In the very first few lines of my Second Life profile, it says this:
I've tweaked it in subtle ways over the past few months to see if it made any sort of clear difference in the quality of incoming communications, but no, it hasn't.
So why then, do I continue to be barraged by IMs/notecards asking for a reply? It puzzles me, since my terms are so clear.
I don't fault Residents who IM me and don't expect a reply — infact, while it's the exception rather than the rule, if I happen to login during a quiet time and get some messages to the effect of "I love your video tutorials!" and "Can you send me your textures?" I reply. I'm deeply appreciative, very grateful. I definitely enjoy getting awesome inventory drops (all those watermelon-flavored items, mmmm!). But for the most part, when work is happening, I'm busy.
Not all messages are created equal, and I "chop the slop" to concentrate on "the cream of the crop". A couple thoughts:
- Someday, I may have an assistant to help me with all my communiques. I'm not there yet because I do enjoy spontaneous, personal rapport. I love replying to relevant comments & questions as I can, including right on this blog (which is personal and not to be used for official support). At the same time, there's a lot I need to continually get done. (Cloning isn't a viable option at present.)
- We don't have good means of persistently storing IMs for convenient reply in "batch mode" later (a la FlickrMail), which is why I continue to prefer email. I'd use inworld tools more if they were better streamlined and suited for my purposes.
Resource-wasting: those who ask me for help I can't give, who clearly didn't read the very loudly-emphasized "**READ THIS FIRST**" link in my profile. I do this in order to provide the best possible service for my direct job responsibilities, since altho most Linden Lab employees are generalists, no one person does it all — we're not homogenous, and my work mostly has to do with video tutorials and community education (which is also made clear on my info-page). But, I continue to get IMs about inworld disputes, account billing problems, etc. I close those IM tabs right away, in favor of those who've read my contact info and understand it. Direct prioritization.
I don't wish to be unapproachable: I wish that hyperlinks in profile text worked to make the process simpler, or even that I could place a popup acknowledging a sort of mini-Terms of Service when someone clicks my IM button for the first time. I've had friends joke that I should charge a few L$ for each IM/email. Maybe that's too complicated, unpleasant, discourages the good stuff, and makes a better Dilbert strip than the (virtual) reality of it all, but I'm open to "good friction" that facilitates my work and allows me to broadly help the Residents of Second Life in more agile, actionable ways!
Again, for emphasis: not all messages are created equal, and I'll definitely get more of a practical RoI on some than most.
My wife hypothesizes this "I didn't read" behavior is because some peeps think the rules don't apply to them — well, they do. Whatever the reason, when I receive messages that simply don't respect my rules for effective communication, I can't reciprocate in kind.
I also recommend reading Mark L. Irons' and Don Knuth's email etiquette policies.
Can you relate? What steps have you taken to improve the quality of your personal and/or professional communications?
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Oh yes Torley I can relate. Of course most of my questions come from New players who have no idea where the profile tab of a resident is, so I understand. I typically log out and send replies from email if I get too bogged down. Also do my best to keep a low profile (which is much easier to do if you don't have LINDEN for a last name). I also have learned that automatically accepting notecards, landmarks, textures works well. Of course the low user retention helps too, only 25% of the users who need my help are "friends" who have been on for more than a week, the vast majority on my friends list do not last that long. Not that I blame them, I have done every orientation in Second Life successfully EXCEPT the Linden one, so I can relate.
Hi Torley
So, when can we have this "MOTD on IM Open" feature then?
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1149
Some of us have had to deal with this problem for 3 or 4 years already.
My recent solution is simply not to log on anymore.
Torley,
It is possible to write a client patch that will send someone a pre-emptive IM when they start to IM you.
You know that "is typing" message…. well you get one of those before they send you the first IM even. It's possible to make the client reply to those with a pre-emptive IM strike.
Several open source people have toyed with this idea, but no one has done it yet, mostly because we know we'll write it and it'll just sit around for 6 months while Linden Lab ignores it.
It kinda needs feature whilst offline too. :S
Timless, do you want it online/offline in 3 years, or online only in 6 months? Anything that requires server side changes it pretty much never going to happen.
I did used to get a lot of offline IMs asking for my attention, and usually never mentioning the topic. The worst kind of offline IMs are the multiliners which continually check if you're around; those can quickly get your IMs capped.
Recently I added the following text to my profile, "My online status is displayed above ^", and it has significantly cut down on the number of people who IM me when I'm offline. It's also has the effect of cutting down on the number of IMs I receive when I'm online, perhaps because people forget to check back. While I really do hope I'm not missing the opportunity to help anyone, I figure if it's something important they'll find a way to get their message through.
Not everyone will read a profile for instructions because they may not have any experiences where IM management is an issue, and many newer Residents will think of IMs like e-mail where the inbox is infinate in size. Usually the first step to enlightenment is when one of their friends is put into a position where communication becomes a managable resource, and then as their Second Life progresses they may find themselves in that situation too.
There's the contentious issue of whether it's fair to expect people to read a long list of instructions before initiating IMs. If everyone starts to post guidelines and requirements for their communications then it's going to waste a lot of time for initiators. Although the effect is more of a cumulative one, it's bound to become patronizing over time as people find it more difficult to have reasonable conversations.
I think in your case there are probably a lot of people who have the idea that all Lindens are equal, and can resolve all problems. It's not immediately apparent that someone who works for LL isn't able to come and stop a griefer attack, or isn't able to look up account info to see why billing isn't working correctly. I only began to discover those things after attending a lot of office hours. Some people probably have experience with platforms like AOL, where all staff are on hand to assist with support issues.
The ideas in the above comments are really interesting and something along those lines would be appreciated by a lot of people I'm sure. I think at the very least when you open up an IM window to a Linden name, it should have a little disclaimer before you begin typing your message.. "Linden employees cannot help with support issues" etc, something to make people stop and think before they start firing off questions!
Nice idea Timeless. I will add my vote to it too. Torley, no doubt you receive more unnecessary IMs than most but this has to be be a by-product of your open and friendly demeanor. People think they "know" you. You are a 'celebrity' of sorts now. I think the IM Storm will continue–however it only takes a few seconds to clear them out each time you log on. What about Torley Tester? I bet you get more privacy to do work when logged on as Tester as opposed to Linden. It may be unfortunte, but you may end up having to only log on as a Linden during "down" times between work. Also, it would not surprise me if you had another alt or two outside of the Torley family that allows you to explore and communicate with trusted friends in anonymity. I sure would if I were in your shoes!
I could see it now :
Abernathy123 Jackson : Psst.. hey Pastrami, its me ..Torley! I am in disguise! I need to discuss some current issues with you…
Pastrami Linden: Yeah right! Get lost. <<>>
O GREAT COMMENTS!
@economic: Thanks for sharing! Another odd thing for me is, there's no easy way for a Resident who's not on my friends list to IM me without seeing my profile beforehand, so it's like the important text gets glossed right over — I don't like that, and in my experience, it's often an indicator of someone's character or how unrewarding future exchanges will be (I mean that as not specific to Second Life, but human "nature"). We (Linden Lab) are in the works of upgrading the orientation experience again in hopes of improving retention… and lessening frustration.
I wish I could spontaneously send IMs inworld as easily as I can post to Twitter!
@Timeless: I don't know "when" but it's those sorts of things I hope for. I share your pain right there!
@Gigs: I wasn't aware of that before, thanks. Interesting — and discouraging re: feelings of how slow it'd be to get implemented, but I'd certainly advocate for it. Previously, I did have an email autoresponder setup, but that only increased the noise of correspondence.
@Dimitrio: Ah yeah, those "r u there?" (and that's not meant to insult anyone's typing, it's actually what I've often seen written) and the ones without useful context. One of the prime things I count on is "clarity of next actions", meaning if I can't figure out what I need to do to help someone appropriately in an email or IM or whatever, then I move onto a message which I *can* move forth with.
You raise good points about perspective. I think about how someone who gets very few IMs might treasure being flooded — even for a little while.
When I was new, I felt that way, envious of my content creator friends who wrote contact policies in their profile. That still makes me feel strongly about explaining one's self and where you're coming from, regardless of individual correspondence load.
There's still a BIG opportunity to better explain "which Lindens do what" — the Office Hours page is a partial step (with all those topics listed) but there could be more effective communication on that too. The continual dilemma is "How much info?" because when people, especially new Resis, get overloaded with data, that defeats the purpose.
I bet some of the most effective solutions to this are simple ones, but no matter what technical methods are employed — just like whenever I hear that someone didn't read the Community Standards upon first login — it'll continue to include people problems.
@Razrcut: Thanks for your thoughts! "IM storms" are inevitable for me and I certainly don't want to be standoffish in welcoming a continued exchange of ideas (which I can help advance). The "few seconds" add up into a lot of time over weeks, which is why in earlier years, I did try to respond individually to all. But then, my time got crushed more, and I started copying-and-pasting standard "refer to Support" messages. That too, ate too many cycles… evolving to how I do things today. I'm happier and far more streamlined in doing work, as a result.
Yup, I use alts for privacy (for work and play purposes) but I don't want that to erode the usefulness of using my original Torley Linden account. Hahaha your example with Pastrami is so funny! ;D
It might be worth putting forth the idea of a "what lindens do what" page in the wiki - as it is, I don't think there's a clear "org chart" available to resis that indicate who is responsible for what - and more important, who is NOT.
Once that's created, it could have name-links for the lindens who have office hours (that point to the office hours page) and then all the lindens could put that link their profile "I can't help you with x, y or z, but check this list to see who can" kinda thing.
Can't be any worse than now, right?
The problem is not just limited to Linden staff. Imagine IBM, Cisco and any MDC for that matter. It really needs a standard way of defining accepted communication channels and a way to preemptively state expected etiquette with relevant staff.
In a world with no wheel, we'll make a wheel, but in a world full of wheels we want shiny wheels.
Hi, Torley! I just wanted to say I think LOTS of people skip over relevant text in profiles, and I don't know why. But then again, lots of people skip over relevant text ANYWHERE. I'm hiring for a host in SL at the club I work at, and DJ's, and I am very clear in the adverts the process — stop by the club, pick up application, fill it out completely, drop it on me — and I still get IMs from people that say "r u hiring?" or "hey i need a dj job" — I politely refer them back to read the relevant parts of the advert and then of course I never hear from them again. ha! Some people must just feel they're above reading.
And thank you again for taking the time to reply me the last time I IM'ed you, I was honored you took a minute out of your busy day.
Woah, what strange timing! I was blogging/venting about this very thing, from a residents perspective, yesterday.
http://www.tarynlondon.com/blogengine.net/post/2008/04/How-to-get-your-message-across.aspx
Yeah, it's long…. I have a lot of time to kill at work
Oh, and… thanks for the IMs and flickr pic comments you've posted for me, Torley… never expected, but always much appreciated.
@ torley
(1) I'm a professional writer who spends a lot of time making sure all the right words are in place. Sadly, I haven't found the right combination of ways to word my profile, either. No one reads anymore, unless it's in an IM or txt msg. Just ask a teenager.
(2) People like to "cut in line." Just watch how a movie line gets wider rather than shorter, especially when you've been patiently waiting hours in place. Adults, kids, no matter the age.
(3) You do an excellent job of creating video tutorials which provide great self-help content - but some people just want one-on-one attention. They may be thinking, "When in doubt, always contact anyone you can for support."
@ economic mip
Automatically accepting notecards, landmarks, textures is a non-issue. You can always weed out what you don't want. I automatically accept friend requests, even if I don't know the person. I declined a friend request one time and was treated to a barrage of chat text obscenities. It's not uncommon for me to TP somewhere and in seconds see friend requests before anyone has chatted with me. It's better to just take it all in, and sort it out later. Someone who hasn't established a relationship with me will soon "fall off" my friends list, because it doesn't make sense to allow tons of people access to interrupt my in-world time with random TO offers. TP requests w/o prior IMs? It's spam like any other.
@ Dimitrio Lewis
"My online status is displayed above…" - I might try that.
@Alexandra: The "What Lindens do what" idea has been shared a few times but aside from executive management and some like me, it's been difficult to get a bio from everyone AND keep it updated. There are *so* many moving parts. We do have an internal employee directory and I wish changes to a safe-for-public field in that would get pushed out to the website so EVERYONE can see without undue overhead. I'm actually curious to see if any other companies around LL's size are doing something like this successfully.
@Timeless: Well-said!
@Rosie: I think it says a lot about people who skip over my text! I generally get better communication from those who've read it, and I do my best to read theirs in kind — e.g., creators who prefer notecards over IMs, I'll do that! Thanks for sharing how you do it, that reinforces my point. And NO ONE is above being courteous, that's rude.
@Taryn: I'm going to see that soon, you know how much I luv synchronicity. You're… so welcome!
@MincedMedia: I appreciate you sharing this, as sad as it is. Then, wording things clearly and carefully may serve as a sort of "human filter" to point out *who is* reading.
I love life's graceful shortcuts, but in cases where someone "cuts in line" and causes trouble for many more people, that's selfish. I prioritize dynamically.
I understand the "one-on-one attention" and that's why, despite me being one person, I like to share at Office Hours, take questions, do followup. Things tend to get very active in open chat at those so I can't attend to individual IMs even then, tho. I certainly felt special at the Apple Store's Genius Bar, and think it's wonderful.