No Longer One, Yet Still a Mentor

I guess I should have seen this coming ages ago after Linden Lab first suspended hirings, then kept holding off on the resumption of intakes...

On Dec 11 this year, LL is shuttering three Second Life Volunteer groups: Second Life Mentors, Second Life Mentors Q&A, and the Instructors team. With this, the volunteer programs that Linden Lab originally put in place back at the beginning of Second Life are all gone, officially.

This is kind of upsetting in a way - I've been on SL Mentors nonstop since December 2006, and the fact that it's going away (albeit for good reasons of scalability) makes this the second time this has happened - I was on Live Help when it went away too. It's certainly a sign of the times when things that worked back in 2003/2004 no longer work in this day and age - like keeping 3.5k folks in one group. ^^;

I haven't posted in a long time despite this news being available because I've been busy trying to ignore this happening: trying out Torchlight, playing with the new OpenGL shift/zoom effects on Photoshop CS4, attending the Anime Festival Asia this weekend.

No longer one, yet still a mentor... I guess that sums up the peculiar state I'll be in very shortly. I'll still be in-world of course, just spending more time building up other things...

See you guys in world... or better yet, throw me a notecard - I'm getting my IMs capped a lot of late despite notices trickling down to a dribble in my most important places...

End of The Line

I woke up late this morning and found my Wake Up News clock had pulled this up:

Wagering In Second Life: New Policy

Now I don't know about you, but I'll bet this is going to be a total bitch to enforce. Seriously guys, where do you draw the line? This is a question that needs a relatively clear answer.

All I can say is that Torley's office hours this Friday are going to be decidedly less civil. Ah well.

What worries me is the abruptness with which this policy is being announced. Governments that abruptly announce an about face on national tradition and prior rules tend to make abrupt turns like this only if they're totalitarian. More fuel for Prokofy, I say.

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People are also asking me how I can continue to defend the Lindens after repeated incidences of this. I need to clarify some matters:

1. The Lindens I work with are associated with first responses. They help to ensure the rules are followed, and that wrinkles in the system are followed.
2. The Lindens I work with do NOT have much say as to exactly how rules should be formed. They also do NOT have much say to voice their opinions on this sort of thing, as to whether it is good or it is bad.

I feel perfectly justified and willing to stand behind them on the matter until there is clear evidence that whatever they are doing is contributing to the current situation. Not something that has happened... yet.

It just wouldn't be fair. It would be something I would be against doing.

Post #25: Less than 60 minutes to go...

Ever since I could recall, I enjoyed the possibility of helping out in Second Life as a volunteer. When I applied though, times were tumultous - the programme was undergoing a revamp, the full effects of which weren't obvious then, and even now. I'd heard horror stories about how the average volunteer could expect to wait several months on top of their usual required SL experience before they could tag up and join the legions of Mentors and Live Help. I was very surprised when a whole month of intensive 8 hour days in SL turned into a invite to join in late January.

There are others who have helped longer than me. Hell, there are people who are more passionate than me (yes, you there in the back row, stop laughing on the latter). It has been a swell 2 to three months. I've made my mistakes, but out of little more than misguided stupidity or unawareness about the way things work in any world.

As I type this, SL is beginning to wind down Help Request in world. In its place will come a structure that follows the simplest and yet hardiest of mantras any metaversal explorer could have, whether it is mere HTML or all-singing, all dancing primmage:

HELP THYSELF

There have been postings on the forums and in the offiical blog about the changes to be wrought: a gradual shift from Linden Labs as a mere San Franciso startup/upstart to a full 24/7 service on most, if not all, matters, the reworking of pull channels for knowledge such as the Knowledge Base and SL wiki, the introduction of a actual 'system is down' report to alert gridmonkeys more directly to unwanted griddeath.

And the usual 'the end is nigh' BS. I need to reiterate this since it seems to have gotten lost despite repeats:

Live Help is not going away totally.

Blue Linden has noted in meetings about this sea change in how we help Residents make sense of Agni that there will always be room for people to help each other, and the death of Help Request is not going to mean he becomes less busy. Far from it - one of the new priorities in SL now is to find ways to help Residents help each other better, to help themselves better. I fail to see exactly how that is a bad thing.

Well, maybe I do... I for one am going to miss dispensing advice and sweetness (and the occasional foambatting) to people who need it, anywhere within SL's 70,000+ regions.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Ahhboxes self-replicating in sandboxes like rabbits on heat. I've watched Lindens bling in the sunlight near the Tenera Train Station. All those moments will be lost in time, like cache losses on crashing regions. Time to concentrate on Real Life for a while.

...

I'll see you guys on the other side. Don't forget to send me a private IM when I'm on if you need help, okay?

Post #15 - PARTY

Frontier Linden hosted a party to honor and thank the Volunteers of SL at Portage this Sunday. I was fortunate enough to snag an invite, so I brought my camera and got on my favorite leather dress...


The Author as a Leather-draped Party Fennec. Pizza was great. Where's the camera? Hey, great cleavage has its advantages... ;P

The party got underway around 12PM SLT after a brief moment of technical setup by DJ Ron Overdrive. Despite some teething problems, the music was soon on in high-quality Ogg Vorbis

Ron Overdrive DJing, dancing and jiving with Amber Linden at the party

Sponsor of the party, Frontier Linden, twirling some glowy Poi around to the beat of Tetris. Yes, Tetris.


A fun time was had by all!

Patchoulli PartyFenneq