Linden Lab Needs a Heavily Regulated PG-13 Continent in Second Life -- And More SL Presence of Linden Staff & Mentors (Comment of the Week)

Expanding on the idea that Second Life needs a PG13-only content, reader Gingir Ghoststar proposes a way to make that happen:

I've said for years that if SL would provide a maintained PG to PG13 area that it would thrive. I get it, it would be work, possibly [cause] increased cost of living and [provoke] the argument "nobody wants to be told how to live" but I beg to differ. Linden Lab thrives on all the private sims that they're paid to host that are then locked down with strict land rules, building rules etc and people pay through the NOSE to live on these super landscaped country club like estates. There is a market for it. If LL could create a continent and build it up like an actual city and enforce land/build codes I can almost guarantee that it would fill up in a heartbeat.

More than that, she adds, what's really is missing is a lack of Linden Lab activity in Second Life:

I can't help but feel that a lot of online communities have dropped the ball in the last decade when it comes to interaction between their communities and their staff. I know many folks within the gaming world have remarked upon this and you can see it within SL's history too. SL used to have an active staff involvement within the world. Whether they were the Lindens themselves or the mentors. I've only ever in my 9+ years in SL seen a Linden maybe 3 or 4 times. I missed out on the time of the mentors. I think bringing this sort of interaction back could help grow the SL community and allow for better policing of the G/M/A [rating] standards.

Yes yes -- while Linden Lab staff do occasionally appear in-world for special events, the world definitely feels Linden-free most of the time. It's partly why, for example, the rating system has become so confusing -- with sparse policing, SLers have taken to rating their land Adult simply to cover their ass when Linden staff do finally response to a content abuse complaint. (More on that later.) But more than anything, a lack of Linden presence is a missed opportunity to foster community growth and stickiness.

Comments

[Fred]

Mentors were great for new visitors to get started in a very confusing world. One benefit was also to provided the mentors/helpers with a sense of meaning and gave them something to do, because (most) people deep down enjoy helping other people.

If I was LL I would re-start the mentor/helpers program as a test for 6 - 12 months, throw in a few L$ for their work, and check the re-login ratio as a KPI for any improvements (new users drop off the platform in large numbers after their initial visits apparently)

[Amanda]

I agree that the Lindens need to be present in the world. When I started in late 2006, I met one mentor who helped me get started, but I saw Lindens several times a week helping people. One that sticks out was a Linden helping a woman to use a translator. Just simple things. I know there are 4 to 5 times as many people in world concurrently than then but they could still be visible.

[irihapeti]

a reason why there were Second Life Mentors back in the day was because there was no context help system in the then viewer version 1.x. Since the advent of viewer version 2.0, now version 6.x, the viewer has the context help system that answers most of the questions new users once did ask at the onboarding islands. Questions about what buttons do I press to do stuff.

the other questions that were not viewer button specific but also asked, are also answered in the current viewer. Questions like "What's the purpose of this game?" "How I get money/loot?" "Where the sexxors at?" etc. Answers to which can be obtained by opening the appropriate viewer dialogs. Which were not present in Viewer 1.x.

about people helping new people. People still go to the starter Social Islands and Community Gateways to meet, greet and help new people who want that. That people do this has always been the case. Even back in the day when there was a Second Life Mentor program there were more people meeting, greeting and helping new starters than there ever were people with tags over their heads

[sirhc desantis]

In roughly three years between me joining (late 06) and the demise of the official program (late 09 I believe) I can recall running in to one of the mentors exactly - zero times. Hard for me to judge the effectiveness but do see quite a few 'I was a mentor' declarations in profiles. Amusing. I do know of a number of very well run groups who have taken over the role unofficially, do a great job and more power to their elbow. As well as at least one resident run gateway that tries to supply 24/7 assistance to new residents (have no recent experience of the others - hopefully the same set up).
As for Lindens in world? See more of them around then during the time it was practically verboten (saw one yesterday). Of course, they are often involved in an activity called 'working' that may preclude much hand holding or (shudder) socialising :) Their non-presence is one of those much bandied about myths, like 'the Lab never responds to ARs' that are so prevalent.
Of course, YKMV

[Unknown Avatar]

Perhaps LL new CEO maybe she can help?

[Orca Flotta]

Oh jeeze, why do those people always wanna warm up yesterday's lunch?

We had a whole teen continent, and The Lab stopped that program and - I guess - made the minimum age for SL resis 18 or sumfink. So why the fok would anyone care about how 13 year olds are doing in SL? They are caught in the middle of puberty and should have other ways to spend their time than sitting perched up beind a computer, wasting their pension funds doing adult shit in a virtual world.

SL should be much too boring for any halfways intelligent youngling in the first place. And the couple of lost 13 y/o idiots should best be ignored. We have no place for them!

[Wagner James Au]

That's why Roblox has 100 million+ users (mostly teens) and SL only 500K (mostly not).

[Clara Seller]

It feels like we are purposefully blinding ourselves to some of the basic old hurdles of SL: computing power, learning curve, monitoring, and cash.

I'm kinda with Orca, this seems pointless. There's nothing about LL that's child-friendly. They burn resources like a 69 Pontiac and absolutely have no interest in customers. I don't see teens giving up their phones and I don't see LL managing playdates to assure the "professional pearl clutchers" that there are no penises at the party.

[Cindy Bolero]

And then there's the SL Search Window - All a new avatar has to is click on the search icon, then very graphic pictures of ladyparts appear in that window. Pussies galore.

They can be standing on G-rated land, but the search box gives them endless adult content. That's great for the lusty folks, but not so much for those not looking for sex, or the under-aged.

LL has no problem with having Adult level settings as default in the Search Window. Many longtime users don't even realize that its happening, assuming LL is minding the shop. Makes sense though. This is the reality: Many, if not most new users heard about the sex, log in, and are looking for it.

Its up to greeters at venues or attractions to understand that. You can be mean and ban them, or you can tell them to open the search window and/or suggest an ideal Adult place to go.

Why be helpful to these rude characters asking for sex? Because some will eventually get over that curiosity and become customers and contributors. The SL economy needs all the help it can get.

I will admit, cybersex was one of my first curiosities, because I was trying to get my boyfriend interested in SL. Luckily a greeter avatar gave me an introduction in an adult shop she worked in. Shortly thereafter, I was much more interested in the build tools, shopping, making friends, and buying land.

After my first 10 years in SL, my multi-region land group had paid over $250,000US in land tier to LL. And I shudder to think what I've spent in Marketplace. I may have some adult curiosities my first week, but my avatar moved on to other interests, benefiting different communities

In recent years I've been developing land in the G-rated grid, Sine.Space
Yes! A G-rated grid. What a concept!

[Arwyn]

Former Teen Grid resident here: No, please don't. Let's not try this shit again. There's no need to rehash that desolate wasteland of copybotting and neglect.

[Argo Nurmi]

A while back I too was asking where the mentor program went and why the labs avoided restarting it. I could say a lot of good things about my interaction with mentors back in the day ('06), the ones I ran into really did want to lend a helping hand. SL could be confusing, maybe it still is.

But, some voice spoke up and told me the reason the Labs killed the Mentor program was that some mentors took the little bit of authority they were given way too far. There were a few abuses. It lead to a few bad situations. When you have volunteers this kind of thing always happens. But the majority are really more interested in making things better - alas not everyone. So rather than having to do more policing - this time of their semi-official creation, the Labs just killed it. I can't really blame them for bailing because of what some did but we all paid the price.

[Gingir Ghoststar]

Wow, didn't realize I'd be quoted into a whole article. Let me chime back in. "Professional Pearl Clutcher" here, I don't mind the SL sleaze but I want a dedicated island where that's not the norm. I don't want flying penises, flashing neon lights, huge SEX signs written everywhere and all of that. It's fun, sure, I go with my friends and walk through these places like it's some sort of tour and we all giggle and laugh and then we go back to our well-manicured homes, where some have paid to have a professional SL land developer and decorator build them their dream home. We don't want that sort of nonsense as neighbors, so we pay private land barons for to live on either complete private sims or highly regulated sims where we know our neighbors won't encroach with flying penises, spinning porn cubes, ect. The sim the Arcade used to be hosted on comes to mind. That place is very spendy to live, well manicured and very very policed as to what the renters can and can't do. And you know what? That place is always full. There IS a crowd who would pay more to live in these places ran by LL with LL presence. It wouldn't be the teen grid. We're not teens. We're adults, fuck, I'm nearing 40. I keep a home because I enjoy creating for the RP family crowd and I get burned out sitting on my sky platform. Why do that when I can build on a lovely beach, listening to the sounds of waves and watching my neighbors cruise about in their boats/yachts? There is a market for it. It's okay if you're not that market. SL has proven time and again it can cater to numerous different markets from furry to kawaii to those who RP being firemen/coastguard/aviation within SL. That's the great thing about SL, if you can dream it, you can be it and if you can afford it you can buy it.

[Gingir Ghoststar]

Ahem, checking in again. Told. You. So. Thank you Lindens and Moles for Bellisseria.