Linden Lab Touts Motown Area in Second Life, Holds Big Opening Party

 

 

 While the Lab has made something of a deal over a new place in Second Life, it was doing moreso than usual yesterday, Tuesday June 20. Not only did they announce it in the Linden blog, but also did a press release, and the news was posted in four news sites online.

The legendary music label Motown has officially opened its doors with an all-new presence in Second Life – and we are ready to celebrate!

Please join us inworld at Motown today between noon-3 pm PT to meet and interact with Lindens, Moles, and other members of the Second Life community in this soulful music experience, launched in partnership with Capitol Music Group and STYNGR.

This is your chance to hear some great music, hang out, and dance during the opening day at Motown, which features multi-station radio streams of classic and contemporary Motown songs, animated gestures, and much more! You can learn more about Motown in Second Life at second.life/motown.

Besides the preceding on the official SL blog, the Lindens would also do a press release, post it on their website (image at top), and have the news in four other places online: Billboard, Blockbuster, Music Business World, and Yahoo Finance. 

The Motown sim was part of a nine sim area, one that includes the Social Casino that first appeared last month in the southeast. They were a short distance north of central Bellisseria. The one in the middle was "WelcomeHub." Sending an alt there, there were a number of Mentors around there, Linden Lab bringing back the program earlier this month. There were a number of blue signs around pointing out different areas. Going north, there was one pointing out Motown. 

 

 

The place had over a hundred avatars in the sim, someone was saying 131 at one point. This included a number of Moles and Lindens, including Patch Linden. I happened to see one lady greet him, " You know I have been in Second Life since 2006 and this is the first time I think we have met. Definitely on this avatar, I think. But I just wanted to say that to me Second Life is still the best MMO. Looking forward to SL20B as well." Patch responded warmly, "Awe thank you!   It's a big year for us at 20.... we're almost full adults now  (21)!" "On this avi I will be forever 21!"

 

The party would last for a while. I didn't stay the whole time, but the place was crowded for some hours. There wasn't time to look at everywhere in the area either. That will be for another time.

There was a thread in the official forums about Motown's opening. Response was overall positive.

Was the opening of Motown at this particular date to attract attention to Second Life's Twentieth Anniversary? Probably. But for residents already anxious for a big party, it was very much a welcome event.

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Bringing Back Second Life Mentors

 

 Longtime residents of Second Life may remember when Linden Lab had an official Mentor group in it's early days. But in November 2009, the Lab announced it was retiring the program, saying, "While the official Mentor Volunteer Program has been an extremely valuable endeavor, its sheer size has made it increasingly difficult to support, and we need to reallocate our resources at the Lab for other Resident-focused programs." The move has long been criticized as another example of the Lab's shortsightedness, at least during this time.

After more than thirteen years, Linden Lab seems to have changed it's mind. Yesterday on June 8, it announced that it was calling for people to sign up to be part of "A New Generation of Second Life Mentors!"

To coincide with our 20th Birthday celebrations, we are excited to announce the introduction of a new generation of Second Life Mentors.

Second Life Mentors will be the first ripple in the pond of “Paying It Forward”. 

Paying it forward is an ancient concept but we are bringing it right up to date and beyond in our amazing Second Life Community and “Our Fantastic Future”!

There will be two teams of volunteer Mentors.
 
-The Second Life Mentors, welcoming and guiding New Residents arriving at the Welcome areas and helping with ongoing assistance. 

-The Bellisseria Mentors, introducing people to the many themes and choices of Linden Homes and assisting people to settle into their Community across the Bellisseria Continent.

We will welcome Mentors with all levels of knowledge and experience. The most important qualities will be patience, warmth, positivity, fun, and a focus on inclusion. Mentors will learn and develop new skills and information within our teams with ongoing skill-sharing, training, and Community development ideas to take forward and share with our wonderful fellow Residents. 

 

In the blog post were links to two separate applications, in Google docs. One was for the new regular Mentors group (here). The other was for a special Mentors group for the BelliHub in Bellissaria (link).  It stated there would be training sessions to attend, and that this was a volunteer position so there would be no pay. They would also need to list days of the week and times they could regularly be available. And, a detail that some residents will find annoying, Mentors must use the official, or Linden Lab, Second Life Viewer. 

In a thread in the official forums, reaction from commentators was skeptical. For some, having to use the official viewer was a dealbreaker. Others felt there were reasons the Lab discontinued the old Mentor program, such as drama and people abusing authority. There were also people recommending that the Lab not use volunteers, but make the Mentors paid workers, "You get what you pay for."

So Linden Lab has brought back a group whose removal people complained about for years. But with its return, different people are complaining.

Bixyl Shuftan

Delinda Dyrssen Challenges Second Life Users to “Mentor a Linden”

In one of her recent posts on “Delinda’s Diary,” Delinda Dyrssen brought up that a number of people she communicated with felt that ironically most of the people behind Second Life, the more important workers of Linden Labs, don’t go about on the Grid much, “Hence the (Viewer) 2.X.”

Paisley Bebee wrote in a reply to a blogger post on the subject:

... unfortunately I have to say that in my experience there are quite a few Lindens who don't know how to cam to click and sit, and certainly don't shop for clothes, skin, hair, ect. Therefore don't know how to adjust clothing, or wear it, or even find it after purchase. This is clear when you see Lindens wearing the same outfit year after year, same original system skin. .... I'm afraid rightly or wrongly, it is suspected that you don't care enough about your customer base to use your own product! And I don't mean, click and sit in a chair. I mean make machinima, take photo's, build something - create something, shop and rez something, wear something, find an event based on a narrow perimeter, go looking for an object that is really obscure on Search (etc.).

Considering what’s been going on in the Metaverse, this might explain more than a few things. Blue Linden was one willing to mingle among the residents, but he’s not around as a Linden any more.

What to do? Delinda had this suggestion:


I believe the idea is ... If some of the really hard core users who spend many hours trying to educate, work, create, collaborate and or play in SL were to spend a few hours with some of the key Linden Labs employees.. one on one..doing what they do..showing these talented Linden Labs people the pitfalls.. the needs, the it would be cool or useful if we could, just even how to sit down or put on a pair of shoes (Phillip did say it was difficult to do that). Then .. and only then could they really come up with a viewer and platform that serves most people needs in a “Fast Fun and Easy” way.


Delinda’s suggestion was that the higher profile bloggers could get their attention, “Pssst, Philip ... “ Her suggestion was that involved Lindens would spend 4 hours inworld with their mentor, phone off the hook with nothing to interrupt baring emergencies and maybe a few breaks. Paisley Bebee felt the mentoring time probably should be a week, “Not only would you learn an enormous about your software, you would learn about your customers!! AND the PR would be fabulous, absolutely fabulous. Linden Lab you need to do this. Most other companies do this these days. Good customer service and increased sales demand you get over your ego, admit you DONT know it all. And be humble enough to find out what we the customers use your product for, and what we want.”

So what do you the readers think? Do you feel the Lindens, to borrow Paisley’s words, can get over their egos to get a mentor? How would you feel about mentoring a Linden? How successful do you think such a program would be?

Bixyl Shuftan