Solving the SL RETENTION problem: an idea

[Ponsonby Low]

We see the number "16,000 new registrations per day" mentioned frequently. As we all know, though, SL doesn't grow by anywhere near that because very few of those who register, choose an avatar, and materialize on Orientation Island ever stay.

It's often been mentioned that one cause of this retention problem is that new people don't know how or where to get answers to their questions---questions about the computer on which they're running SL, questions about their appearance ("box on hand!!!" etc), questions about where to go to find music or shopping or clubs, questions about how to set their Preferences, questions about using Voice...and on and on.

In thinking about this problem, I keep noticing my experience with one of my larger Groups---a building group.

People who are learning to build--and even experienced builders--have a LOT of questions.

I notice that at ANY time of the day or night, when someone posts a question (from simple to advanced), SOMEONE will come on, immediately or nearly so, and answer it. (If I'm not in the thick of something, I'm one of those who answer.) It's clear that the people answering enjoy doing so. They aren't asked to 'cover' any hours and it isn't a chore--they just enjoy sharing their knowledge.

My question to the GD Forum----------couldn't this work for new registrants, too???

If new registrants were automatically enrolled in a Newcomers Group (and  if 16,000 new people register each day, obviously there would have to be a number of them, just as there are many Orientation Islands), and possibly some vetted long-time Residents were permitted to register to be placed in each group, then questions COULD be answered immediately.

Many newbies who'd been here over a day would enjoy sharing their new knowledge with just-registered newcomers. The long-time Residents could chime in if needed.

There would be no pressure, just as there's no pressure in the Builders group I spoke of: if you're busy, you don't have to feel obligated to answer, because with a large-enough group, someone will be around and will enjoy answering.

This way, new people would feel they had a support system.

All that would be needed would be a well-designed billboard at Orientation Island that gives step-by-step instructions for accessing the Group Chat. And since it would all take place in Chat, Linden Lab could monitor, automatically, for keywords. If someone abuses the system, they could be expelled from the Group.

 

...Could this work????

 

 

[squashy Beeswing]

I like your idea to a limited extent.  Recently i've been trying to think up ways in which i might best be able to assist new folks but without getting myself "embroiled".   A group such as you describe would give me the means to do that.

On the minus side, the sheer numbers would surely make any such group unworkable.  How would one manage the numbers, let alone the constant gesture spam and other nonsense that'd crop up?  It's not that i take a dim view of all noobs per se;  however, there will always be those whose sole raison d'etre is to disrupt and annoy.

Do LL even have the staff available to monitor a group chat of that size?  I think not.  Volunteers might do it, though.

[Ponsonby Low]

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squashy Beeswing wrote:

I like your idea to a limited extent.  Recently i've been trying to think up ways in which i might best be able to assist new folks but without getting myself "embroiled".   A group such as you describe would give me the means to do that.

On the minus side,

the sheer numbers would surely make any such group unworkable

.  How would one manage the numbers, let alone the constant gesture spam and other nonsense that'd crop up?  It's not that i take a dim view of

all

noobs per se;  however, there will always be those whose sole raison d'etre is to disrupt and annoy.

Do LL even have the staff available to monitor a group chat of that size?  I think not.  Volunteers might do it, though.

---

As I said, just as there are many Orientation Islands (very interesting to look at on the Map, by the way), there would have to be a number of Newcomer Groups. As for the ideal number, big enough to ensure 'always someone on who will answer so there's no pressure on any particular volunteer' but small enough not to cause technical problems---that I don't know. (Ideas, anyone?)

I think automated software could check for keywords (including gesture spam) that might be potentially disruptive, thus minimizing Linden labor requirements. Basically new registrants would automatically be enrolled in one of the Groups. Not much expense to LL there. 

 

 

[Venus Petrov]

The closest example I know of this is the inworld Phoenix/Firestorm group.  There are designated official support people and others who informally offer help.  There are support staff there 24/7 (as far as I know) as well as staff who speak other languages.

Already LL rely on residents for the Answers forum here and to help craft wiki entries.  I know there would be those who would sign up to help in such an inworld capacity.  Managing the multiple groups would need to fall on LL shoulders.  Newbies would likely join up for a short period of time and then drop or stick around and help. 

Sounds like an interesting idea.  I do not know to whom you would pitch it as the CTUG here is focused on the forums and wiki, not general support.  Perhaps a Linden will chime in on this thread.

[Ponsonby Low]

Yes, I had some difficulty in deciding where to post this idea. If only I'd had it when Rodvik first became company-head---I could have posted it in his Welcome blog comments!

[Maryanne Solo]

It's a great Idea.

So much LL could do that appears to be easy, such as, your idea, all noobs assigned to the Welcome group. We all know that the behaviour at the welcome islands is generally atrocious.

Don't send them there and expose them to those groups who insist on loitering.

Wonders if these noobs group chat questions could auto link/post to a Welcome group here in the forums too?

*looks for Kudos button.. oh, wrong area.

[Randall Ahren]

NCI is similar to the Phoenix/Firestorm support group, but is focused on general help for new citizens (residents) rather than just on specific viewers. The way NCI handles disruptive people is that they they have a few moderators that will intervene if someone is causing a problem in group chat. I think the Phoenix/Firestorm group handles problems the same way. The Phoenix/Firestorm group seems to me to be far more active when it comes to group chat help requests.

I suppose new residents could automatically be made members of NCI, which might help with retention. If the software is too difficult to use though, I don't think help in group chat will do much for retention. People will just get frustrated, logout and not return despite well intentioned help if the software is too difficult to use or too buggy. 

[Ponsonby Low]

I agree, the Welcome Islands are a problem that probably can't be solved inexpensively---a Linden posted on the Islands would mean high LL labor costs, and they aren't going to go that direction even though it's probably the only way to keep griefers away. Volunteer groups have been tried and rejected by LL.

I know that those groups did a lot of good. However, I can see LL's point of view, as I personally experienced registering with an alt and being given a mentor who simply took me to the shops of friends and suggested I buy Lindens so I could purchase items. That was an abuse, and there's no way to guard against that other than, again, spending by LL on labor costs (people would have to be hired to oversee the volunteers, in other words.)

(Thanks for the compliment, by the way! )

[om Piers]

I don't know what the new resident experience looks like now, but I don't think I joined the NCI group until a few months ago. Do they tell you about groups like NCI when you first get your avatar?

Giving new residents the opportunity to join a group like NCI right off the bat is a great idea. If they don't already, new residents should also receive an email that has information and links for new resident friendly groups, the new resident's dashboard on secondlife.com, the forums, the KB and Answers areas, and that email should be continuously updated to ensure that the info is current. The other thing ... the dashboard for new residents should default to a "new" status when they first log in, and in that "new" status should show them where to go for all the typical getting started type questions. I've seen some great information on the secondlife web site and in the wiki, but it took me a while to realize how much was there.

 Edit: I meant to say that since I have joined NCI, I've found it to be very active just about every time I log in. The only thing I would worry about with new residents, if there were thousands joining every day .... the groups might be unusable. There's still some chat lag going on in the groups.

 

[squashy Beeswing]

I'm sorry, i read quickly and missed the bit about a number of groups.  In that case, i think it's a great idea (my crappy internet cut off as i was trying to type this so it looks like i'm just agreeing with everyone else, sigh). 

[Ponsonby Low]

 

(we all have crappy Internet-linked embarrassing moments from time to time.)

 

But as the poster above you was saying, your point about 'numbers' is something that would have to be dealt with in any scenario that involved hooking newbies up with a Group (whether a Linden-made Newcomers group or any other). I know they must do this in an automated way from looking at the grid of Orientation Islands----clearly the software shunts a certain number of new registrants to one Island, then when that number reaches capacity, starts to shunt them to another Island.

Something like that could surely be put in place for creating Newcomer Groups.

[Ponsonby Low]

---

Randall Ahren wrote:

NCI is similar to the Phoenix/Firestorm support group, but is focused on general help for new citizens (residents) rather than just on specific viewers. The way NCI handles disruptive people is that they they have a few moderators that will intervene if someone is causing a problem in group chat. I think the Phoenix/Firestorm group handles problems the same way. The Phoenix/Firestorm group seems to me to be far more active when it comes to group chat help requests.

I suppose new residents could automatically be made members of NCI, which might help with retention. If the software is too difficult to use though, I don't think help in group chat will do much for retention. People will just get frustrated, logout and not return despite well intentioned help

if the software is too difficult to use or too buggy

. 

---

The inspiration for this idea, my Building Group, works the way any Group chat does--the only source of bugs or difficulty would probably be putting too many people in one Group. But LL could code for that--they probably have information now on what happens to Group Chat for groups of differing sizes.

[Ponsonby Low]

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om Piers wrote:

I don't know what the new resident experience looks like now, but I don't think I joined the NCI group until a few months ago. Do they tell you about groups like NCI when you first get your avatar?

Giving new residents the opportunity to join a group like NCI right off the bat is a great idea. If they don't already, new residents should also receive an email that has information and links for new resident friendly groups, the new resident's dashboard on secondlife.com, the forums, the KB and Answers areas, and that email should be continuously updated to ensure that the info is current. The other thing ... the dashboard for new residents should default to a "new" status when they first log in, and in that "new" status should show them where to go for all the typical getting started type questions. I've seen some great information on the secondlife web site and in the wiki, but it took me a while to realize how much was there.

 Edit: I meant to say that since I have joined NCI, I've found it to be very active just about every time I log in. The only thing I would worry about with new residents, if there were thousands joining every day .... the groups might be unusable. There's still some chat lag going on in the groups.

 

---

Some great ideas, though from what I've seen LL doesn't like to be in the position of choosing a private group and elevating it to a status above that of other private groups. (And recommending that all new registrants go to NCI would definitely be elevating NCI above all other private newcomer-support groups.)

[om Piers]

That is a good point. What if newcomer-support groups registered themselves as such. With 16,000 new sign ups per day wouldn't LL be able to auto sign-up equally between those groups? It seems like it would not be difficult to treat the groups equally.

[Ponsonby Low]

Yes, if LL were to decide to use private groups in that way, they would pretty much HAVE to have a staff of Lindens checking them out, making sure they stayed within guidelines, etc.

In no way do I want to denigrate groups like NCI, which have done a lot of good. But I do want to repeat my belief that this "assign newbies to Newcomer Groups" idea is something that would best work in addition to groups like NCI.

Again, my experience with my Builder Group---big enough that there's always someone around day or night to answer questions in Group Chat, but of course not so huge that people can't get their questions typed---leads me to believe that ALL that would be needed would be, first, for new registrants to be auto-placed in a Newcomer Group (just as new registrants are auto-placed on one of the Welcome Islands); and second, for LL to permit a certain number of volunteers to be placed in each group.

I believe that the newbies themselves would answer most questions. After you've been around a few days in SL you've learned a lot, and many people enjoy sharing their knowledge.

Volunteers wouldn't need to be closely supervised (thus keeping LL labor costs down) for these reasons:

• LL could make a requirement "have been inworld one year or more" and of course avoid using 'have been banned by LL' people
• LL ALREADY has the capacity to monitor Chat for keywords. If any volunteer abused the system, they would be detected quickly and could be expelled
• People in the Group would also be quick to report if a Volunteer is abusing the system---trying to sell the newbies anything or the like.

I do think it could work because it would be cheap for LL; it relies on already-existing software and coding, and it draws on something many of us have observed: that when it comes to answing a question in Chat, many people are willing to do that because they don't have to COMMIT to spending a certain periods as volunteers (and they don't have to worry about their Appearance or anything else that might keep them from doing 'in person' volunteering.)