Volunteering for Mentor Group?

I volunteered to join the Mentor group (put in an application) a short time after I joined SL. That application who knows what happened to it disappeared into the aether.

A month ago or more, I again applied to be a mentor yet again.

I have been in Second Life since January of 2004. I see Mentors running around who have been for less than a year, some only a very short time. And a lot of them, I have overheard don't even have a grasp of some really basic stuff and a few have even been really immature and rude. In fact, there was one mentor who hangs around Welcome Area a lot, who has been incredibly rude and acting very snooty to new residents.

That said, there are good mentors out there.

I've never been naughty and I've never caused drama, I'm very friendly and open, and always answer any questions I get from new residents (and I do get a lot) so I'm just wondering why LL doesn't appear to be needing an experienced SLifer to help newcomers out?

Yes, I saw you in Tutorial Island.

Well You applied only twice. In first one you were new... so they maybe reject the application, but I think you'll success on this one. Considering that you applied a month ago, maybe in the next selection you will be chosen.

I applied twice too:

The first one I was less than 6 month old and they allowed to apply beeing younger than that. No success.

Now you have to be more than 6 months old to apply. For the second application i waited almost 3 months to be approved, so i think you should wait a little more.

And yes there are many rude mentors around.

Well, I guess we'll see

Woo! Looks like I got accepted this time. I'll be going to an orientation class sometime this week. I may be a little ahead of the curve though but, never a bad time to learn stuff, even if it's re-learning.

Anyway, I look forward to helping out residents more actively and being a friendly face to newcomers.

Yeah it takes a while to get accepted while others get picked in no time at all. What gets me is like you said, there is no real average of the knowledge that said mentors actually have.

I myself waited till I was in SL for almost a year before I applied and when I was accepted there were people as young as a month at the Orientation Class. Even one of the people teaching the Orientation Class was younger then me. I was under the understanding that the time frame for acceptance that they give you was to check your time in SL and your background (IE: Abuse Reports,etc) but clearly they are randomly picking avatars and giving them the right to wear a tag and make others who actually try hard, look bad.

Sadly it seems to be yet another way LL isnt really paying attention. I hardly ever wear my tag at Welcome Areas because of the obnoxious 'mentors' who really dont know their foot from their freebie gun. I stick to sandboxes I frequent where for the most part I see nothing but respect from most of the avatars there.

Bottom line its sad that something that was once something that you earned the right to be in has become nothing more then another random group.

Alex, I couldn't disagree more. First, I've never yet met a Mentor on OI or HI or a Welcome Area who was less than polite and helpful.

Second, while it's true that there's a wide range of knowledge and experience among the Mentors (I can't script my way out of a paper bag, for example), it's far from a "random group". All of them volunteered, and nearly all of them share a common motivation: the desire to help others.

If a Mentor runs into a question or situation that's beyond her, there are resources at hand, including the Wiki and the Mentor group chat line. More experienced Mentors offer classes, to help other Mentors learn more about subjects they're weak in. I've met many Mentors who are happy to share their techniques and shortcuts...I've picked up several "newbie help kits" and explanatory notecards trom others.