Mentor Spam

Hi Guys,
I don't know if anyones noticed, but there is a huge amount of spam going round most of the volenteer groups, but the mentor one is the one which is the biggest problem, so I figured I'd post here.

To start, people asking for teleports to Help Island, I don't know what the rule is with this, but there are A LOT of people in the mentor group, usually a lot online at one time too, and it seems overkill to bother 100 people because you can't be bothered to type "help island" into the map. Aside from the fact its probably more trouble to IM the whole group than to just get there yourself.

Theres also a lot of event announcements, general chat and questions (which should go to live help) flying around.

Of the stuff that is mentor specific, this is how it usually goes..

"Hi Everyone"
*100 Mentors saying Hello*
"I have a problem"
*100 Mentors saying whats up/whats the problem*
"*Question*"

I find this to be, unefficent at the least, surely it would be best to put things all into one message.

I'm sorry if it seems I'm being mean, but back when I first became a mentor, and Char was still over here in the main grid, she used to make it VERY clear not to IM the whole group under nearly ALL circumstances.

Was wondering if other people had thoughts or suggestions on how to make things better?

I totally agree with you Zap. In fact, in many cases it will be even worse than the example you gave

I have known it to go like this:
"Hello everyone"
*100 mentors say hello
"Can I ask a question?"
*100 mentors say yes
"I have someone with me who needs some information about land"
*half the mentors leave, the other half say "what do you need? Who is it etc"


It drives me crazy. It isn't so much that 6/10 the question is actually one which should be asked of Live Help or would be better asked in the forums.... It's just that people could be polite and STILL get in their greeting and their question on their first posting to the group, like this:
"Hello all, I have a new person with me who wants help with land, she wants to know how to find first land."

That way you cut off all the greetings, allow people to look at the question and decide whether they can help or not, all in the first couple of lines, rather than having to watch 50 lines of spam flow past before you even get a hint of what is wanted.

I have to say that the Lindens are some of the worst offenders for starting a question with "hello mentors!"

While complaining about mentor spam, it would help a lot if people who are asking for a mentor for a person, actually confirm who it is they are expecting to help and how they expect them to help. Sometimes 15 people volunteer, and it isn't clear who is going to actually do it, or what they are expected to do. The Cali recommendation is that the person who has appealed for help says:

"OK Cali perhaps you could contact Deadly New on Help Island to help with the building problem"

OK...feels good to get this off my chest
Cali

I know the feeling. Actually the negative responses irk me a bit. There are so many people saying "busy/teaching/can't come/sorry not my field" that you often miss the people who are saying "Yes, I can help."

One doesn't even need to type Help Island into the find region box on the map. You can make a landmark the first time you get there, or just ask for one here. Every mentor should get one when they join the group.

I did find it frustrating when the rule of "Don't use the Mentor chat at all, it's for the Lindens to contact us." was in effect.

We need to be able to turn off group chats when we don't want to be bothered.

The point about saying hello and thus eliciting many hellos in response before getting down to the question is a good one.

Questions will sometimes be asked like "Can you help teach someone to script?" which produces responses like "No, I don't know how", which could have been worded something like "If someone can teach someone to script, say yes, if not, don't type anything."

It can drive you crazy, no doubt about it.

This isssue been talked about over and over again. If i am in the middle of a issue on Sl. and i get 50 quicky hi and otehr message i not surprized at this. I have to sroll way up to see the first message. I given up withthe spam and learned to deal with it.

Is there no way to temporarily mute a group? I had an idea that there was, but maybe it was just a suggestion that someone had made for a future upgrade.

I don't think there is currently.

I was very glad to see a Linden (Mia, I think) ask for help in the mentor group, say it all in one message and add a "don't reply unless you CAN help" note. Very effective

*waves to Zap* I'm glad Mia addresses the mentors this way, it's a shame there's always at least one that says..."sorry, I can't help"

Whenever I get a message from the mentor group I try to close it before my screen is filled with needless chat. I usually feel guilty about this though.

Another sad thing is when they are rude! When a new mentor is just learn and they one bitching just hangup on them. I Understand it takes time to learn the system, but acting with care is another issue in the mentor/spam issue.

Totally agree, Usagi!

It's not like there's anywhere for them to learn a lot of things. You get a notecard and an email, and you try to work it out for yourself, and ask questions. That's how we find things out.

That's what we're supposed to be helping other residents do, too!

Why should we show our fellow volunteers any less courtesy than we show the new residents?

Besides...other people on the channel might benefit from the answers too. That means less spam in the long-run.

If there is only one communication channel among a large group, and it can get so easily abused, the rule of thumb is simply: etiquette.

I'm seriously thinking about starting some SL Etiquette classes soon I used to write articles on netiquette over a decade ago...

SLettquette.

It is true: as advanced as our technology gets, it is not an excuse for not having good manners as a foundation in the first place.

I agree! Manners are what allow us to live together without undo irritation. This applies in RL & SL.

Simple things like saying, "Knock, knock" before entering someone's home or asking if they have time to answer a question or visit, saying "Hi", etc., go a long ways in making everyone's SL experience more enjoyable.

Your IM comment may seem cute or witty to you. However, it could be, along with others, interfering with someone else’s ability to do something. Case in point: I was recently teaching a clothing class. There were 27 students and myself. I was trying to cut & paste my script, change projector pictures, change clothes and watch for questions when, someone from the Shelter uses the IM channel to tell everyone she is leaving SL. This brought on 30 or so people all telling her “good bye”, “sorry to see you go”, “hugs” and, the worst, “how I almost had to leave.”

This stuff just kept scrolling up my screen making it impossible for me to find my place and teach the class. I literally had to open history, look for where I last was and, re-scroll up after the darn thing scrolling on me because of more comments, while dealing with the lag 28 people in one area brings.

It was exasperating to me. I felt like yelling at them to “shut up.” I know this was an extreme example but, I think it does illustrate what can happen when we are thoughtless.

Most of the people in the example above are new to SL. They can claim ignorance and deserve some latitude. We, on the other hand, cannot claim such, as an excuse. We like to think of ourselves as the teachers of SL. We are seen by new residents with awe, as the elite. We should always act in a manner that brings credit to the titles, of which we are so proud, be it with new residents, long time residents or ourselves.

Jen

Up until now, when accessing Live Help (not much, I am glad to say) I have always started with 'Is there anybody there?'

*slaps own wrist*. Won't do it again.

One method I have found to temporarily block the wildly scrolling chat that ends up in my chat history is to quickly slap my "busy" hat on. This way I can leave the IM window open if need be and I don't spam the entire group by closing out the IM window. Busy mode block all *group* IM chat except mesages from any of our Lindens. Not a perfect solution but a pretty good workaround.

I tend to wait for five or ten minutes after my question goes completely unanswered to ask if anyone is there.

Mentor spam is out of control...


Way too much idle chatter.


Ugh!

Hi all,

As promised before, here goes a draft of what the SLetiquette class is going to be. No, I haven't submitted it to anyone at LL for approval yet — I'm happy to have you guys discuss it and comment.

Take into account the following things when reading the link to the PDF:

1) This is supposed to be a class of under 90 minutes in SL, ie. roughly a 20-30 min. class on RL. As a rule of thumb, classes in SL take about 3 times longer as in RL. This means that if you're used to do the old "one slide a minute" rule, 20 slides will last you an hour and a half. Thus, this is not exhaustive; more could be said on subsequent classes.

2) Besides the slides (which get presented inworld), I tend to give out written texts. So these are not the whole documentation people will get. I usually add a longer text on notecards that people can follow, if I'm typing too slow for their taste Additional notecards can clarify obscure/incomplete sections.

3) 90% of the material is quoted from many available public netiquette guides, most of them generic. I added little to SL-specific things; most of the very good common advice applies to SL perfectly. Actually, I followed two or three guides and the Internet RFC standard on netiquette

Comments are welcome, and then off it goes to Jesse Linden for approval as an educational class

- Gwyn

Slides here: http://secondlife.game-host.org/images/sletiquette.pdf

Gwyn, this excellent. I love it! Thank you for taking the time to put it together. It should be mandatory viewing to get off of Orientation/Help Island.

Jen

Thanks for reading through it, Jennifer! I'm glad you liked it.

One friend of mine (also a Mentor) has reviewed the text and found some English grammar mistakes which I have corrected. Still, I'd be glad to hear more suggestions on how to improve the content, or eventually to reduce the amount of slides, etc...

Mentor chat is meant for helping all mentors get better understanding of problems they dont`t know about . Problem is some are just action in ways that going away from this concept. Having 100 "Hi" in the chat is a problem but we can`t forget the reason we have this Im for. Some of the time we need just ignore the ims we don`t want to see and move on. I use to get upset all the time but i learned to just deal with it. Maybe I am laying back too much on this issue but after months in this group i rather deal with a little spam then cry about it now.

Well this isn't such a problem, as people who will receieve that have to turn it on, meaning they've asked to receieve IMs.. When a mentor IMs the group, it goes to everyone online, and its a MUCH bigger group. As well as the fact most of it is probably better suited to Live Help and the people who will recieve it have chosen to.

It's just become too much to be honest.

It's not just the idle *TP plz* stuff.

It's things like *There is a guy here with a penis on his head what do I do?* which is then followed by dozens of joke comments and so forth. How can a mentor not know what to do in that situation?

I have to say I liked it when the "rules" were tighter.

It won't affect the group or me much to leave as I have never really done any mentoring at HI, and very little at the WA's. I prefer the one on one stuff anyway, so I've left the group, it's just become way too much noise, especially in the last few weeks.

I'll still be doing one on one mentoring, just without the tag, so if you run into anyone in need of some building or texturing help, feel free to IM me, and I will help if my schedule permits.

Take care all.

But where they ever? I don`t recall even from may of 2005 this being the case.
I recall countless times i called for help and a flooded of non sence remarks followed. But i say in the past 3 days things have settled down not as much spam, and if it did happen it last moment then stopped.

Excellent presentation, Gwyneth! I have a new resident who is sorely in need of reading this.