Notes on the WelcomeHub

[Randall Ahren]

3 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

There are some games in the Welcome Hub regions, but most of them either require multiple players or encourage gambling. I agree there should be some single player games. Something like the fairgrounds/ boardwalk games at Merrymount would be good.

London City is a good example of how a Welcome Hub should be setup. There are several single player games there, poker, a pizza game (you can win L$2), shops, an area for busking, and generally a small circle of people staring at each other, with two or three people in the group conversing in voice.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

4 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

One time I was offering advice in text to one newbie while a mentor was doing the same. The mentor got upset that I was "talking over" him and sent me an IM telling me to stop talking over him and saying I could apply to be a mentor if I wanted to be one. I thought he was being rude to me, but I just replied back with a smile emoticon and stopped talking in text. Meanwhile the newbie I'd been talking to sent me a friend invite, and I accepted it.

Someone told me she went to check the new welcome area and was helping a new person.  She got a PM from a couple Mentors to lay off. She  PMed back only trying to help.  One Mentor got pissed off and told her to leave.  My friend did lodge a ticket explaining what happened and explain she didn't want to be in the Mentor program due to the commitments but just pop in now and then. Now she is thinking heck with them and maybe bail from SL.

[Gabriele Graves]

30 minutes ago, Randall Ahren said:

London City is a good example of how a Welcome Hub should be setup. There are several single player games there, poker, a pizza game (you can win L$2), shops, an area for busking, and generally a small circle of people staring at each other, with two or three people in the group conversing in voice.

Don't forget the 30+ scripted agents there at any one time to make the place seem more popular than it is.

[Kathlen Onyx]

2 minutes ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Someone told me she went to check the new welcome area and was helping a new person.  She got a PM from a couple Mentors to lay off. She  PMed back only trying to help.  One Mentor got pissed off and told her to leave.  My friend did lodge a ticket explaining what happened and explain she didn't want to be in the Mentor program due to the commitments but just pop in now and then. Now she is thinking heck with them and maybe bail from SL.

She is leaving SL totally because of this one incident? Seems rather an overreaction. 

I can see if a mentor is helping a person how it would be irritating for another person to come in and start helping.  If mentors are assigned to the welcome area and they have volunteered I would say that other residents shouldn't get involved. 

[Love Zhaoying]

LL Optimists: "The WelcomeHub experiment is a success, even if the WelcomeHub itself is a failure, because we will learn something."

Established SL User Pessimists: "The WelcomeHub Probably is not going to be seriously maintained after SL20B."

New SL User Realists: "It's no fun."

 

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

Just now, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

She is leaving SL totally because of this one incident? Seems rather an overreaction. 

I can see if a mentor is helping a person how it would be irritating for another person to come in and start helping.  If mentors are assigned to the welcome area and they have volunteered I would say that other residents shouldn't get involved. 

She's helped in welcome areas before the Mentor program was restored.  But there's some other underlying things she's concerned about  SL and think is looking for an excuse to exit.  As for the Mentor they could've been more gentle in his reply I think. I used to help sometimes --- but it was when I was running a club and sometimes I'd see a zero-day toon land.  One told me he got there from a random TP or something.  Someone told me SL would dump new toons at clubs, but don't know how true is that.

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

  She got a PM from a couple Mentors to lay off.

This sounds very similar to an experience posted by someone earlier in the thread who was trying to help.

[Rowan Amore]

While I was there today, a mentor kept giving the incorrect reply to someone's question.  I simply IMed the person, told them where to accomplish what they had asked about and that was all.  She thanked me and went on her way.  

[Hunny Bunny]

In situations where a resident offers help, even if their advice may not be optimal, their genuine intention to assist should be acknowledged and encouraged. Allowing residents to contribute fosters a collaborative and supportive environment within the program. If a mentor feels compelled to tell that resident to lay off, a more constructive approach could be for the mentor to take a step back, redirect their attention to other users, and remain available for any further questions the new user may have.

[belindacarson]

1 hour ago, Randall Ahren said:

London City is a good example of how a Welcome Hub should be setup. There are several single player games there, poker, a pizza game (you can win L$2), shops, an area for busking, and generally a small circle of people staring at each other, with two or three people in the group conversing in voice.

No, it's not.

 

It's the worst place on the entire grid to start out.

 

I won't start posting more ref sensitive people

 

BUT avoid it, like the plague.

[Yukiko Yeshto]

I couldn't be more confused. So because someone helped newcomers at LL Hubs in the past while the mentor programme was disabled, they feel personally attacked if they are made aware to let mentors do their job first now that LL reinstalled it? We can agree to disagree but to me, that feels like crashing into a building class elsewhere and telling students how to build while disregarding the teacher's existence. On their property. If we were in their shoes, wouldn't we all prefer to be offered help and asked for consent first before action is taken?

Now, I do understand that people would love to help but just can't commit to the mentor role requirements, such as x hours per week. But when did we stop being creative? I'd say, there are many other ways to support the mentors. If I ever have enough time, I might drop by spontaneously and ask them if they're fine if I offered the present newcomers an impromptu tour around Mainland and/or Bellisseria so they can get a bit of an idea what SL could be about.

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

When I started SL ages ago, a resident named Cubey Terra used to bring newbies for balloon rides. People loved that. 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Ingrid Ingersoll

[elleevelyn]

1 hour ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Someone told me she went to check the new welcome area and was helping a new person.  She got a PM from a couple Mentors to lay off. She  PMed back only trying to help.  One Mentor got pissed off and told her to leave

Rogue Mentor resurrected !

nothing ever changes. Linden-sanctioned resident mentors getting all territorial. Rogue Mentor was the term applied by the territorials back in the day to residents helping out as and when they could

i never understood the attitude back then and I still don't understand it today. 

[Rolig Loon]

I spent many years mentoring in SL at Community Virtual Library, where we tried all sorts of approaches for helping newbies. One thing I learned from the experience is that there is no perfect one-size-fits-all way to do it.  Some newbies seem to be hoping for crowds of people (dancing, carnival rides, interactive games, ...) and others are looking for ways to explore on their own.  Some newbies are excited about being builders, artists, performers, or merchants.  Others look forward to being consumers, enjoying what other people have created. What's "fun" for some people is dead boring or intimidating for others.  The bottom line is that you can't make a welcome area that is fun and appealing for everybody.  If you try to satisfy everyone, you still end up disappointing some of them and you still get loads of friendly advice about how you could have done it better.

[Persephone Emerald]

As I see it, mentors are each going to have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes they might get touchy when they feel like a non-mentor is interfering, might not be giving LL sanctioned information, could be confusing newbies, or is making it harder for them to do their job. Some might not have the bet social skills, despite their experience and desire to be helpful. That's why I didn't argue with the mentor who told me to lay off giving advice in local when he was trying to do the same. I just gave him a smilely face and shut up. The newbie had already IMed me, so I responded to her in IM, accepted her friend request, and told her to contact me if she saw I was online and needed help with anything.

I was just there again today, and Viola Mole asked me nicely to move away from the Orientation area and go to the Social Area instead. I guess I was standing in the way at the edge of the Orientation area, but I hadn't been saying much in local and had only chatted in IM with one "newbie" who was actually a returning user. I told her I thought she'd picked a nice avatar & wished her luck getting the hang of SL again. I had also said hello to a guy whose profile said he's married to a regular resident. I asked him if he was waiting to meet a friend of needed help with anything.

I saw a couple newbies who were just clouds and seemed to have been there for awhile. They weren't on the rez in circle. One was 3 days old. I sent them both a brief IM asking if they needed help rezzing/ spawning in world because they looked like they were just clouds. Neither responded to me. 

While I was there, one of the newbies said "Hola" in local, after which one of the mentors started texting in multiple languages to help direct non-English speakers. One newbie asked "Greek?" to ask if anyone spoke Greek. After a little while I saw a new mentor come in with Spanish (I assume) in their profile. I also saw a BelliHub mentor come in when there were fewer Welcome Hub mentors around. 

The Welcome Hub Mentors and Bellisseria Mentors are separate groups. I'm assuming these are both LL sanctioned groups, but I don't know for sure if the Bellisseria Mentors are.

Edited July 15, 2023 by Persephone Emerald

[Perrie Juran]

16 hours ago, animats said:

There are four avatars stuck at the landing point. I assume they are bots, especially the ones with names that end in large random numbers.

If they are properly registered scripted agents they shouldn't be there.

If they have not, LL needs to turn off access by bots to the welcome areas.

Or they need to give mentors a means to recognize and then boot a scripted agent.

[Gabriele Graves]

When I was there a few times, there were definitely a few scripted agent accounts.

[Perrie Juran]

I do not know LL's position on this but unregistered scripted agents should be a bannable offense. If it acts like a Bot, looks like a bot, smells like a bot it more than likely is a bot.

[Hunny Bunny]

As the saying goes, "Many hands make light work". It emphasizes the value of collaboration and the idea that tasks can be completed more efficiently when multiple individuals contribute. This concept can be applicable in various contexts, including mentorship programs.

In the context of a mentorship program, having multiple individuals, including mentors and residents, offering their support and assistance can be beneficial. It allows for a broader range of expertise, diverse perspectives, and a larger pool of resources to draw from.

During Second Life's Lab Gab Special Live at SL20B, Phillip Linden expressed the following sentiment, "We would be wise to look at things like second life and remember it is not in our nature to hurt each other or to ignore each other or to turn away from each other. It's you know what's in our nature is the opposite of that to be good and to take care of each other and that's what you see in Second Life. It's like how you go in and people want to help you as a new Resident you know for the first thing is you know people are like hey I can help you out here." That's a positive outlook.

While it's important to maintain structure and clarity within the mentorship program, recognizing the potential benefits of collaboration and teamwork can lead to more comprehensive and effective support for those seeking help. Encouraging residents to contribute their knowledge and assistance alongside mentors can create a richer and more supportive learning environment for all participants.

[Lindal Kidd]

My experiences at the new Welcome Hub have been positive so far, even though I am not at present an official Mentor.

My communications with the Mentors have been polite, and no one has tried to chase me off or keep me from helping. I'm sure some of the Mentors are territorial, but I haven't encountered any of them.

The Hub region itself has always been busy when I've been there, with lots of new people arriving. As always, most of the newcomers don't communicate, even when greeted by name, although the percentage of those who are willing to talk seems a little higher than at previous onboarding regions.

The Hub region is surrounded by 8 other regions, which provides a significant amount of area to explore and things to do. I especially enjoyed the new means of transport, the Avatar Cannons, which shoot you through the air (a teleport with your avatar animated flailing your limbs) to one of the outer regions. There's bumper boats too, which look like fun if you can scare up a few others to play with. And the bicycles are fun to ride.

Unlike previous onboarding regions, the Welcome Hubs are open to all residents, and flying is not disabled. So far, this has not resulted in the sort of anarchy that took over the old Infohubs and Social Island 10.

I agree that Welcome Hubs tailored to the other languages SL supports besides English would be a great idea. At the very least, Spanish and Portuguese, since these seem to be the non-English languages most frequently in use by new accounts.  Or maybe the many video kiosks could be made language-selectable, or automatically play in the language used by the watcher's viewer.

[Persephone Emerald]

When I was last at the Welcome Hub today as Persephone, one of the newbies was naked and holding a wizard's wand as he walked across the bridge to the Linden Homes demos. I assumed, as perhaps others did too, that his nakedness was intentional.

I came back later as Tasha, in wolf form, and saw the same avatar still naked, but now without his wand. I asked him if he'd lost his clothes. He said he had. I told him how to Replace Outfit with one of the starter avatar folders in the Library. He did, thanked me, and told me I was nice.

It's too bad one of the mentors or another resident didn't ask him if he needed help to get dressed again, or if they did, maybe he didn't know how to respond?

[animats]

Here's an instant gamification plan. Provide a few portals:

• Hello Kitty land (That's at "Astralia 3"). There's a lot to do there - rides, games, etc. - along with the incredible cuteness.  While enjoying the water slides, bumper cars, and other rides, users will get used to how SL does things. This won't appeal to everyone, but it's a nice option to offer to people who don't want to compete right now.
• People who want to shoot something could be sent to "Hellfire", which is a a PvP combat sim with some free weapons, no meters or HUDs, and not much organization or factions. It uses the built-in SL damage system. There are 15 people there right now, and the sound of automatic weapons fire. New arrivals land in a safe zone, and have a chance to look around before arming up and crossing the clearly visible warning barrier into the combat zone.
• For driving, there's "Mackinac Island", which has a car dealership with a row of free demo car rezzers and a long, forgiving track. (Invisible walls prevent falling off.)

Each of those places has things new users can do on day one. They all offer familiar gamer-type activities at easy level. Mistakes made there are neither serious nor embarrassing. All are reasonably nice looking builds, in totally different styles. There's better cuteness, better combat, and better driving in SL, but these three are all easy introductions to SL.

[xDancingStarx]

Ah so the new Welcome Hub has been out for a few weeks and every other forums member whose vocabulary consists for big parts of "assume", "presume", "guess" and "may" knows how to do it better. Big surprise

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, animats said:

Here's an instant gamification plan. Provide a few portals:

• Hello Kitty land (That's at "Astralia 3"). There's a lot to do there - rides, games, etc. - along with the incredible cuteness.  While enjoying the water slides, bumper cars, and other rides, users will get used to how SL does things. This won't appeal to everyone, but it's a nice option to offer to people who don't want to compete right now.
• People who want to shoot something could be sent to "Hellfire", which is a a PvP combat sim with some free weapons, no meters or HUDs, and not much organization or factions. It uses the built-in SL damage system. There are 15 people there right now, and the sound of automatic weapons fire. New arrivals land in a safe zone, and have a chance to look around before arming up and crossing the clearly visible warning barrier into the combat zone.
• For driving, there's "Mackinac Island", which has a car dealership with a row of free demo car rezzers and a long, forgiving track. (Invisible walls prevent falling off.)

Each of those places has things new users can do on day one. They all offer familiar gamer-type activities at easy level. Mistakes made there are neither serious nor embarrassing. All are reasonably nice looking builds, in totally different styles. There's better cuteness, better combat, and better driving in SL, but these three are all easy introductions to SL.

I like this much better than immediately trying to get the user into a new mesh body, shopping, etc.

[Jaylinbridges]

Too bad they can't just TP to SL clubs - there is life in SL.  (11:30 PM SLT Saturday)  Put the mentors at active clubs?