Updates to Second Life volunteer programs

by Tateru Nino Oct 26th 2008 at 10:00AM

Linden Lab has finally finished processing the results of the Second Life new mentor renewal program. Starting with approximately 3,700 mentors, roughly 1,700 went through the renewal process. This far exceeded Linden Lab's expectations for renewals, which were anticipated to only range from about 350 to a little under a thousand, based on observations of volunteer activity.

The renewal process was officially advertised through the (admittedly unreliable) group notices system, in-world mentor meetings, and on the V-Team Web-site. Keeping up-to-date with one or more of these channels is now, apparently an ongoing requirement for group membership. Additionally many mentors and new-resident-support groups advertised the renewal program within groups and among friends, which appears to have led to the unexpectedly high renewal rate.

At present, it is expected that Second Life mentors will be required to renew approximately every six months, though the interval is apparently still being considered.

The renewal program has angered many (now former-) mentors, who obviously missed the notification and have been dropped from the group as a part of the culling process over the last several weeks.

At the group management level, Blue Linden is stepping down from management of the V-Team, and is moving on to other duties. Blue, who took over the role from Pathfinder Linden in early 2007 is replaced in turn by Lexie Linden.

Application for the new elite Greeters program are apparently expected to open up in January. It is expected the plan to disallow mentor access to restricted new-user-experience areas (Help Islands) will go forward at around that time.

Applications to join the Second Life mentors group are currently not being processed, and it is not clear when or even if application processing will resume.

Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Tags: blue-linden, help-island, lexie-linden, linden-lab, pathfinder-linden, second-life, second-life-greeters, second-life-mentors, v-team, volunteer

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Pyrii said on 12:05PM 10-26-2008

I join one of those who were too busy during the "refresh" and because they sent out notecard, I NEVER got an e-mail about it, not even through the mentor mailing list. They clearly don't want competent mentors it seems, as they clearly aren't competent themselves.

My time as a mentor has been both rewarding and a joke. The users I've met and helped, many of which keep in contact with me and say hello have been the most rewarding part of being a mentor, but the group itself is nothing short of a joke, no-one seems willing to help each other, and consistently tell each other to "shut up" in group chat, and the lindens only add to the flames. The behaviour I've seen from other mentors makes me embarrassed to ever be associated with them. And now the final insult, I'm kicked when I'm not looking, thanks a lot V-Team.

Shoshana Epsilon said on 12:22PM 10-26-2008

It is certainly getting harder to be a volunteer mentor. I miss most notices and rarely ever get to the vteam meetings because they are awkward times for a working EST stiff. I enjoy the opportunity to help, but it may end up not being through this venue. *sigh*

Garn said on 12:46PM 10-26-2008

The reason for applications being closed I have heard myself is so they can once again revamp the app process. VTeam should have definatly sent a notice over the email system as that is how a lot of ppl stay up to date.. why have the system if you wont use it? We need to bring back responses on Channel, this reply in IM is rediculous and we dont learn a thing. Sure I agree we need to limit long convo's but ppl need to be smart.. if they are gonna give a long convo move it to IM! I like the new training aspect... make sure ppl are competent and not power hungry and it gives em a start on how to handle situations.. so Goods and Bads but I think we MIGHT be making progress.. I don't like this greeter only HI tho... It's like saying you guys are too old and we dont trust you anymore so we are gonna make a whole new group.... isn't HI what mentors are for?.. how about this.. dont close HI to greeters only, but recomend that heavy helpers there get the extra training or whatnot

Garn

Prokofy said on 8:44PM 10-26-2008

Kudos to Blue for cutting the awful Mentors group down to side. With a strict requirement for 6-month renewals, and a banning from new-user areas, I think we will see the group come down to a manageable size.

Actually, I've always advocated disbanding and ridding the grid of all these special FIC groups like Mentors and Greeters, and having the Lindens a) allow advertising of services for newbies in the welcome areas b) outsource the newbie experience to a competent community management company that focuses on it differently.

VooDoo Projects said on 5:34PM 10-28-2008

A Volunteer Program should never be attacked the way Blue Linden attacked it. There are professional ways to lower ones responsibility and lesson ones load. This was not it. This was a amateurish abuse of power over-laid with trickery and deception. To applaud this scheme reflects badly on you. The end result was a pure waste of time - 1,700 members will still be mis-used and mismanaged. Patting the service provider on the back for a job badly done gives them the idea that their business model is one their customers accept and want to see more of. Absolutely no where in the world would it be accepted that a volunteer program be treated in this manner. We need to applaud professionalism and progress. A 'angry outsider' with a personal agenda may not recognize this.

Prokofy said on 1:29AM 10-29-2008

Oh, knock it off, Voodoo. The Mentors have been *a horror*. They are a bloated, corrupt, unaccountable group of Linden pets and sychophants using the welcome areas and infohubs and orientation islands as their personal fiefdoms. Over my four years in SL, I've seen the most gross abuses by them, harassing people over land sales, bullying people to get their way by invoking special powers and access to Lindens, shamelessly sweeping up newbies to sell them content, griefing, stalking, carrying on like drunk lords. That there is some loyal handful of girls who like to make themselves feel important and wanted by helping newbies selflessly, and then constantly bitching on lists that they aren't appreciated, doesn't make up for the whole sordid mess.

Blue deleted people who hadn't logged on, hadn't done anything, weren't contributing. Good lord, there were THOUSANDS of these people -- lifers, loafers, goofs. Many a time I would come on an alt to check how NUE was going, and I'd see these idiots cavorting around among themselves or AFK or in IMs or bickering on their special "comms" instead of helping.

I advocate entirely nuking the Mentors. It's an unaccountable group. By sharp contrast look what happens when the free market and free society creates a voluntary, non-Linden group like NCI. They function 1,000 times better, they attract resources like donations, sims, freebies, they have actual newbies they help. The deadening hand of the state in creating these oligarchs only proves why the state/LL shouldn't be in the business of welcoming. It should be utterly privatized.

Volunteers earn respect, they don't command it merely by strutting around with a Linden-given title over their heads. As a smaller, streamlined, more accountable group, there's hope the Mentors may reform, but I doubt it.

VooDoo Projects said on 5:34PM 10-28-2008

The outrageous part of this is that the adfarmers who did not comply by removing their adfarms from the mainland by October 1st were sent a personal e-mail from Linden Lab and given another chance to comply.

But people working for free for Linden Lab were not extended this courtesy. No one from Linden Lab will even discuss this mess with any resident effected. We have all been completely ignored after receiving a 'no-reply' e-mail saying we were kicked out. And we were kicked out because the front line staff of Linden Lab made the mistake of rolling all volunteers into one group - then found it unmanageable. So instead of putting everyone back in their original groups - they decided to use this under-handed process to thin the heard (and had the gall to joke and giggle about it). Now they are making the Greeter group all over again and a Mentor Instructor group (replacing the old Instructor group) but they refuse to let the greeters to just go back to the group they were hand-picked and trained to be apart of.

Linden Lab has managed to take something as pleasant as volunteering and turned it into a nasty bit of sloppy bureaucracy.

The person manually sending out these e-mails to fire nearly 2,000 volunteers should be ashamed of themselves.

TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 3:22PM 10-26-2008

you said there was a big number of applications due to word of mouth, but also lots of the people who were in got kicked cause they didn't heard anything about the changes, which number was biger?

Tateru Nino said on 10:15PM 10-26-2008

Roughly 2,000 removed compared to the 1,700 retained. Of course Linden Lab was expecting to remove roughly 3,000 or so.

TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 11:12PM 10-26-2008

wait, retained? you mean the ones that stayed? my question was about how many left and how many new ones got in, did I understood what you had written the wrong way?

Jacek Antonelli said on 1:38PM 10-28-2008

No new mentors were added, only only existing mentors applying to continue being mentors. Mentors who did not renew their membership (e.g. didn't receive the notice) have been removed from the group.

TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 5:18PM 10-28-2008

I see, mmkay :/

Ganesha Xi said on 3:31PM 10-26-2008

Wonder why they were so quick to send me the following email (obviously it was automated), but couldn't send a similar one telling me beforehand to renew:

Dear Ganesha Xi,
Your submission in the Mentor Directory has been removed.
This may be because you have submitted a new listing, or because you have requested its removal.
You've been removed from the Second Life Mentor Group.

Note I sent to VTeam:

Hello, I am human. Part of my humanity requires a lot of real life dealings. I'm sorry that my real life doesn't allow me to sit in front of my computer as much as I used to, watching SL and whatever 30,000 blogs, wikis, and other assorted sites that are affilated with it.
I'm sorry that I disable group notices so that my cell phone (where my offline messages go) doesn't go off at 3am, whenever someone fancies sending out a group notice.
I'm sorry that I don't go to meetings as people would like me to; again, I have real life to deal with.
Apparently these shortcomings (you know, having a real life) makes me no longer a valuable asset to the SL Mentor program. Even though I'd been a mentor for almost two years, helping any time that I got the chance, donating time and bandwidth (via Shoutcast streams) to mentor functions, providing what I had hoped would be valuable input on several issues that have come up... I guess I still wasn't good enough.
My tips to other mentors on successful mentoring, on taking a step back at times, on how to deal with problematic users; hardware help to back up mentors to do their mission successfully, as well as directly helping with hardware issues to other users; tips and tricks on having a more successful Second Life... None of this was helpful enough, I suppose, to keep me within the mentor program, since I failed to click some link to say "Yes, I want to remain a mentor." I figured staying in the mentor group would be enough show this.
Apparently it has been all for naught.
I'm sorry I have not lived up to your expectations.
Regards,
Ganesha Xi

JC said on 4:10PM 10-26-2008

It was advertised for a month. If you aren't involved enough to hear about it in a month, then you can reapply like the next person.

KaraSpengler said on 9:27AM 10-27-2008

I renewed after hearing about it by accident. It was never sent out on the email list we were all asked to join. Sending it out via a group notice is worse than a joke given how unreliable they are. Putting it on the vteam blog and having it at the monthly mentor meetings (I am another EST person that finds the times awkward) .... hey, I have a life, how many communications channels am I supposed to monitor for one activity anyways?

When I complained, I was asked why didn't I read the vlog. *sigh*

Frustratingly, I joined the mentor program because I was already helping newbies and wanted Linden support to help me in that. Now I spend all of the time I would spend helping new residents running around playing catch-up to whatever policy shift LL wants to do this week. Having renewals seems to me a deliberate attempt to catch any of us off-guard (you mean you *gasp* went on vacation or were too busy to read a website one month?) rather than actively working on retaining those of us that sincerely want to help.

In short, if LL wants to treat us like employees by giving us requirements that excessively take away from everything else (and have us dealing with bureaucracy more than what we are there to do) they need to start paying us.

KaraSpengler said on 9:35AM 10-27-2008

BTW, I will also note that this had a scattershot effect. You have just as much chance of retaining people who want to keep the mentor title (but knew about the renewal) as you do of losing good mentors who missed hearing about the process. Even more so with 6 month renewals as there is a pretty good chance that anyone will not be at a given website for a month at some point as they deal with the rest of their life.

Skate Foss said on 11:19AM 10-27-2008

This whole culling process has been very depressing. Reading IMs and emails from mentors who for one reason or another did not see the notices and have been dropped have made me very sad. Now I see here that another good Mentor, Ganesha Xi has been cut from our group.
The process has been cold and totally done in disregard for the time and effort put in by these Mentors.
Does not the TAO of Mentoring extend to the Lindens?
As a current Mentor, I am somewhat worried where the VTeam is taking the Mentor group. The more tests, rules demands and levels they add, make this volunteer group look more like unpaid employees. I for one will Mentor on, until my surprise email arrives telling me I'm no longer needed.

Skate Foss said on 1:59AM 10-29-2008

Prokofy, I read your above comment with disgust, "The Mentors have been *a horror*. They are a bloated, corrupt, unaccountable group of Linden pets and sychophants using the welcome areas and infohubs and orientation islands as their personal fiefdoms".

I then read your other comments you posted on other topics. I recommend all people to do the same.

Your own comments expose you for the person you are.

Karl Herber said on 8:29PM 10-29-2008

So many good mentors were lost because they were too busy actually mentoring, and not realising that is was necessary to attend those meetings or read the blog, because no-one actually said it was compulsory to do so until it was too late. Group messages failed for many people (a known bug with large groups - and I suspect Linden Labs were actually banking on that failure). The Mentors team has been treated appallingly badly by Linden Labs, and I await with excitement the imaginitively stupid ideas they come up with to cull the remaining 1700. Its my belief that mentors are to be phased out completely.