What is Help Island
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Help Island is an intermediate place between the hustle of the main grid and the scripted orientation of orientation island. Newbies can come down from the Orientation Islands and find live volunteers willing to help them learn anything they want to know about SL.
Newbies and Orientation Islands
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Two OIs (orientation islands) open onto Help Island. OI11 joins to the north. OI10 is to the west and connects to the southwest of HI.
Future plans reportedly include two more OIs connecting to HI.
Only OI10 and OI11 are active right now, though there have been reports of newbies being shifted to otherwise inactive OIs under some difficult to pin down circumstances - possibly relogging.
Environment
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HI is relatively peaceful. There is a sandbox in the northeast corner. Any object not in the Mentor group will be autoreturned in 2 hours. There is no autoreturn on the rest of the island. If the clutter gets EXCESSIVE, call a Linden to tidy, but make sure the size of job makes it worth the doing. If you have one on hand already, it's probably okay to ask them to shift one or two things if they're not too busy.
There is a freebie store in the southeast corner, a demo house in the northwest, a building tutorial area in the west and the soon-to-be In-World Greeter Selection System in the middle (the large white structure).
Teleport restrictions
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OIs are teleport blocked to all but Lindens. You cannot TP or be TPed to one. They do not appear on your main map; Only on your minimap when they are within draw distance.
Newbies cannot be TPed to an OI, and cannot be TP'ed to locations on HI - even if they are already there. Once a newbie has teleported to the mainland, only a Linden Summon can bring them back. Only Jeska Linden is able to approve this, so don't knock yourself out asking the other Lindens.
Staffing
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Spending time on HI is not a requirement. There is always plenty of need for volunteers out on the main grid. If, however, you are short-handed on HI, or are the last to leave, ask for reinforcements on the Mentor IM group channel. There is never a shortage of volunteers willing to come by at any time, at only a few minutes notice. Try not to leave the island unattended. It frustrates newbies who are there expecting help.
Our Clientele
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25% of newbies arrive on OI, access the skip orientation sign, and go straight to the WA in a matter of seconds.
About 25% more are too impatient to see the sign, and bolt across the island, stopping only to access the station about flying, because the ravine stumps them, get to the final station and go straight to the WA.
The last half are the ones we are interested in.
They've done one or more of the OI stations, and they may wander down to HI if it looks busy enough. If they don't see many dots on the minimap they are less likely to come to HI and will go to the WA instead.
Talking to Them
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Frankly, many of them think we are NPCs (or bots, if you prefer the term). They ignore us. I prefer not to bother people on the OIs unless they are obviously stuck, or moving highly erratically.
On HI, by all means say hello. Ask how they are doing (more likely to get a response). Some folks just won't talk to you. Give them a card with some FAQs and landmarks (Ask Tateru Nino for the latest copy) if nothing else. If they don't want to communicate, there's not much that you can do for them other than hope that they are listening when you are answering somone else's questions.
Length of stay
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Newbies tend to stay between 5 minutes and a couple weeks, depending. The longer they stay, the better adjusted they are. Some will spend time passing what they know on to other newbies. This is generally a good thing.
The average length of stay is 30 minutes. When a newbie leaves, as mentioned earlier, they cannot return. If they log off on HI, they will log back in there.
Abuse
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Anyone breaks the rules (you think intentionally) AR them. Newbie, Mentor, Greeter, Live Helper. If it's ongoing, call a Linden. Other people in SL do not exist for our personal amusement.
Mentors and Greeters
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When newbies are ready to go to the mainland, encourage them to go with a Greeter. Despite our best preparations, they tend to get a bit surprised when they get there. Soon, the central island structure will be outfitted with a greeter selection system to make calling one easy. In the meantime, do your best to hook up your newbie with a greeter before they leave. Not everyone will want one, of course, and we should not pressure them.
Guns and Mature Content
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There are no combat-enabled zones on HI. We are permitted to use guns there for demonstration purposes. Don't hand out push-weapons or big guns. HI is PG. There's plenty mature content out on the grid if they want it, and little opportunity for them to use mature content on HI in a non-infringing way. Don't give out mature items.
DO and DO NOT
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DO call for a replacement if you're the last one out. If the only other volunteers are Live-Help, check with them before leaving. They may not notice you go, or newbies arrive if they are busy. If they don't respond to you, call a Mentor to take over.
DO NOT leave vehicles around that the newbies cannot jump in and drive. It makes them crazy. That makes us crazy too.
DO clean up after yourself.
DO be civil. We're all adults. No fighting in front of the new residents.
DO NOT mess up Tat's Island, or scare the newbies. She will not love you for it.
This notecard is filled with commands to other Second Life volunteers. Not suggestions, not simple statements, but commands.
Note the beginning of the last line, "DO NOT mess up Tat's Island".
Tat's Island. Not Linden Lab's island, not the new residents' island, not the volunteers' as a whole island, but Tat's Island.
Tat was joking. Unfortunately, other people have adopted this attitude about Help Island, and they aren't joking.
I think this notecard is important in understanding the development of the conflict about the Help Island communicator.
