Is this new round of mentors a good idea?

[Sparkle Bunny]

3 hours ago, Caeruleiae said:

It's just not paying anything forward-that's a really weird label to put on something like this and I don't understand why they put emphasis on that. 

Because the warm fuzzy feeling of helping them retain signups is supposed to be sufficient compensation for doing their job for them? Presumably they're hoping that this framing will attract a better class of candidate than 'come and do this job which we do not think is sufficiently important to actually pay anyone to do, so don't expect any kind of meaningful support in doing it'.

[Chic Aeon]

Well since I had the "new user experience" last summer making my ART ALT  I say they DEFINITELY  need someone at the induction center,. It was really hard just finding your way out and I am sixteen or seventeen years here.  The Google thing is that you have to have a Google account to fill in the Google form (Chic has one). But while I completely understand the need for the mentors to be in the Linden viewer, I am not willing to go there. 

 

I will just keep doing my "Pay it Forward" bit unofficially.

BTW Moles are supposed to be overseeing this newness and the folks so there IS some official oversite committee thing going on.  I hope it works out and helps.  

[Marigold Devin]

5 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

 

The last time we had mentors, wasn't a real big success.
What makes LL think that it will end differently (namely in a success) this time?

Thoughts?
 

The last time I remember we had some kind of Second Life Mentors, didn't they have names like jewels and there were a couple of islands where newbies and oldies alike could go just by clicking a button within the viewer? (My memory is failing me a little bit here.)  I thought they were quite successful, but as always happens, there were a lot of people turning up at the sims pretending to be helping who were just leading people off to various places, or generally being trolls. 

I really would like to think it would be possible to have proper mentors. I was extremely lucky because someone took me under their wing without being any kind of official mentor, I just happened to arrive in his building, and he happened to look after me. 

I was very VERY lucky, just didn't realise it at the time, and after that used to pay it forward by helping other people too, until I got to the stage where Second Life became puzzling to me again (mesh pfffft!). 

_____

Edited to add - I really really really do not like this bit:

 

SECOND LIFE
“OUR LIFE”

O - Orienteering 
U - Universal 
R - Residents 

L - Learning with 
I -  Inspiration 
F - Fun and 
E - Enthusiasm 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Marigold Devin
FFFFORMULA FFFUN!

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

I hope Help Island will be used again for mentoring, I think it would be the perfect place to do it. There, or at the various Social Island and Portal Park regions.

However, please do NOT revamp or remodel the Help Island sim as that place is important in SL's history and should be kept preserved as it is.

Edited June 9, 2023 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[SabrinaCooke]

10 minutes ago, Marigold Devin said:

SECOND LIFE
“OUR LIFE”

O - Orienteering 
U - Universal 
R - Residents 

L - Learning with 
I -  Inspiration 
F - Fun and 
E - Enthusiasm 

 

 

That part was cringe AF. 

[Marigold Devin]

3 hours ago, xDancingStarx said:

There are already helpers at the other non Linden starter locations, and it's also, in general, a good idea to have helpers at the Linden locations with more presence than there currently is.

Instead of searching for potential issues like "What if those new mentors think they're a better SL member than me?" "What if they get more power than me and abuse it?" "Oh there's just gonna be drama" I prefer to see it from the perspective of how confusing SL is to get started and that it's just good for a newbie to have someone to ask a question or two.

Edit: I wonder if this has to do with those new hubs that are going to be introduced. What were they called again?

Also, Linden should definitely be looking out for people who also speak Spanish.

You have jogged my memory.

Way back, probably as long ago as 2010, I can remember an Austrian friend of mine becoming a mentor at a German-speaking welcome area, because at that point, once a new resident had gone through the initial orientation process and was allowed to enter the rest of the Second Life world as we know it, Orientation Island was not always the best place to visit to obtain help, and as you point out, there are many people from other countries who would like help from native speakers, and so these were put in place. 

I don't know if these places still exist, or whether they are just barren wastelands now! 

[xDancingStarx]

Also people who consider applying for this without prior experience should have in mind that it's not gonna be like every newbie they encounter is gonna embrace them happily and ready to learn. Many are just alts. Many who are just not interested in a conversation or help. So if you're gonna be on a 2 hour long shift, it may not get as exciting as you'd be tempted to think.

[Coffee Pancake]

21 minutes ago, Sasy Scarborough said:

I signed up, I find that I did at first balk at must use SL viewer but that does make the most sense,

It's important to be having the same experience as the person you're helping is, menus all the same, options the same.

Although this will present challenges for the Belli home mentors who will likely be meeting people on Firestorm, and as we all know .. Firestorm have helpfully renamed EVERYTHING in the viewer and shuffled it about, for reasons. So expect to need screenshots of all the menus, just so you can tell them how to set something up.

21 minutes ago, Sasy Scarborough said:

But my main request would be the ability to log into a designated account.

I have signed up with a dedicated alt, mainly for the G profile, but also so I can fill the profile with useful information.

A dedicated Mentor last name account would be better.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

So, let me see if i have this straight....

1. We have to use the brick of a SL viewer. 
2. We will be using our personal accounts. (my issue with this is dealing with ultra needy or complete nutjobs that can now join the same groups, show up at my shop and harass me for not giving them the answers they wanted to hear."
3. There is no monetary compensation. Time is money @Linden Lab why is your time worth  more than mine?
4. We will have ZERO power to do anything about griefers. 
5. Your slogan bites. 
6. There is a Belisseria mentor option.. So you want us to pay to be premium AND work for you for free?

Basically, thats a hard NO from me. 

[Coffee Pancake]

1 minute ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

1. We have to use the brick of a SL viewer. 

It's fiiinnnee .. and maybe Mentors will be better positioned to say "hey .. this needs love"

1 minute ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

1. We will be using our personal accounts. (my issue with this is dealing with ultra needy or complete nutjobs that can now join the same groups, show up at my shop and harass me for not giving them the answers they wanted to hear."

Use a dedicated alt.

1 minute ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

1. There is no monetary compensation. Time is money @Linden Lab why is your time worth  more than mine?

I am going to be loudly demanding cakes and a pony.

1 minute ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

1. We will have ZERO power to do anything about griefers. 

GOOD. That went so well last time.

1 minute ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

1. There is a Belisseria mentor option.. So you want us to pay to be premium AND work for you for free?

I pay for 3 premiums, the account I'm using wont be. If that's not enough .. 

[Sasy Scarborough]

5 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I have signed up with a dedicated alt, mainly for the G profile, but also so I can fill the profile with useful information.

A dedicated Mentor last name account would be better.

I signed up as myself because they seemed to have missed the option of experience, so having that 17 years felt important, but I do hope if they do not create accounts for us that they will let me change to an old enough alt lol. Do you see how I keep commenting as though it is a done deal  I am doing one of those visualisation, positive reinforcement tricks.

[elleevelyn]

4 hours ago, Nika Talaj said:

Well, there were obvious fixable issues with earlier LL mentor programs, so I'm hopeful.  Personally, I think the most obvious flaw was a nearly complete lack of ongoing monitoring/supervision.  If you're going to make use of volunteers, you can't just set them loose.

just adding on to this

in another life I was SL Mentor and what the programme lacked then was a structured schedule.  The way it worked was, people could login when ever and where ever they felt they could make a contribution

coming to our workplace whenever we feel like it is not how a volunteer organisation is run, not if you want to meet the goals of the organisation

the important thing is that a organisation staffed by volunteers is a workplace (whether you getting paid or not, you are staff). As staff then we need to turn up for  work according to the duty schedule we have agreed too. . And when we are unable to turn up for work then we are to advise the workplace manager that we will be absent and unable to fulfill the agreed duty. And that repeated absences will end up with the sack 

SL Mentor is not a roleplay, is a real world duty. Volunteers in the real world much prefer a well organised and professionally run duty schedule, same as any other real world workplace

 

[colleen Criss]

I applied because I loved my time @ NCI.Inc. I'm not sure why Bellisario needs its own group but ok. I will need to relearn the viewer but, ok. Voice will be a hard no for me because of my RL home. I like the mentoring program coming back.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

5 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

It's fiiinnnee .. and maybe Mentors will be better positioned to say "hey .. this needs love"

Like LL will listen. 

6 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Use a dedicated alt.

I shouldn't have to, they should provide an Account that is an official LL account. As it stands anyone can say they are a mentor.

7 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I am going to be loudly demanding cakes and a pony.

You do that.

7 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

GOOD. That went so well last time.

By that I meant that there aren't enough LL employees to deal with griefers when they show up. 

9 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I pay for 3 premiums, the account I'm using wont be. If that's not enough .. 

 Bully for you, I don't have that kind of free cash. 

[Paul Hexem]

I'll be a Belli mentor, sure.

But I expect to get Premium Plus and all the perks at no charge, my state's minimum hourly wage.

[AzureWaves]

19 minutes ago, colleen Criss said:

I applied because I loved my time @ NCI.Inc. I'm not sure why Bellisario needs its own group but ok. I will need to relearn the viewer but, ok. Voice will be a hard no for me because of my RL home. I like the mentoring program coming back.

The fact you don't know it's Bellisseria means you'll be a bad mentor.

[Quistess Alpha]

20 minutes ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

As it stands anyone can say they are a mentor

There's a specific group. Sure anyone who owns a group can spoof group tags (and newbies won't know how to check for that), but that's a separate issue.. .

[Sasy Scarborough]

4 minutes ago, Quistess Alpha said:

There's a specific group. Sure anyone who owns a group can spoof group tags (and newbies won't know how to check for that), but that's a separate issue.. .

That is another great reason for Mentors to have Last name - Mentor - so that there is no ability to impersonate a linden approved Mentor.  I would love to be Sasy MentorSL  WOOHOO a separate account though of course, not changing my real name.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Sasy Scarborough

[Rowan Amore]

43 minutes ago, Drake1 Nightfire said:

There is a Belisseria mentor option.. So you want us to pay to be premium AND work for you for free?

It doesn't stipulate having to be a premium member nor a Belli resident to mentor that group.  I know a few things about the regions simply by reading that section of the forums and I've never lived there.

 

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

I've done lots of voluntary advice-giving at the various Social Island sims in my free time in SL.

At first, it was easy, fun and it gives you a nice warm nostalgic feeling as you imagine yourself in the shoes of a fresh-off-Orientation-Island noob again. And theres also the satisfaction of making someones first days in SL a happy one.

But, the repetitiveness of the role quickly gets to you after a while.  You start to realise that you keep getting asked the same old questions.  After a while, it gets boring and enthusiasm and motivation for the role quickly fades. Sometimes, there's also the trouble makers, griefing attacks and you lack any real powers to do anything about it. And then theres noobs begging for money, freebies and demands of more time and forced friendships. Often, you don't even get even thanked by the noobs either as they teleport away, crash or log out.

With my considerable SL experience and skills, I'm more than capable of fulfilling all that's asked for the role of Mentor. But I shall not be volunteering. Especially not with such poor compensation and terms from LL.

Edited June 9, 2023 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Istelathis]

I was not here when there were mentors, so I'm not sure what happened.  As far as being a mentor, I can only assume it would require some sort of hierarchy structure, regular meetings that are mandatory, and a lot of rules that involve not throwing noobies into volcanoes which is an absolute no for me.  

 

[colleen Criss]

53 minutes ago, AzureWaves said:

The fact you don't know it's Bellisseria means you'll be a bad mentor.

Thank you for your input. 

[Marigold Devin]

55 minutes ago, AzureWaves said:

The fact you don't know it's Bellisseria means you'll be a bad mentor.

I thought it was Bellisaria

[Rowan Amore]

3 minutes ago, Marigold Devin said:

I thought it was Bellisaria

That's why I just call it Belli.  Why they didn't just called it Stepford,  I'll never understand.

[kali Wylder]

I used to really like helping people back when I was hosting. I'm here so rarely now though and I've forgotten half of what I used to know and the other half of stuff I knew is mostly obsolete, so I doubt if I'd be much help these days.