User:Ynot Fenua

Introduction

I am from the UK - and I have been a Mentor since March 2006. Before coming a Mentor I used to be a regular at the Ahern Welcome Area, spotting newly arrived people in need of help.

Since becoming a Mentor I have done some time in Ahern, but I mainly hop around the Orientation Islands helping new arrivals with a range of problems.

I love meeting the new users, finding out where they are from, and chatting to them about the opportunities that Second life has to offer.

In real life I work as Systems designer for a UK telecoms company, and part of my role there is to coach and mentor less experienced colleagues. I also facilitate meetings, and have designed and run training courses as well.

I also work with a national chairty providing educational services for young people, and also helping to train other volunteers.

My views on OI mentoring

Having spent a while on the OIs - at least one hour or more nearly every day since autumn 2007 - i have developed my own views on the role of mentors on the OIs

First Contact

Saying hello and explaining what the mentors are here for is going to be critically important to a lot of new users - who mostly arrive confused and unsure of what to expect. Someone saying hello is a good first start.

Encouragement

I make a point of encouraging new users when i see them exploring SL - including changing their default Avatar shapes. I also try to encourage them to explore the OI more thoroughly - that the goal is not to get the jigsaw pieces in the quickest time, and that a few more minutes spent in the relative safety and peace of the OI is worth hours of confusion later on.

'Handing out stuff Apart from the occassional notecard, i never hand out anything, boxes etc to any new user on OI. I personally feel that handing them boxes or folders adds another level of complexity which they don't need in what is for them an already complex area. I will hand out boxes in the welcome areas if i see a new user arriving in the same basic outfit, along with a notecard of how to open the boxes.

Troubleshooting

For me part of the key to OI mentoring is spotting users who might be in trouble, as often they don't ask for help, or even realise that what they can see or are doing is "wrong".

A few clues I look for :

• Avatars standing still for a long time - but not going AFK.
• Naked ruthed Avatars with shot white eyes - I have found this to be a sure fire symptom of one of two problems : Very slow connection or an unsupported Graphics Card (normally ATI). It should be noted that often an avatar in this position wont see most of your chat either, unless it seems you stand very close to them. I have seen someone try to connect with a 56K "broadband connection, and this was the quickest connection he could get, It was worth being reminded that when i sit behind my normally solid 3Mbps connection, that very slow connections, and ISDN or dial-up are still very common outside Europe and the USA.

Common Questions

A number of questions keep coming up on the OIs :

• How do I get out of here : I normally point them to the Help Island sign but only after confirming that they have done the tutorials (at least the search one).
• Why doesn't the Hula thing work/Where is Pele : to this one i just fess up that the Hula challenge is broken - and the fact they know it is broken means that they know what to do.
• What do I have to do : I have noticed a number of users arrive without the Orientation Guide having started - and so the OI island is just a group of buildings with no direction. I get them to re-attach the HUD via the inventory.
• My lessons are in Chinese : I have noticed a very small number of new users whose HUD apparently started in Chinese (probably more likely Japanese) : the only remedy is to hand then a clean unsed HUD - i keep one in my inventory just in case.
• I chose the wrong language, how do i change it : Again the remedy is to give them a unused HUD.