Woo Mentors! It’s not the candy!

Mentors on Second Life are here to help you; well they are supposed to at least try to help you at this time there 3464 of them floating around to help you.

I remember my first days on SL, how utterly confused I was. I’d been on other virtual chat sites so maybe I might have been a little ahead of the game. This is much more advanced than you would ever expect.

I would hang out daily at Help Island or one of the Orientation Islands watching the helpless drop in like flies, me being one of them. This prompted me to into making note cards to give to people to help them along in their SL adventures. It would have links to places to visit of freebie spots and sites to see. Just to get them hooked into the game.

Also admired the Mentors there and would take notes of all the instructions they would pass on to the newer people. I was and still am geek in the note taking period of the game.

After some *on the sly* helping of people while in a sandbox, a Mentor suggested that I apply as one. Oh man, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to do it, what if I told someone something wrong? What if they asked me a question I didn’t know? After some soul searching I applied from the web site.

It was about 2 maybe 3 weeks I received an answer to my request from Linden Labs and was accepted. At first you get a tag that says “Apprentice Mentor” until you go to the official Linden orientation to become a Mentor.

The Lindens set up *Class* times for you to sit and be instructed how to manage certain situations, say like griefers or the very new. They also give you web links to keep you up to date on the newer features and other Mentor suggestions.

I did the orientation and loved every minute of it. I feel proud to know that maybe I’ve made SL a little easier for someone, not that it’s like I’ve made a cure for cancer or brain surgery. Only to know this individual/stranger took the time to download the software and wanted to try something new only to find out its way more than expected and for me to come in and help.

They also help me in my own thought processes of how others think; I’ve learned patience and caring and have become more of a people watcher. They also give me ideas on things to make or help on the web page here.

What are the requirements? Well you have to have at least a year of time in and some knowledge of scripting or building a second language is helpful but not required. There is always another Mentor that will know your answer if you get caught in a question you can’t answer. Lots or patience is a plus; you might have days when you have over 8 people pulling you in 9 different directions, all in instant messages!