Greeters program could use a tweak

I would like to express my feelings concerning the greeters program.

I have received messages telling me who to contact, but they aren't online at the time.

I was thinking it would function much in the same way as does the live help system. Have a new user click a button to access a greeter in-world. Any greeter that isn't busy could answer the call to greet and give a tour to the new user.

So far I have yet to actually meet the newbies. I would have to write down their name and do a search for them when I'm in-world. It may be they are occupied at that time if they are online.

Maybe we could get a notecard instead of a message, at least then we will remember who to contact.

Hi kevn

I keep a notecard in my inventory containing all the people that have chosen me, and who I have met/dealt with so far.

If it's late at night for me when I get the request, I wait as long as I can then drop them an IM explaining that I have to go to bed, but that I will catch up with them asap.

This has worked quite well so far, one or two have IMd me when they come in if I haven't been online, and we've done the meet and greet thing the next time we're both on together.

I've also IMd the ones I've helped to to see how they're getting on, they seem pleased that we take the time to ask.

I would LOVE it if we could get a message that said *so and so has logged in for the first time* like we do with our referrals, but apparently that will have to wait a while.

I too keep a notecard with the requests I recieve & send them an IM in case I somehow miss them. This has worked out OK but I can see areas of the system that can & should be improved to make it even more useful.

Yea! I do too keep a notecard, copy and paste when I get a message.

Now, I can see what Kevn means thou...

Why if you are at a party where many people are chatting, so of course there is a lot of chat on your screen and you happen to be afk for a little while. When you come back you missed that Greeter message because your chat goes quick.

Then you don't pay attention thinking you will get a message from the greeter program and miss it.

At least with the sudden notecard you can come back to your desk and will be right there on your screen.

Do all usually go back on your chat history? Especially if you are at a party/dance that you don't care what goes on there? lol I know I wouldn't.

The way of being notified isn't working very well for me. When I'm in a busy place the notice is pushed by with the chat scroll. If I am afk or just don't see it, it's lost forever. Who scrolls back over hours of scroll for these messages?

I think the notification should be via notecard or some other system.

I understand some of the greeters do ok with this system. They don't mind waiting for a notification, watching carefully not to miss it, then they make their own notecard, so they don't forget who to follow-up with.

My concern is many newbies are being lost in the shuffle. It has come to the point I'm about to drop out of the program. I don't want these newbies feeling as if I'm not interested in helping.

I don't understand why the system can't send a notecard instead of a notice? It's a matter of simple coding. Change the code to send a notecard instead of a notice. The notecard will stay on my screen until I close it. ThenI can go thru the notecards later to see if anyone is online.

Also, once the notecard is in my inventory, I'd like to be notified when that person is online for a couple weeks.

I lost one name today .... I saw it and was too busy doing something, I thought of copy and paste the message.. but then I logged off suddenly, so I lost it suddenly too...

Now what?

Well, I dropped out of the greeters program just now until the system is working correctly. I'll keep an eye out for any changes. It's really too bad too, cause I love helping new users. Maybe LL will fix it soon.

WOW, Is it really THAT bad Kevin that you have to drop out of the program? Well we are sorry to see you go, really we are. Sort of like the young lady who screamed spammers at us for asking a question to fellow greeters to assist a newbie.

Its very simple really, I am very busy myself in world, I have suggested a status button or somethigng for us to turn it off/on to notify that we are available or not. In the meantime, I got creative, instead complaining, and simply use my scroll button if I had to go afk.

Yes sometimes you get disconnected, (stuff happens), but more often than not, my finger doesnt break when I must force it to scroll back through just to make sure. I mean that IS what this program is all about is Volunteering. No program out there is perfect, I think its a great system, and it works fine if your just willing to make a few adjustments, its really not that difficult, I mean if your afk for 2 hours at a time, why be in game anyway?

My solution to the offline newbies is that as I receive a greeter request, I immediately search for them in find, send them an OFFLINE message as most of them are, and tell them to to reply to my message when they come online AND complete orientation island and we will get them started ) This way I have done my part, and its now their choice yet again to contact me, so far so good.......and sending the im to them takes all of about 2.5 secs. I also take inot consideraton they are new and may closeout the window, so I make anoccasional sweep of my little list of folks i havent heard from yet, when I am not so busy. sacrifice sacrifice, again volunteer.

Well we hope to see you back sometime soon Kevin, when the system is fixed to your standards. Have a GREAT day everyone!

Thanks for the info. I agree it can be done if you aren't already doing other things. If it's too much trouble for LL to make a minor adjustment to the code so it's a bit easier for the volunteers I'll just find other ways to do what I enjoy(helping newbies). It's still my fun time when I'm in-world. I work at my job and volunteer here because it's fun. If it becomes a job to help I'll find something else to do. At this point, being an instructor and a mentor is enough to keep me busy/entertained.

When I signed up for the greeter program I had the false impression it would be quite different. I expected it to be easy to find and hook up with the newbies. If I have to constantly search for the notices(yes, I go to the WA where the scroll can push the notices out of sight quickly) to know a newbie isn't being left behind, then leave me out, let those who are waiting around for a notice to help them. If I stay in the program knowing people are getting lost in the shuffle, I'm at fault.

My hope was I would get a card noting the person's name and letting me know when they log in. They would also get a card telling them to contact me when they see I'm online and set to "avaliable". I'm probably expecting too much. At least I tested the waters. Now I know it's not for me. If it works for you then we are in good shape.

Its not always that simple