Mentor Recruitment Drive

Signs have gone up at a lot of infohubs celebrating certain volunteers and actively seeking new mentor applications. Same old, same old: You fill in the entry form, click the apply button and get told your application will be considered in 4-6 weeks.

Problem is, this was happening around the time I signed up last May and I know of people whose applications only succeeded when they bumped into Pathfinder Linden six months later and asked what the heck was going on.

So, my question is: Is there any reason to believe that the 4-6 week estimate is accurate this time?

Not really....I'm "being processed" at the moment (not rejected, still under consideration apparently) and it's been about 4 or 5 months now...

wow Leo. i was kinda hoping that if they'd embarked on a new recruitment campaign then they'd actually cleared the backlog. i guess not.

What's REALLY sad is that people are screaming for more support, and LL has volunteer applications (from people who want to HELP support) up the wazoo... it's funny, I got told the wait was 12 weeks... can you IMAGINE if a RL place told its potential volunteers or employees that it "might get back to them" in 12 weeks or more? All those people would just give up and walk away.

Maybe what LL needs is a decent human resources dept... to hire and recruit all these potential helpers, to reduce the demand for support!

too right Oryx. i thought it worthwhile applying because I try to help out at welcome areas (and occasionally NCI) when I can, and most of the time i see few - if any - mentors there at all. you don't need to become a mentor to help of course, but mentor group membership would sure be useful for those situations i'm unable to deal with myself due to lack of knowledge/experience/whatever.

I wonder if support would be better served by 3rd parties.
3rd parties wouldn't have the benefit of a link in the client, but I'm sure almost anyone would do better at putting volunteers were they are needed.

For those of you interested in helping out or volunteering, the Candle Society ("Bringing Light to Second Life" is dedicated to helping newbies and others who might have questions. Note that this is NOT a Linden group, it's an individual start up. Davidicus Liadis (sp?) is the founder and chairman, and the actual Candle Society is located on the island of Son (I'm not sure if Davidicus listed it in Search at all) (I'm at work and can't login... shhh!) I'm sure that he'd love help and advice!

Its admirable that so many wish to give up their 'free time' to help others. I myself have been a SLGreeter for nearly a year. However, I don't frequent help islands anymore since the stopped access to ingame help and the lindens. You will sadly find yourself inandated with questions from newcomers and overwhelmed as soon as you tp into those islands, with no backup from Lindens or those with authority to resolve greifers who drop their latest oversized prim boxes everwhere, shoot and verbally abuse everyone, while you struggle to answer 1,001 questions simultainously, reject 1,001 offers of friendship, cope with over whelming IM's asking questions that you have already covered in main chat, and offers of sex from every gender imaginable.

This maybe a black picture I have created, but it was easier to cope with, as you could call for assistance before, but now with even group IM's failing, you can be left feeling very issolated.
I have requested over and over, that LL install 'official' and supported translation devices into Help islands to help cope with the variations of languages and answer questions repeatedly thrown/shouted at you, that you cannot understand, without success. Some result in abuse from the one(s) asking the questions simply because you cannot make them understand.

Coupled with the withdrawing of LL from the scene, and group IM's failing, I have neglected going to Help Islands, and doing what I consider, the duty of all residents in SL, in helping newcomers. If LL want to save money and resources in removing live help, they should at least give support to those that give something to the community, for nothing. The least that should happen, is to make sure Group IM's for Mentors/Greeters never fail.

Ohhhh....another shattered dream.

/me is saddened by your story, AWM...wish it were not so.