Introducing the Resident Answers forum!
Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 1:40 PM by: TorleyAh, another busy Monday—aren’t they always? In a few moments, I’ll be opening the Resident Answers forum. It is just what it sounds like, and fills a long-needed void. Thanx to all who suggested: Brace Coral, Katier Reitveld, Jessica Elytis and more, I’m looking at you with a smile. 
Second Life Answers will be renamed to Linden Answers in recognition of this, along with new guidelines at the top! It’s just been so popular to keep up with; Kelly’s been helping a lot in there this morning.
Also, expect more frequently-asked questions to make their way into our Knowledge Base—so you can find what you need to know, faster.
September 18th, 2006 at 1:46 PM
…and how exactly is this different from the forums that were killed a week ago?
September 18th, 2006 at 2:01 PM
Ricky: At least a couple things, (1) a good place to move some questions from Linden Answers which are better in Resident hands, and (2) focused on new Residents who feel lost and didn’t previously have a clear destination to ask for help.
In some ways it’s like a forum equivalent for Help menu > Live Help, which is good for longer questions which may require some explanation.
September 18th, 2006 at 2:06 PM
This is a very encouraging move. As much as I hated to see the General areas closed it was tragic that people would be unable to seek help there as they had in the past. I for one will be doing what I can to answer questions I know and trying to help support this.
Thank you LL for hearing us and taking a step in taking care of your residents again. This will be a VERY big help for those who seek answers.
September 18th, 2006 at 2:16 PM
“…and how exactly is this different from the forums that were killed a week ago?”
Less drama queen preening, one would imagine.
September 18th, 2006 at 2:23 PM
This makes little sense to me.
You close forums because they’re too much work… then you go and open a new one, that just replaces ones that were previously too hard to handle?
You’re still going to get people posting in “Linden Answers” simple questions like “how do I remove this box from my head”, which we residents can’t reply to… so someone will have to move the threads manually, which you might as well reply to if you’re going to all that hassle. Then of course people are going to wonder why their thread wasn’t answered (because they didn’t see it get moved to the new forum), making more posting load.
The key is more moderators, to spread the load, with proper training, responsibilities, and more importantly a commitment to the community, rather than being picked at random and given a job they might not have wanted to in the first place. There are people like me who would be more than happy to help out in such matters, if only Linden Lab accept our offers of help.
Lewis
September 18th, 2006 at 2:53 PM
When will the Resident Answers forum be closed?
September 18th, 2006 at 2:55 PM
Kind of like Live Help in the forums. Great idea
September 18th, 2006 at 3:09 PM
>>There are people like me who would be more than happy to help out in such matters, if only Linden Lab accept our offers of help.
Lewis, part of the reason the ResMod program turned out to be the shambles that it currently is is the lack of serious help and community support. There was a thread for people to voulenteer as ResMods, I forget where, and ther weren’t many serious applicants. I also think that LL rejected the applications of those who had a history of getting involved in a lot of drama and “joke” threads as unsutable. Of the dozen or so people who acutaly became ResMods, about half dropped out within the first two months, either because it was more work than they wanted or because they figured out that they didn’t have the right temperment (a usualy cool head and a really thick skin) for the position.
The key, I think, after having been in the trenches would have been fulltime paid LL moderators, but they have said time and again that they don’t want to devote their money and time to it.
September 18th, 2006 at 4:16 PM
I like the idea. Much of my time in General was spent helping people (or arguing about things like age-play, etc :D), and I’m glad that people have a place to go for help and civil discusion.
September 18th, 2006 at 5:06 PM
Thankee for comments.
Moving threads is easy—I have macros to do it, and if someone insists on misposting repeatedly, then that’d be spam and isn’t allowed.
Also, thread redirects will be left behind.
No plans for closing RA—we’ll see what happens day by day. It’s long overdue, and about time.
And, like Elle said. Thanx Elle.
September 18th, 2006 at 5:34 PM
I rather like this idea. Lets hope it does a good job in helping those that want to truely help others. Thanks defanitly go out to those that asked for this and to LL for listening!
Isaac
September 18th, 2006 at 6:08 PM
It is appreciated, but I doubt if it will work.
Forums by their very nature encourage communication between participants. Trying to limit the number of messages on this new forum with either result in a lot of heavy handed moderation, or it will be overwhelemed as people start to feel more at home and post things just for the sake of posting.
This is why most forums as the mature have an off topic section btw.
LL is also missing just how useful forums could be in attracting new higher quality paying SL residents, but thats something I wont post in a blog.
That being said, I hope the new forum works out.
September 18th, 2006 at 10:11 PM
Chip Midnight said it best when he described this move as a lot like when you break up with somebody, but then they ask you to pick up their dry cleaning the next week.
It’s characteristic that the gang from Second Citizen has larded up the maiden voyage of Resident Answers with spammy and bullying comments that scare away newbies.
Hey, I have a great idea. If you are in earnest, unban me for that section so that I can be a Helpful Hal too.
September 18th, 2006 at 11:24 PM
Elle, simply rejecting people without actually giving them a chance, based on whatever prejudice the Lindens may have, is utterly stupid.
One of the biggest mistakes in ‘resmods’ was making people keep their SL names for moderating. Almost every forum I use, the mods have separate ID’s for their own protection. Just think, you have a group of idiots that choose to spam every thread; so as a mod you do the right thing and remove all the threads, and disciplinary action taken. Then, this group decide in-world to make your life hell, buying land all around you and lagging the sim to death, putting out grid attacks using items with your name on it, ruining your reputation and basically making your game no fun.
Special surname groups are made for allsorts, so a surname “Resmod”, with restricted name creation by Linden Lab only, to give people their moderating account, is the professional way to do it.
Let’s hope next time round they don’t discount people on the basis of their name, and rather let them be accepted on the basis of their skills and experience.
Lewis
September 19th, 2006 at 3:08 AM
The horse has fled the barn and LindenLabs now thinks about closeing the door again.
Why can’t these things be thought out properly ahead of time. First we are told that the forums are dead and go read the blog. We begged, pleaded but all in all were ignored. So we got the great new Blog. There we are censored and ignored.
Now opps LindenLabs feels that they were a little hasty and please users answer each others questions as you did before. We are overloaded and in many cases the Residents know more about the running and working with SecondLife.
The part that I do not understand is, what is going to get the horse to go back into the barn? We have been shooed away. The forums are a dead “Archived” part of SecondLife history. It was one of the 4 tabs that my browser opened to every morning.
This posting was being flamed on another forum so I came to see what was up. I will be hurt and reminded once more when I see the “This message is waiting for moderation” after I post this that it is better to say nothing.
So why is an Old hand/resident going to go back and even look at Forums we did as you wished, we moved elsewhere.
We love you Torley and I personally feel that you are suffering the most for hasty ill thought moves by a management that has lost all touch with the residents.
September 19th, 2006 at 6:12 AM
ABOUT FACE!
About time too
September 19th, 2006 at 9:43 AM
There were problems with the resmod program that could have been fixed–but the biggest problem is that a noisy contingent on the forums simply don’t want resmods, and that problem can’t be fixed.
September 19th, 2006 at 10:56 AM
Jamie… the blogs are not being flamed on “a forum” … it is being flamed on virtually every forum. I have yet to see anyone who actually likes the blog format, except for a few Lindens who have no voice of their own and must repeat the official company policy that blogs are best.
Which, anyone who has anywhere near the slightest clue of what is going on in-world, and what the community really thinks, can tell you is not the case, or the general opinion.
In most jobs, if you are not capable of doing the task you are employed to do, then you are either found another position, or removed from that company’s employment. If those given the job of looking after the official forums cannot manage that responsibility, then either put more people on the task, or replace those trying and failing. Simply closing the forums is not the answer.
The main problem with the ‘resmod’ programme - apart from the poor (nonexistant?) training and inconsistency of moderation, is that some people just don’t like the thought of having to follow rules because they are adult. If they were truly acting like an adult, they wouldn’t be falling foul of moderation.
Lewis
September 19th, 2006 at 11:09 AM
Torley,
May I suggest a link to the resident answers to be placed on the support page. That would be an easy channel for residents who never frequented the forum before to know it is there.
http://secondlife.com/community/support.php
September 19th, 2006 at 12:27 PM
Torley
Glad to see LL making this step.
The current Forum page is structured as follows:
Linden Forums
The Official Blog of Linden Lab
Announcements & News
Known Issues
Knowledge Base
Second Life Release Notes
Secondl Life Land Management
Linden Answers
Resident Forums
Community: Resident Sites
Resident Conversation
Resident-Run Websites
Resident Answers
SL Volunteers & Education
Real Life Meeups & Events
Content Creation
I’m not going to post the rest
Resident Answers is the 10th forum down the list. Why not make it easier for newbies? Above Linden Forums, create New to Second Life Forums and either keep the name Resident Answers or change to Newbie Questions.
As to snarky comments, do what Digg.com did.
Comment rating
New ‘digging’ of user commentsOn March 4, 2006, Digg switched to a threaded comment system. The new system allows users to reply to another user’s comment, without having to quote someone by copying and pasting, though only two levels deep.
Digg users are able to rate other users’ comments, which ensures that spam and/or offensive comments stay virtually invisible. User comments are under a ‘digg’ system much like the stories on the rest of the site. User comments can be ‘dugg’, making them more visible, or ‘buried’ making a comment hidden until the user clicks a “show comment” link.
Just suggestions.
September 19th, 2006 at 12:50 PM
First, I’ll clarify Resident Answers was actually “thought about” for a long time, and is late in its birth. The desire to introduce it became much more intense with the popularity of Linden Answers, as remarked earlier! So, those thoughts finally led to action. (Yes, I realize the timing is weird, but that’s lateral thinking for ya.)
Macphisto: What a great suggestion. I believe what’s going to happen is we’re going to see how RA grows for the next couple of weeks. I’ll blog updates. If it does well and ends up being a really useful resource to the community like we hope, it’s a good time to commit it to the Support page.
Perrin: I like the sound of this a lot, we’ll see how useful it is as mentioned, and then we could move it up accordingly… Resident Answers may not be in its own category because it’s the only one, but since it’s the “twin” of Linden Answers, the two may belong together somehow.
Also, I like the way Digg does community moderation. I’m not familiar if there’s a solution like that for vBulletin which could be implemented easily. Do you know of one?
Thanks for comments all.
September 20th, 2006 at 9:10 AM
I like the blog…
March 26th, 2007 at 2:56 PM
ehm i have a cuestion i ancel my basic free account and i dont know why says in my status the part od billing rate $9.95 if was a free account do i have to pay?? i cant find can some one help me?
May 10th, 2007 at 5:43 PM
Can someone please tell me if First Look will ever be updated??? PLEASE???? My graphics card cant handle the full version of SL but I am able to play with the First Look and I am having major SL withdrawls. When is the update due to be released? You would think someone would let us know.
May 26th, 2007 at 4:15 PM
Hi All,
Can anyone tell me how to get rid of colors showing when ppl chat. I see blue and somtimes red
It seems like it is a script issue and I belive this happened when a griefer came to my land and caused probs. When doors open i see blue, when I change my shoes I see green, etc
Thanks
Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask
September 30th, 2007 at 10:59 PM
I have been trying to buy Lindens and continue to get a message that my account is “disabled”. I don’t understand since earlier in September I bought 10,000 and the transaction was completed!
I cannot find a number to call on your support system. It is a a maze of links and not at all helpful. I also have a new account that i paid $72 and have the same problem there! Who can I call to find an answer to this issue? My “paid account” is “corey Reyes”…and that account also cannot buy Lindens…..
September 30th, 2007 at 11:01 PM
Why is my account’disabled”? I want to buy Lindens via PayPal and cannot. Please fix this since I cannot buy objects i need…
September 30th, 2007 at 11:03 PM
I have been trying to buy Lindens in this premium account and keep getting a message that my account is “disabled”. Why? I cannot buy objects and use my subscription that I paid for via AMEX??????
PLEASE help me…the support pages are very confusing…
Joe Zollo
October 10th, 2007 at 4:41 AM
Hello
Bye
November 11th, 2007 at 2:08 PM
Установив наше кислородное оборудование дома или офисе вы получаете атмосферу, воздух которой аналогичен морскому или лесному, по составу кислорода -
это здоровый сон, снятие стесса и усталости.
December 18th, 2007 at 5:31 PM
Hi all, i screwed up and asked this on the blog:… (sorry abt that, by the way)
I havent been on sl for a couple of months (rl issues) and now, when i try to log in it says waiting for “region handshake,” then it says log in failed try again later or click help. The help button didnt work, I got a blank screen. I also uninstalled and re-installed Second Life, but to no avail. I still cant log in… Can anyone tell me what to do?
It seems this was a problem some time ago, so im wondering if i am the only one who dont know what to do abt it, since i wasnt here when it was a “common” problem..
My drivers is ok, and my pc should run sl easily.. (it did when i was online last time) i use nvidia GeForce 7600 GT video card…. Shouldnt that be enough???
Thanks all
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