Comments on: Linden Lab Splits Mentor Group

By: bob1111

bob1111 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:51:28 +0000

Good post. Theres always gonna be naysayers and stuff but luckily you can hit them back with the statistics and say look the new system works better.
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By: lum

lum — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:23:20 +0000

The FAQ on the Wiki ( http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Offi... ) gives a hint at what the motivator was for the decision. “As the world has grown and our total Resident base has increased, the one-on-one style of help we previously relied upon is simply not scaling.” A good metric for LL and VTeam has been the Mentor HUD which was developed as a tool to see which islands were occupied by newbies and which didn't have a mentor with them already. It was also a wake up call for VTeam and LL who realized that despite the 1700 ( or 3500) members, there were hardly any mentors on any of the Help Islands or Welcome Areas at all. Where, if they were not helping newbies with the New User Experience, were they?

Borne of out this metric, the VTeam effected measures to treat the KOREA 1 sim as a special orientation island, complete with Mentor Greeters who gave tours. After that experiment, they announced that the mentor roles would be changing and a few “select” group of mentors would be accepted into the new program where there would be stringent testing and training guidelines. As I recall from that meeting there was nothing short of mutiny and revolt by all the mentors present. It has been a long time we heard anything from the VTeam — in the meanwhile, the 5 VTeam members were trimmed down to 1 (the rest reassigned).

It should not have been a surprise to ANYONE that the final attempt at this stagnating group was the axe. There were attempts to train and test, only to be met with whining and retorts. Everyone wanted to be a mentor, yet very few were willing to mentor in the fashion that the VTeam envisioned. In the meanwhile, I noticed that the Mentor Tag met with more and more disrespect from the general masses — LL's image was not good.

Additionally, I began to see more and more people around SL look upon SL Mentors with disdain. Some were downright anti-SL Mentors. Obviously, they had been rubbed wrong by the same in the past. In my opinion, there were too many of us who wore the SL Mentor tag as a crown, and not as a nice friendly hat.

With a new CEO, the dispatch of the current SL Mentor group was one of the more sensible actions to restore LL's image on their part. In my friend's wise words, “I'm SAD to see the mentor group go, but I'm happy they did.” I have always, and will continue to support LL in their decisions.

I can still extend a hand to a newbie with wearing a house and running around bumping into people, without a SL Mentor Tag… To properly MENTOR them instead of just standing around answering questions…

By: Gwyneth Llewelyn

Gwyneth Llewelyn — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:52:53 +0000

That's true, there are plenty of those groups around (I'm still in Mental Mentors!)

Right now, Nalates, they can choose between either starting on a “default” Orientation Island/Help Island (which after Dec. 11 will have nobody to help them out) or choose from a long list of possible Community Gateways. The list is always presented in full but the order is random for each new registration.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:21:37 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by GwynethLlewelyn: [Blog] Linden Lab Splits Mentor Group: Here I am, at what might be my last picture as a Mentor on a Help Island. Wh… http://ping.fm/oqFXw...

By: Nalates Urriah

Nalates Urriah — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:00:02 +0000

A large number of people like to help and they join various service projects. There are private help groups now. The Myst-Uru fans coming into SL formed groups to help with the transition from Myst Online to SL. The D'ni Refugees is, I believe, the largest group of fans still providing that service.

The question in my mind is that if new players (that sounds sort of sexist now that I've been in SL for a time) are rez'd in special places how will it be decided where they are rez'd?

Giving a new person a list to choose from seems problematic...

By: DoubledownTandino

DoubledownTandino — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:42:13 +0000

I'm replying to myself here….
…Ok, so Linden Lab disbands the mentors group….
but why does that mean mentors have to stop being mentors? It's so incredibly easy for a newbie to find help, perhaps LL just knows this, and doesn't feel like spending effort on it? Every single newb (the ones that give SL a week or more) always end up saying “everyone is so helpful and nice in SL” …so I say, why does LL need a formal mentor's group if every mentor is still willing to help and be a mentor?

By: DoubledownTandino

DoubledownTandino — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:52:36 +0000

I am a mentor…. or was….
I'll take a bit of time to digest this….
but my first thoughts are this: I'm glad. The mentors of SL are the reason people won't pay for consultation in SL.
I understand how people want to help out newbies. That part makes sense. But many non-newbs took advantage of mentors. If anyone has a question, it makes sense to ask a mentor…. but from my own experience, I have had people say things like “please come look at my club and tell me what to do to make it better, hire performers, and promote. You're a mentor, why won't you help” … and I would explain that that takes hours, and effort, and it's either something you need to learn over time, or it's a job that you need to hire someone for.
That's just my initial take on things. I'm sure I'll have multiple viewpoints on this when I think more about it…
but as for right now, I'm glad it is going to be tougher to find free help. Perhaps this move will boost the value of consultants, educators, and creative thinkers.

By: Neil Canham

Neil Canham — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:00:01 +0000

That seems like a pretty reasonable assessment Gwyn. The aim is good, but the implementation so far has been badly handled. I wasn't aware of the RHNs until yesterday, but it seems to me that one of the aims there is also to allow different RHN groups to specialise in an area of SL, kind of mentor-equivalent of the Community gateways. However, I wasn't a mentor and only really got into this yesterday so I may be way off.

By: SLookable - Linden Lab Splits Mentor Group

SLookable - Linden Lab Splits Mentor Group — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:45:57 +0000

[...] Go here to see the original: Linden Lab Splits Mentor Group [...]

By: Gwyneth Llewelyn

Gwyneth Llewelyn — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:45:23 +0000

Oh, well spotted, Zai! Thanks for the correction!