The Birthing of the N00bs (and the Plight of the Midwives)
by Urizenus Sklar on 19/11/06 at 3:24 pm
Pity the Slave Mentors, Who Are Charged With Raising The N00bs
In this remarkable video, posted by Koz on YouTube (sorry, I don’t know who Koz is), we see and endless succession of grey newbies being birthed and slowly texturing. This raises the question of who looks after this process — who are the midwives and nannies? The answer is simple: slave labor — unpaid mentors and live help volunteers. But there are signs the slaves have had enough and are begining to strike. In this superb post by Tateru Nino in New World Notes we learn of toll this unrelenting parade of newborns is having on the mentors.
the volunteers are pooped. Very few of them are active. The small numbers of Mentors and live-helpers are burned out. Help Islands don’t get a lot of love from the Mentors right now. There aren’t enough active Mentors to cover them anyway.
Highlights below the fold.
from Tateru’s story:
“people …automatically think you’re standing there for sex,” said one female mentor.
[snip]
I asked some volunteers what they thought were the most common reasons for someone not staying in Second Life. Boredom and confusion were the most commonly cited causes.
“They’re bored,” said one, “Expecting more of a ‘game’, don’t understand the ‘purpose’, and find the interface too hard. Some are offended by the sex.”
Another suggested: “Confusing orientation. People are expecting to be led from step to step, even if they don’t choose to follow those steps. Orientation feels too long to many, until they hit the mainland with little or no understanding, then they find themselves with no knowledge of the world they’re standing in, wondering where orientation continues. And it doesn’t.”
[snip]
It’s unknown how many new residents we’re retaining. A range of guesses from volunteers average a little under 1 in 50.
Eric Maelstrom
Nov 19th, 2006
Uri, FYI, Koz is the guy behind blogHUD (http://bloghud.com)
Dolus Naumova
Nov 19th, 2006
AKA Koz Farina.
Also, I like how the newbies rez in a fenced-off paddock. Like livestock.
Urizenus
Nov 19th, 2006
Thanks guys! Good work Koz!
Torley
Nov 19th, 2006
Bel Muse once showed me, there was actually a “newbie corral” long ago that *did* look more livestock-oriented:
http://history.secondserver.net/index.php/Newbie_Corral
I once took a related photoset too:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/sets/72157594171228653/
Sativa Prototype
Nov 19th, 2006
When I started SL we got the corral and very little initial help. If it weren’t for the fact that I, and prehaps so many of the earlier residents, did come from the text world, I doubt I would have stayed.
I have only the one avi, as I never really saw a need for an alt, so I have no real idea of how bad, or good, the current Help Island is. I do know that most new people I meet seem to be missing a lot of what I would now consider basic skills, things I wish I had known in the beginning.
I have taken to showing people I meet who are new around a bit, showing them that Second Life is not what is in the most popular places list and that it does not have to be sexually related. I have nothing against those type things, but there are some amazing things inworld that sit empty most of the time.
I have started a tour package that I am going to be giving new people as a way of perhaps helping them out. I have landmarks to every junkyard and freebie place I have been able to find in the past two plus years, and various builds that I feel are excellent examples of what is good about Second Life. I hope to have it complete this week, with a detailed notecard on some basics.
This is my way of helping out, I wish the system was better, but if there is one thing I have learned in the past few years is that if we are to wait for the Lindens to make a change we might be discussing this in another two years from now. If we the residents could produce a good basic manual for the game, perhaps it will get done in the next year.
anonymous
Nov 19th, 2006
Population growth adds extra stress in the weakest parts of the platform. Many people volunteered as mentors and not heard back from Linden Labs months later. Things are even worse on the mainland. Many new residents skip alot of the tutorials on orientation island and head straight to the welcome areas. There is no type of moderation in welcome areas, which are often bloaded with new residents and, in some cases, griefers/ trolls. Linden Labs hasnt given us the tools to protect ourselves from these elements beyond the “mute” function (on public Linden land). Troublemakers attach large prims to themselves, with offensive textures to harrass both new residents and helpers. To make matters worse, Linden Labs has a hands off policy on conflict resolution. Residents are forming groups to combat the problems and promote a positive environment for new folks. But, frustration levels are high.
I speak with no authority, as a longtime resident. But, in my opinion, Linden Labs is probably doing everything they can overall to make Second Life thrive. Unfortunately, I do not think problems like the ones discussed in this story are very high on their list of priorities atm.
Prokofy Neva
Nov 20th, 2006
Uri, please don’t feel sorry for the mentors and look beyond the spin of this story that you’re getting from those propping up the whole sick, ineffective, even corrupt system. If they are burning out and leaving — that’s good, because it’s a system that needs to die (restructuring won’t even help it). Perhaps this high burnout will force Jeska, Tateru, and all their minions to retire and let the free market take over the care and feeding of newbies — as well as the independent, dedicated, non-Lindenized welcoming services who work on a volunteer/non-profit basis.
Once the Lindens and the oldbies and FIC get over their allergies to billboards, signs, commerce (except, of course, their own commerce!) then clubs, rentals, non-profits — anybody with the time, talent, and treasure — can put up signs for newbies in areas where they spawn.
if the newbie is in the tiny percentage of people who wants to meet a nerdy old-style mentor who will tp him to a lesson in building and scripting where he will sit piously and listen to his would-be masters in apprenticeship mode, then let these “mentors” recruit, pay for, and manage their own staff away from the Lindens — if they really are in it for altruism and not for the change to hurl landmarks or tps to their stories and, as Mulch put it once classicly, “spoon feed people into their commerce circles.
2. The Lindens should compete with other businesses by selling premiums. Want land? Land *is* fun. Having land gives you something to do, a house, learning on your own, plans, etc. — so click here and upgrade to get a land and house. They could even do that as a 7 day free trial on sims that are dedicated to trial first-land plots that erase and await the next person after 7 days.
3. Let clubs advertise to get newbies they will help orient to the basics — how to go on dance and sex pose balls, how to buy skins and parts, how to date and have cybersex. That’s what many are here for — let’s be business-like about it.
4. Rentals communities, especially the big themed communities like elves or furries with the avatar power and time or treasure can also be available to take recruits.
Etc. — offload the overwhelming load of newbies at least in part in this manner, by giving them a place to go, for free or small fee, to get them started within their first hour on second life, instead of standing around flailing looking at Church Ladies’ “DON’T…JUST DON’T…” signs about never taking off their clothes (but they came for the cyber sex!) or DON’T SHOOT (but the front page shows people in cool armour with weapons!) etc. Don’t leave them clicking on pointless tutorials about prims they don’t care about when they’re hear to play the game, not construct it out of LSL and prims with the tiny percentage of geeks who have torqued the whole greeting industry around their own needs for crowdsourcing.
End the crowdsourcing, Linden approach. Run it like the entertainment/business/non-profit/educational thing it is supposed to be and let people pay, or be guided to, the right place for their needs.
Get rid of the mentors, helpers, greeters, all vetted by Lindens and built into a vast favour-bank system — they are in the way.
They aren’t helping to retain newbies. Fire them, and let the market of both for-profit and non-profit resident-run services take over and really save the newbies right.
Tateru Nino
Nov 20th, 2006
I have minions? Yay!
Urizenus
Nov 20th, 2006
Oh joy, then we can watch even more sex club pimps camp the spawning areas, hoping to press the newborns into service as virtual erotic dancers and escorts.
Prokofy Neva
Nov 21st, 2006
Uri, the key to fixing a socialist, static, broken situation like the overloaded and serial-processed newbie-welcoming industry in SL is to have the market, which is motivated to respond quickly and more proficiently and professionally, take care of some of the demand.
When you allow clubs to emphatically advertise and recruit, then it is visible, open and able to be sorted out. What, it’s not visible now ANYWAY? But the newbie entering doesn’t see that it is labeled as such by a billboard that you click on.
I’m always baffled by the huge allergy to signs in Second Life and the stranglehold the oldbies have on this issue and this space in SL — despite ample evidence of the strangulation of the space now by their misguided notions.
In There, you land in the welcome area. If you want to go on the safari, you click on this. If you want to go to whatever, you click on that. I don’t know whether those are for-pay or just organized like that, but you don’t hang there getting griefed or confused.
There simply has to be a way for people to come in, and see signs and boards that given them WAYS OUT.
In the newbie polling I have done at various locations, the 2 things people most ask for as a way to improve the newbie experience are:
1) Jobs
2) Suggest places to go
SEARCH is hard to discover and use effectively — I spend a lot of time on this. Suggesting places to go is an industry first picked up by the Lindens to feature their friends, then dropped as they got too busy. But it could be reanimated in a variety of ways.
One simple way is to allow advertising that is more visible and useable than those clunky telehub advertisers.
Jennifer McLuhan
Nov 21st, 2006
I can only speak for one Mentor, myself. As a Mentor I think the byline is incorrect. We are not slaves. In the year or so, I have been a Mentor, I have worked with at least 100 newbies fresh from the birthing grounds. Never have I been forced to do so. I am a volunteer not a slave.
I do not feel burnt out. I go to one of the Help Islands or a Welcome Center when I have time. If another Mentor or a Linden asks for help and I am free, I may go help. Never have I felt like I was obligated to do so. If my partner came on or, a good friend needed me, I finish up the questions and tell them I have to leave. I am not saying we have enough mentors to help everyone. We don’t! However, we are not slaves, midwives…maybe
What Mr. Prokofy recommends, as a solution, is already being done to some extent. Most mentors have lists of Landmarks that we will share with one and another and give out to new residents. These lists have places like the Shelter and NCI, both of which, are organizations that are there to help new people. You will find samples of most alternative lifestyles, clubs, sports, aviation and freebies, etc.
Again, I can’t speak for others however, I will question the newbie as to what they may want to see and do. I will then give out the landmarks for these places. I have never been paid to give out landmarks or steer people to my friends. I give them out based on what I think the new citizen wants. The only two I will just about always give out are the Shelter and NCI. I do this because I believe these two places are good for new people.
I have seen hawkers from the clubs attempting to lure newbies into their facilities. Along with them you will sometimes see people from religious/social groups talking to new people at the welcome areas. One of my favorite sights is to see non-Linden Mentors helping. There is help and, all of it is provided by residents.
We Mentors are residents too and we are volunteers. Most of us do it because we want to help others. All in all, I disagree with Mr Prokofy’s opinion of the Mentor corps. It is not a “sick, ineffective, even corrupt system.” You just can’t ask less than 800 people to meet and greet 15,000 or so people a day.
Prokofy Neva
Nov 22nd, 2006
Most mentors have lists of Landmarks that we will share with one and another and give out to new residents. These lists have places like the Shelter and NCI, both of which, are organizations that are there to help new people. You will find samples of most alternative lifestyles, clubs, sports, aviation and freebies, etc.
Um, that’s not what “Mr. Prokofy” is recommending, hon. Not on your life. Clever little maneuver on your part, once again.
That’s exactly the steerage and patronage I want to avoid by having the entire blow up and Gom’d if you will — but not by Lindens, by the marketplace of business and non-profits.
THEY should provide the recommendations, and Lindens should only provide free ad space like at the telehubs or an edited list that changes once a week (they’re unlikely to find the time).
The idea is not to have you and your little girlfriends steer everybody to your little “lifestyles”. Hell, no. I don’t mind if a furry or ageplayer PAYS to steer, and we all get to buy the ad. But I don’t want Jeska picking YOU and setting YOU up to steer, uh-uh.
Also, this fake “I’m not burned out completely contradicts your whiney and weepy posturing here about a Russian who found surprise, surprise, he couldn’t use his Russian bank’s credit card on teh Intarnet. Duh. That’s life. They don’t have a convertible currency as much as some people would like. The Lindens aren’t to blame for that and neither is the Internet, writ large. It’s their own government’s monetary and credit policies and many other complicating factors. It’s not for the likes of little mentors in SL to worry about, get torqued about, or write silly little letters to me guilt-tripping me to take on the world’s credit problems merely because I speak Russian. Gah, I get enough of that in RL and have my own subsidized newbies, thank you very much.
(It’s also possible for any mentor to give my name as a Russian speaker AND REMOVE THEMSELVES FROM THE LOOP by having the person contact me directly without them hovering, hmmm?)
There aren’t any 1000 or even 800 mentors. All you have to do is ask the people in the mentors’ group to look at the log in dates. Gah, you shouldn’t make hugely unsupportable claims like that, that there are 800 people front and center every day, my word.
Again, the mentors are a corrupt, ineffectual system with numerous griefers, bad actors, and just plain clueless lightweights in the wrong line of work.
I don’t mind clubs recruiting; newbies are other adults like yourself, not children (or shouldn’t be). I just want the clubs to PAY and for all of us to have a chance to PAY. When the Lindens smarten up and have people PAY for ads and PAY to get the newbie stream to provide services, we’ll see a 150 percent improvement in retention rate iMMMEDIATELY.
My God, I hope these hippie dope-smokers out there drop their socialist ideology about welcome areas QUICK and sort this out FAST.
Prokofy Neva
Nov 22nd, 2006
I want to take the opportunity to ad here that the Shelter, and NCI, as good as they are, just aren’t a solution for everybody. They are too PG, and also too oriented to old style geeky SL which is about learning skills and going to classes. Most people do not want macrame classes when they get to SL, they want to jump in much faster.
The HUD that the Sheep now have made is pre-stuffed with the same-old same-old that is exactly a non-starter and a non-retainer. It’s the same old Shelter and Abbott’s Aerodrome, which just isn’t enough — if it were, we wouldn’t all be having this conversation, would we?
To be sure, the ESC have this blog set up so that anyone could fill it with customized stuff, and I’ll try that and others will. But the default is that the newbies will stream in, grab the pre-made pre-cooked FIC sites HUD, and go only there because it will be too complicated for them to figure out the other stuff that could be customized.
Jennifer McLuhan
Nov 22nd, 2006
“I want to take the opportunity to ad here that the Shelter, and NCI, as good as they are, just aren’t a solution for everybody.”
OMG!!!! Prokofy actually approves of something in SL. Well, a conditional approval, of course, but he sorta approved. Be careful, someone might think you like my ideas
Happy Thanksgiving Mr. Prokofy. <– I mean that, whether you believe me or not.
I am out of here with my fiancé to catch a flight to my parent’s home.
Your favorite stupid little twit,
Jen