires different skills to calm down a newbie who's just rezzed a box on their head and thinks its permanent than it does to help some dude who's run into troubles texturing a build. No?

The questions I usually see on the mentor group are basic SL questions, not highly specific questions.

There are things everyone should really know before they get their tag and start helping people. Noone should or can know everything about everything, but the basics should be there, and where to go to look for things you don't know.

I.e. noone should be turned down for not knowing what "rebaking" is, or what an "AR" is, but if they don't know they can have someone explain before they get their tag instead of stumble along. Or with your own example, be aware that scripting exists and have a link to the scripting wiki or the scripting forum as a reference they can hand out.

Wow. Thanks!


Yikes!


Uh huh. Actually, by the time you know all the vast features of SL (which I certainly don't, and I'm approaching my first rezday - as with RL, the day I stop learning will be the day I left SL), you're moving further and further away from being able to understand what it feels like to be a new player. What I know about LSL could fit in a pinhead, should that disqualify me? I don't think so - if someone asks me about LSL, I'm still perfectly capable of pointing them towards the various references on the web, or towards people/groups who do know their llSetLinkPrimitiveParams() from their llSayOwner().

I would say it depends what kind of mentoring you do. It requires different skills to calm down a newbie who's just rezzed a box on their head and thinks its permanent than it does to help some dude who's run into troubles texturing a build. No?

That link is a 404.

Is there not some sort of reference on these things? I know I'd benefit from having a couple of notecards with that sort of stuff…

Oh, but stumbling along is by far the best of learning *has stumbled her way through all three years of her degree so far*

Nah, joking aside, I agree with you that there should be some sort of minimum knowledge, but I suspect if you took any number of residents greater than one and stuck them in a room together, they'd never agree on what that was.

Is there not some sort of reference on these things? I know I'd benefit from having a couple of notecards with that sort of stuff on, because it's a much quicker way of accessing info than waiting for the really slow browser embedded into SL to render the page or alt-tabbing into my web-browser, which also takes a while on my overloaded computer and sometimes causes SL to crash on me.

Could we someday get to the point where we’re not stunned to see a Linden respond in the Official Forums?
No?
Okay
Anyway, it’s good to see some life in this part of the Forums. The first time I came in here I could hear the crickets chirp and the floorboards creek.
/cue ambient wind noises

Too bad…it’s a cute little smiley rolling on the floor laughing. Do you have Show Images selected under Edit Options?

I maintain a set of my own Notecards with … well notes of things like, webpage links, phone numbers and tips. I even have one of all the shortcut keys that I pass out.
If you’ve not already seen this little jewel check it out…then copy it to notecards.
/327/36/138663/1.html

Edit1:<I'm not exactly what you'd say stunned to see a Linden on the forums. Lindens are people who work for Linden Lab...they are employees and nothing more...they should NOT be worshipped! > (I don't mean to insult LL or its employees or affiliates.)

…LL needs to put some help notecards in people's inventories that we can point to.

Edit1:<I'm not exactly what you'd say stunned to see a Linden on the forums. Lindens are people who work for Linden Lab...they are employees and nothing more...they should NOT be worshipped! > (I don't mean to insult LL or its employees or affiliates.)

I highly believe that the Lindens should add a type of quiz rather than just judging us by how many hours we've logged/how old our account is. That simply isn't an accurate measure anymore.

I don’t disagree but what is too much or too little? I know my shortcomings so making my own set from information I researched saves time and helps me familiarize myself with that information.

That’s exactly my point. That and it would be nice to see more of their comments in the forums. The rarity does seem to cause a bit of excitement. They should just be less scarce is all.

Now having said that, of course there should be some level of competence required to be a Mentor. How do you test that? I would hope that people join because they want to truly help and can be of help. Those that join for other reasons will quickly tire or get frustrated with only answering newbies with boxes on their heads.

IMO, debating what level of SL knowledge one has to have before qualifying as a Mentor misses the point of what being a Mentor is.

After Live Helpers were given the boot we were folded in with the Mentor group because that would become the new all-encompassing Volunteer group, there would no longer be any distinctive titles, just "Volunteers". There was actually an attempt to rename the group to "Second Life Volunteers", but the name change caused problems and had to be undone. The old roles as they were no longer exist, you're just a volunteer.

With Live Help gone, and support restricted to premiums for "everyday common problems" Mentor should need a basic qualification because it's just all that's left. As you indicated with your example, there is no minimal knowledge level in the group yet people will still take wild stabs at questions they have no idea about, leaving the person who asked the question more confused than they were before, or worse they end passing on wrong answers to some clueless newbie in need of help.

I would love nothing more than see LL wake up and realize there's a difference between handholding newbies and problem solving and that there is a *big* need for both, but you just run into a solid wall trying to bring it up. The next best thing is to make sure that every mentor has basic knowledge about common problems so that they can offer useful help when it's needed.

You loose the newbie who can't get the box off his head, but you also loose the newbie who's all black because he or she happens to be using dual monitors. Both are equally deserving of help, and the latter doesn't need to get told that if he/she just presses "escape" enough, the problem will go away (and yes, that actually happened).

Yumi, I'm aware of the limitations of automated translation. But it's the best alternative we have. We can't expect every mentor to devote the hundreds or thousands of hours of study needed to master a second language! The problem is, that poor as it is, we don't even have the use of automated translation on script-disabled regions like OI.

As for the "Linden Stamp of Approval"...that fork is even sharper than you depict, because as mentors, we're not supposed to be "advertising" specific businesses while wearing our tags. In short, they DO have rules about what we're supposed to be handing out, it's just that enforcement is nonexistent. Frankly, I think LL needs to lighten up on these restrictions. Some extremely useful stuff is made by, and donated free by, a large number of SL merchants. A simple disclaimer on LL's part should be sufficient to show that they are not endorsing the product, but thank the merchants of SL for their service to newcomers.

At one end of the spectrum, we have the fully-approved content in the Library folder. It's terribly sparse and very outdated. At the other end, we have Freebie stores that sell boxed items with landmarks to the store of the contributing merchant.

Surely, there is an acceptable middle ground?

... you also loose the newbie who's all black because he or she happens to be using dual monitors. Both are equally deserving of help, and the latter doesn't need to get told that if he/she just presses "escape" enough, the problem will go away (and yes, that actually happened).

Is THAT what causes black avatars? But I use dual monitors, and nobody's ever told me I looked overly tan.

Tell me more, Kitty! What's the explanation/cause, and what's the fix?

...But I use dual monitors, and nobody's ever told me I looked overly tan...

It's an aaaaaancient bug as far as I know (at least it was already around when I was new ). Not sure what combination actually triggers it , but if you see someone who's all pitch black (from top to toe) it's a very likely cause, although other things can cause you to go all black as well (switching back and forth when SL is running full-screen can sometimes corrupt your baked texture(s) as well).

If you're using multiple monitors and you have no problems, SL is either running on the proper monitor or you're just lucky .

* If they have multiple monitors:
a) rebake is an obvious suggestion, but it's usually only a temporary fix
b) clear cache, close SL, open it again and drag SL over to the *other* monitor before logging on (in most cases seems to be a semi-permanent solution, in some cases after being "normal" again, people can drag it back over to the normal monitor without problem)
c) if neither two works (seems to be rare), the only real solution would be to disable multi-monitor altogether

* If they don't have multiple monitors:
a) a rebake usually fixes it
b) or a clear cache and a relog and a rebake will do the trick

In both cases you have a chance to run into the bug where your skin/baked textures will actually be "broken" for some odd reason and then there's the whole steps from:

/327/45/227602/1.html#post1786752/327/45/227602/1.html#post1786752

(That's actually a general "fix bad skins or bad baked textures" solution. If you have someone who's naked but still wearing clothes, or someone who stays naked/topless/pantless no matter what they wear those steps will fix it for them as well. The hardest part is usually convincing them to do something that seems redundant and not skip out on a step )

Is it obvious to the person what's happened, or is it like the "your clothing is still downloading" one where (completely contrary to what the client says) it appears fine on your screen and everyone else just sees you with the ever-so-stylish "missing texture" textures?

IMO, debating what level of SL knowledge one has to have before qualifying as a Mentor misses the point of what being a Mentor is. I recently had an individual approach me with a rather complex question on scripting that I in no way could answer. And putting his question to the group IM resulted in a hilarious but in no way helpful debate of “yes, no’s, maybe’s” amongst the other mentors. Not wanting this person to be left with out any answer at all, I took him over to the HIP sandbox where I know several talented scripters can be found. We put the question to them and once again it turned into an entertaining but way above my head conversation. Evidently this person (a programmer but new to SL ) was pushing the LSL envelope with what he wanted to do. Now I could have told him I didn’t know. I could have asked for an IM from the group and left him with the first one to respond. I could have had him stand and stare at my silent avatar, with my head bobbing around as I combed the internet. Instead….and here’s my long overdue point…I took him by the hand and stood by his side until he was satisfied that he had gotten all he could from the Second Life Mentor that he looked to for help. And I would do the same for anyone no matter how simple or complex the question.
*Sorry for the apparent boasting but that was the quickest example I could come up with of how testing might prevent people with various valuable skill sets from joining the group.
Now having said that, of course there should be some level of competence required to be a Mentor. How do you test that? I would hope that people join because they want to truly help and can be of help. Those that join for other reasons will quickly tire or get frustrated with only answering newbies with boxes on their heads.

Sorry Lindal , no one said anything because we just assumed that’s the way you wanted to look