When I signed onto SL, I didn't know anybody, but had the good fortune of bumping into a helpful resident who gave me a bunch of LMs and L$500 with which to buy new hair and an outfit (along with a lot of freebies).
New signups to SL are often routed to a welcome center which includes a handful of freebies to get them started--and this is great, definitely an improvement over how things were done two years ago. However, nothing can possibly replace the benefit of human interaction that a mentor can bring to the table.
How to translate this into something practical, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe hold regular classes with small groups (a dozen or fewer) and one or two very patient teachers? This would be labor intensive, but if the turnover rate is in fact 90-99%, we as residents and business owners are missing out on SL reaching that tipping point of going mainstream. Small adjustments like proactive mentoring could really go a long way in increasing the stickiness for users.
Reader Comments (1)
Posted: Sep 5th 2009 10:30AM (Unverified) said
When I signed onto SL, I didn't know anybody, but had the good fortune of bumping into a helpful resident who gave me a bunch of LMs and L$500 with which to buy new hair and an outfit (along with a lot of freebies).
New signups to SL are often routed to a welcome center which includes a handful of freebies to get them started--and this is great, definitely an improvement over how things were done two years ago. However, nothing can possibly replace the benefit of human interaction that a mentor can bring to the table.
How to translate this into something practical, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe hold regular classes with small groups (a dozen or fewer) and one or two very patient teachers? This would be labor intensive, but if the turnover rate is in fact 90-99%, we as residents and business owners are missing out on SL reaching that tipping point of going mainstream. Small adjustments like proactive mentoring could really go a long way in increasing the stickiness for users.