Updates to Second Life volunteer programs
Linden Lab has finally finished processing the results of the Second Life new mentor renewal program. Starting with approximately 3,700 mentors, roughly 1,700 went through the renewal process. This far exceeded Linden Lab's expectations for renewals, which were anticipated to only range from about 350 to a little under a thousand, based on observations of volunteer activity.
The renewal process was officially advertised through the (admittedly unreliable) group notices system, in-world mentor meetings, and on the V-Team Web-site. Keeping up-to-date with one or more of these channels is now, apparently an ongoing requirement for group membership. Additionally many mentors and new-resident-support groups advertised the renewal program within groups and among friends, which appears to have led to the unexpectedly high renewal rate.
At present, it is expected that Second Life mentors will be required to renew approximately every six months, though the interval is apparently still being considered.
The renewal program has angered many (now former-) mentors, who obviously missed the notification and have been dropped from the group as a part of the culling process over the last several weeks.
At the group management level, Blue Linden is stepping down from management of the V-Team, and is moving on to other duties. Blue, who took over the role from Pathfinder Linden in early 2007 is replaced in turn by Lexie Linden.
Application for the new elite Greeters program are apparently expected to open up in January. It is expected the plan to disallow mentor access to restricted new-user-experience areas (Help Islands) will go forward at around that time.
Applications to join the Second Life mentors group are currently not being processed, and it is not clear when or even if application processing will resume.
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