Top Three Greeter Issues

(Sorry for the delay in posting these!)

When we had our Greeter meetings 2 weeks ago, we discussed three key problems Greeters mentioned encountering during their Greeter experiences, I'd like for us to discuss each of the problems and possible solutions.

1) Seeing the IM (ie: losing the contact name)

2) Finding the new Resident (how to locate the new Resident, when they've logged on, etc)

3) Meeting up with them in-world (where to meet with them)

I'm going to open the discussion up with your ideas on how to tackle these issues.

Thanks!

Im not a greeter but i came acrossed this.
maybe..

1. Seeing the IM - not sure if you mean the noob having a problem seeing the IM, but have a pop up like the group proposals at the top right a blue box that says "You've recieved an instant message (IM) from you greeter, Please click bottom left box saying "IM" to talk


2.Finding the new Resident (how to locate the new Resident, when they've logged on, etc)
-Have all noobs start with a tracker they dont know about, but lets a greeters tracker find them and fly there? or.. just give greeters the rights to track noobs (people) X days old (like 5, enough time for them to learn how to track calling cards). Or....just have greeters teleport them to their locations off the bat?

3) Meeting up with them in-world (where to meet with them). Meet them somewhere you want to teach them the basics and the best place. like YadNis Junkyard, good to learn how to unbox things, and organise the inventory and wear things. Better to do this because the welcome center is too busy to teach anyone anything. its more of a meeting place.

Meh just some ideas when i saw this.
Oh, last and final idea, We can make a welcome to SL video...
www.NaturalSelectionStudios.com

Well great we have some movement in this area.


CAn you "ENLARGE" the Text so its more noticeable. I myself have ben getting better luck finding my callers These days.

Other then that I can`t say anything else about that the above issues.

I think getting an IM would probably be a better system than a message in gneral chat

Also having a *your new resident so and so just logged in for the first time* message like we get for our referrals would be great, to let us know that they are actually in world. this would also be a help as it goes to email if we are logged off.

Having a Teleport button like we do in Live Help would also help so that we can go straight to them.

The Greeters should not recieve the 'request for greeter' green text until the new player is actually logged and finished with orientation.

When receiving multiple greeter requests its difficult to keep track of the folks we are to greet. Especially since most are not officially in-world when the request comes through. Adding a feature to our 'manage your volunteer experience' page that lists all the greeter requests we have received and space for us to keep personal records would help us manage our requests and keep a record of all of our experiences(just like the 'Your Transactions' page). This record is helpful since the new players are allowed to rate us as volunteers. We can then look through our records and see what may have caused a bad rating from a new player.

I rarely see any of mine even get connected. The simplest and best thing to do at this point is to make sure that Greeter selection is the last step on Orientation Island. That way, you've assured they meet the minimum system specs, the software is installed and functional and the new resident has learned enough to get in world at all.

I'd like to see the notice also be in the form of a blue dialog pop-up rather than a chat-stream IM message, which is easy to miss.

Finally, we need an in-world way to toggle our availability. It's often difficult, or on some of my PCs, impossible to launch a web browser and run SL together so my availability state is often wrong.

Thanks for all the suggestions, keep them coming. I'll compile and review all of your suggestions (along with previous suggestions) shortly for upcoming feature requests on the program.

JESKA I like to see a warning posted to the newbies in their picking of a greeter like this " WARNING IF YOU ABUSE THE GREETER IN ANY WAY YOU WILL BE WARNED OR BANNED FROM SECOND LIFE FOR YOUR ACTIONS SO PLEASE REPECT YOUR GREETER" we need to do somethign with these types of abusive people.

I'm not a greeter (they haven't got the plastic wrapper off me yet), but some of you have probably seen me around in my 10 or 11 days on SL so far, checking up on every newblood who gates in making sure they're okay, giving orientations, answering questions and getting propositioned by the odd socially-inadequate lecher (I know where you're coming from Usagisempai).

Now, it's been real busy with the sudden influx the last few days. And Cutter's idea I feel is excellent. Before our newblood has first logged in, really, she doesn't know if she is going to NEED a greeter. Many of them think they don't, but by the time they reach the end of Orientation Isle they've changed their minds.

Now, with my Software Dev's hat on as well for a moment. I understand we're getting some Mozilla integration in the upcoming 1.7. That might be just about perfect. If the transportation gadget(s) at the last step of OI give the person the opportunity to change their mind about greeters through a CGI on the website (or just move greeter selection to there, and let them know earlier that they will have a chance to select a greeter before they hit the main grid), then I think we'll see a lot fewer newbloods coming out of the gate without a greeter selection.

Yeah, that would increase the load on the greeters, I'm sure, but we're all scurrying about at the moment trying to make sure the ungreeted newbloods have a POSITIVE experience. SL isn't for everyone, but the ones that who will find it a blast...well, SL is bewildering and confusing initially (like suddenly walking into an unexpected Mardis Gras). We don't want to lose them right there while they're figuring out how to move, get boxes off their heads, wear clothes and generally find their feet.

Did I just make any sense there?

Welcome to SL Tateru.

You're making a lot of sense. I'd probably had been up to speed sooner if I had better adjustment to the environment. Course a saner WA would help as well, but ya cannot have everything.

It may in fact be better to have the choice deferred to end of OI, or at least to allow the choice repealed at the end (say, at a new station showing off the web integrations). This would be a good starting way to leverage the web aspects of 1.7 and beyond.

Somehow I missed the Choose-a-Greeter option when I entered SL! No matter, though. Even though this is my very first virtual 3-D environment, I was able to stumble around almost effectively. And a certain Sean Gorham was sitting at the WA, and he looked like he could be helpful, what with his Mentor title hanging there for all to see, and as it turned out he WAS helpful, extremely so, and I wandered off, thinking , "Cool, this isn't going to be difficult at all, not with considerate, instructive guys like this around."

Yay!

Just so's you know.

Being a greeter is not easy. Some people thinks its so easy.....well its not. You need to be able to do things based on your undestanding abiliy to handle newbies. Its more then a title its a a right given to you by linden labs. You must uphold a image the linden labs believe you can promoto. One the other hand I seen some mentors screwing around the welcome area saying mentoring is about fun, while there is problems occuring all around. Second life is buildt around a base of good staff mostly, that helps the newbies get their life of the ground right. To this day I owe a few mentors i sl life because they were there when i needed them.
Usagi

I was a greeter for a short time when the program began. I retired because of these very issues being discussed in this thread. I quit rather than leave new users with the impression I didn't care to help, when in reality I never saw the notice of their arrival.

A few points I'd like to add....

1. As Bebop suggested, concerning ideas of where to meet .... to add to that idea.. the meet up place might be a temp home for the new user.. A greeter may suggest a sandbox, the junkyard or any of several user created newbie lands. A place where they could practice building in peace, practice adjusting their av, or anything else they would choose to do. The Welcome Area is nice, but for a first time location it's very laggy. For some reason it seems SL becomes less laggy over time. For new users, lag can destroy the experience, especially if their computer is on the lower end of the required level.

2. The idea was raised for a web page used for tracking the greeter data, similar to how the account page works. This is a super idea as well. On this page we might also have a "received IMs box", that way the greeter could answer the question from the browser, and the answer would be relayed when the new user logged in.


These volunteers offer LL a great service. If one has a good first experience, one is likely to return. I believe LL receives a good return on their investment in developing better tools for the greeters and other volunteers. The more volunteers organize their dealings with new users, the better new users will be served.


Just my 2 cents....

Thank you all for your feedback, there are currently plans in the works for how to enable more features to assist the Greeters in their tasks. This project is still in its early stages and I thank you all for your patience while we work out the details!

Yes.. may be they could be added to a Greeter group automatically.. so that if their actual assigned Greeter is offline, they can still request help from the Greeter group.

Another idea would be to have a calling card sent to the Greeter instead of just an IM, instead of it simply saying "This person is offering friendship", it would say something more relevant to the Greeting program. Then send the IM as well. This way you will have less chance of losing track of the person and will be able to easily find them on the map.

The website idea is also a great one, I have always wondered why I can't send IMs to people on my friends list once I have logged into the community portion of the SL website. It would be simply a matter of sending an email to their key, which is already approved for your use by them accepting you as a friend. So may be this Greeter thing could even help the of the "existing" Second Life community at the same time by extending this service to all people.

Basically the Greeter/Greetee list on the website, would work very much like the Friends list.

I completely agree with Bebop and Kevin.

And here is an unsolicited observation of mine: There have been many times that I have visited the WA to see if I can help a new arrival. To my dismay, on several occasions, I have witnessed a newcomer being harassed by solicitations from residents looking for ratings, romance (and the likes), pushing a visit to their store/club/game. These residents weren't looking to help the newcomer but to help ther own personal interests from the ignorance and confussed state of the newbie. I have even witnessed scantily clad 'escorts' soliciting newbies... Isn't the WA supposed to be "G" rated? (I admit, my avatar is scantily clad many different times. However, I dress, behave and speak appropriately in an area that REFLECTS Linden Labs).

On another occasion, I witnessed a newbie approach Mentors who were having a "fun" conversation and playing some sort of game with an object. The newbie asked a question which went unanswered, asked it again, then again and still no answer. He finally asked, "are you Mentors or not? Are you not here to help me?" but remained ignored. I then IMd him and asked if I could be of help. He came to me and stated, "I was about to leave this f'n game, I am lost, I am overwhelmed and I can't get any1 to help me".

I am not bashing Mentors. All I am saying is that the WA is no longer the "Welcome Area" that the name implies. I believe the WA should remain that, a place where the newcomer arrives to be greeted by Mentors, Helpers or Greeters who are there for ONLY one purpose: to help the newcomer, answer their questions, take them to experience the possitive side of SL and offer links to what the newcomer is interested in learnining or exploring. The other, more 'darker' side of SL will eventually be discovered, we all did.

ALso, the WA should not be the "home" that a newbie is TPd to when choosing "teleport home" but to any learning area they choose. Be it the Sherlter or the Junkyard or any other area that is qualified and has been pre-approved by LL by the standards and values this pre-selected establishment keeps. Standards and values that LL stands for.

These are my 2 cents worth.

Wait a sec..are you sure this was a mentor? Come on how stupid are mentors getting if this crap is happening? I never ignore newbies. But hell with some of these mentors in the group i could believe it! this is totally UNCALLED for if your a mentor. GRESH!
Here again this is not always the case, but if the little birdy is right we might not have to worry about some kind of rates in the welcome area.

Usaqi, I am absolutely sure they were Mentors and, believe me, I didn't mean to imply that all mentors behave thusly. I witnessed this only once. And I hope the newbie reads my previous post to confirm my statement without mentioning names. If he doesn't confirmt it, it's ok too. I'm sure it doesn't happen all the time but even once is not good as there were other newbies listening to the exchange. And, by now, those two Mentors have read this post and already know who I as referring to. I am also sure they won't be doing it again.

My experience is that the majority of Mentors are extremely knowledgeable and willing to help a newcomer. Most take it even further by making friends and continuing a possitive relationship with the newbie well beyond the WA. Most hold classes for the benefit of those who are willing to learn new things and most take their calling well above and beyond the call of duty; they care.

Above all, my original post was intended to convey my thought that the WA should be an area for the newbies to 'spawn' and be greeted only by Mentors and helpers who can teach them the next steps into our diverse world with proper guiadance. It should not be the negative (not necessarily speaking of Mentors) social gathering place that it can be at times (not all the time). I know we can't stop the socializing, I just wish to see a separate area akin to a classroom or learning area where they can ask questions and be exposed to some of the possitive things they can see, explore and learn. Then they can move on to what is now the WA, just call it something else. In other words: Join/OI/WA/Social Area (?)

Yes, some mentors should not be mentors. Just 2 days ago my friends and I were minding our own business on my friend's land, and then out of nowhere two people arrive on his land. They were trying to sell us something to do with timeshare on the moon for 800L. At first we just thought this was a joke and we laughed and said "no thankyou." One of these people had their Mentor title displayed.

Anyway, so they kept up the "sell" and it was becoming annoying so my friend politely asked them to leave. It got to the point where they (the two people selling whatever it was) started to get rude and start to use words inappropriate to normal chat, which I won't repeat here. It took a threat of calling a Linden for them to finally fly away but not before I had checked to make sure they were definitely in the "Second Life Mentors" group, which they were and then I filed an abuse report and attached the chat log.

Immediately after this, I went through the list of members in that group and noticed quite a number of highly dubious names. Names which constantly appear on ban lists because of their disruptive, offensive, malicious behavior. So I wondered to myself.. what is the criteria to get into this group?? Surely there is some screening/filtering process?? And what is being done to ensure that these type of people aren't turning potential Linden Labs' customers away due to their personal, and often selfish, agendas?

Well I am sorry if this was the case, some of us do work hard to reach mentor level others well.......The Bunny Works hard world all the time. Again I am sorry if there been some mentors causing these types of problems for you.