Voice Test Team

This page is to be edited and kept up to date by the Voice Test Team currently staffing Orientation Island 15.
*Please post all of your efforts, observations, ideas and strategies for improving retention and use of Voice
*Link to Volunteer Kickoff Meeting Agenda
*Please take the post-test wrap-up survey by clicking here - THANKS!
== Voice Test Team Stats==
Voice Test Stats
==Diary==
Please record your strategies for the day along with your efforts and observations below (please put the date after each entry).
Week 1 Diary (submissions to wiki from first week)
SAMPLE: I greeted residents by singing a song. -- Kurz Linden, Monday, July 16, 2007, noon-5pm
Sucess with a few more residents using the Voice Features --Taylaa Williamson, Thursday, Aug 2, 2007. I just wanted to say how pleased I was today to find a lot more new residents using the voice features. There were a few problems with language communications but besides that barrier, few more residents decided to utilize it. The only issue that is bothering me is when they land in the center of the landing area, most of them wants to know, "What do we do here", How do I change my apperance", "How do I fly". *Sigh* Back in SL Cave dwelling days, Orientation island was more functional. When new residents would first land, they were forced to stop and "Read" the tutorials, so by the time when most of them would reach the mainland, they would have known most of the basic skills needed to survive on the new land (because back then, as we know, there weren't any help islands). Plus, on occassions when I would visit the old orientation islands, I would observe new residents helping each other. Please bring back the old way or move the landing area to the top of the castle in the appearance area (or else where) so that when they first land in the game, they will be forced to learn how to make changes to their avatars or learn a few of the basic skills. Thank you.. Tay
Yummie Olsen, Monday, August 13, 2007. It has been a wonderful experience helping new people get acquainted with Second Life through voice. The voice did help with teaching new people and to welcome them into Second Life. I think the voice made it more personal, that we were humans at the welcome area and it was easier to talk a lot of them through directions. I liked to welcome people in individually by their names and talk to everyone as they enter. Some of the times I had directions for everyone, that I did copy out of a notecard that Tay, Dirk and I made. Other times I went into the areas like the move area and talked them through where to go in that area and what to do for the tutorials. I walked a few through the tutorials, and helped them realize what they needed to be doing. It seemed that the tutorials were a bit long in time to accomplish for new people entering into second life but yet taught some important things along the way. I did run into still people who did not have their tutorials on when they arrived, I wound up talking many through how to get it attached. Once they got it on they were set and ready to go. It was neat to see the avatars jumping when they accomplished something, gave me a good feeling that I did help them and knew they were doing the tutorials. It was great working with everyone in the volunteer group, and along the way I met some great people. I enjoyed being a part of the group a real lot. It was nice meeting everyone, the volunteer members, the new residents, and the Lindens that ran it and were a part of it. Thank you very much for letting me be a part of a great group of people. Yummie Olsen
DoteDote Edison: I was generally online during the overnight hours for SL. Therefore, the majority of new residents didn't speak English natively. For those without voice, I first tried using text translations, but that became very tiresome after a few days. For those with voice, the majority didn't have a mic or chose not to speak. However, this is where I made progress. Most non-english speakers were able to understand slow-talk English... at least enough to understand what was happening. The added bonus was that other non-voice residents would see the one-sided conversation, and decide to enable voice themselves.
When voice was pre-enabled, I noticed many people rez and walk around with the dot... but if I said hello via voice, they would stop and disable. For those who stuck with voice, it was really great to actually speak to people rather than type to them... though I'd say less than 30% actually chose to communicate via voice. With these folks, I was certainly able to convey more information than I had previously via chat. I was able to go in-depth with things, and explain more complexities about SL (to those who were interested), without worry about confusing others in the area (for example a few people had 3D design experience and I could talk sculpties with them). Other folks were just happy to get voice working, then wanted to go off and explore the Island on their own. So, it was a mixed bag for me. All in all, it was way easier for me to help others when they had voice enabled, and those folks were certainly eager and excited about exploring the rest of SL... but there were still many who just seemed lost and unresponsive most of the time (likely language barrier).
Finally, after three weeks on that OI Island, I feel the need to state the most obvious roadblocks I saw. First, people think the OI is Help Island. And that large sign "Visit Help Island" doesn't help. For the residents who thought they were already on Help Island, the sign was ignored... for those who didn't want any help and only wanted to see the rest of SL... the sign was ignored... The only time the sign worked was when someone clicked it, and the others read the chat spam. People would then click in droves just to go elsewhere. The second problem is with the tutorial HUD. Unfortunately, there aren't enough language options. If the majority of residents are Europeans, seems Spanish or German would be good additions. Also, with the HUD, there is no way to go back and choose a different language. There were 3-5 people I spoke with who had accidentally clicked on the HUD when it was blurry, and they were stuck with Japanese characters (one person thought it was alien text and part of the "game"). --DoteDote Edison, 8/13/2007
Final Entry for the voice test on Orentation Island 15. -- Taylaa Williamson, Tuesday August 14, 2007. 
The Voice Test Project was a really good idea and I think a lot of the data collected (once the new residents were faced with the enabling tutorial) was a sucess. However, there was an issue with the language barrier. I would direct people who wanted to enable the voice feature to please read the directions on the black board. I would use my translaor to direct those who didnt speak English, but those who couldn't speak English couldnt read it. lol Making it hard to explain; which was a pain. lol Also, I talked to many who didn't like the idea of using the voice feature because it was bringing too much or real life into the game, as I was told. And, lets not bring up the Deaf Community. ehehhehe
When those who did have thier voice feature enabled heard me speak to them in voice, the non English speaking residents couldn't understand me and of course I had no clue what they were saying. But, I would still say, "Congratulations on enabling your voice feature and if you need any help, please let me know". hehehehe I knew they had no idea what I was saying but I tried to say that to everyone, I like to make everyone feel welcome :)
In conclusion, my entire voice test experience was great. I met a lot of new people and had a chance to have some very nice conversttions with people all over the world. I'm personally in-love with this feature because I have really bad hands and my typing is limited at times because of the pain, so this feature is a god sent for me. On the shifts I did work, I would estimate about 10% of the new residents had thir voice enabled, or would enable it after I instructed them how to do it. So, my vote for the voice feature is 2 Thums Up! lol BTW, what is this feature going to cost us monthly? lol One last thing.. PLEASE BRING BACK THE FUNCTIONAL ORIENTATION ISLAND!! *Deperate Plea* heheehhehe :D Taylaa Williamson signing out. :P
==Strategies and General Observations==
Low Volume/No Volume in Windows Vista: This is a known issue with Windows Vista that affects some Second Life residents. The workaround/solution is to uninstall the audio drivers in Device Manager then reboot the system to allow Windows to reinstall the audio drivers. -- Dirk Talamasca, 12:54 AM PDT
Voice Not Working in Windows Vista: Some Second Life residents running Windows Vista cannot get SLVoice.exe to engage. The workaround/solution is to run SLVoice.exe in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 2).
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-windows-vista-compatibility-mode -- Dirk Talamasca, 1:11 AM PDT
Observation - Gestures and sounds interrupt voice chat. To make voice chat more enjoyable, you may disable background sounds. Pictured Below are my personal preferences while in voice chat. Simply pulling the slider controls up to a higher level later allows you to enjoy the gestures and other background sounds that you are accustomed to. Dirk Talamasca July 15th, 2007 7:51 AM PDT
==Schedule==
Please note that this is only a suggested schedule. Please feel free to drop by whenever you have availability or as warranted by the number of new users on the orientation island.
Second Life Time (eastern time)	5am-9am (8am-noon) 	9am-noon (noon-3pm) 	noon-5pm (3pm-8pm) 	5pm-8pm (8pm-11pm) 	After 8pm (after 11pm) - see note below
Monday 	Evie, Master 	Taylaa, Yankee, Yummie (2-3:30) 	Renee, Dirk, Hinkley (until 3pm) 	Kerian, Savannah (after 6pm) 	James, ScubaChris, DoteDote (after 10pm)
Tuesday 	Savannah (from 6am), Master	Bubbles (from 8am), Dirk, Yummie (2-3:30), Taylaa	Renee, ScubaChris, Bubbles (until 2pm) 	Kerian, Evie, Phree2Be (from 4pm)	James, Destiny, DoteDote (after 10pm)
Wednesday 	Evie 	Savannah, Taylaa, Yankee, Yummie (2-3:30) 	Renee, Dirk, Hinkley (until 3pm) 	Kerian 	James, Destiny, ScubaChris, DoteDote (after 10pm)
Thursday 	Savannah (from 6am), Master	Bubbles (from 8am), Dirk, Yummie (2-3:30), Taylaa	Renee, ScubaChris, Bubbles (until 2pm) 	Kerian, Evie 	James, Destiny, DoteDote (after 10pm)
Friday 	Evie, Master 	Taylaa, Yankee, Destiny, Yummie (2-3:30) 	Renee, Dirk, Hinkley (until 3pm) 	Kerian, Savannah (after 6pm) 	James, ScubaChris, Phree2Be, DoteDote (after 10pm)
Saturday 	Savannah (from 6am), Master	Bubbles (from 8am), Dirk, Yummie (2-3:30) 	DoteDote, Yankee, ScubaChris, Bubbles (until 2pm)	Kerian, Evie, Renee 	James, Destiny, Phree2Be
Sunday 	Master 	Savannah, Yankee, Destiny, Yummie (2-3:30) 	Yankee, Dirk, Hinkley (until 3pm) 	Kerian, Phree2Be 	James, ScubaChris
Floater: Linda
Note: Those volunteering during the after 8pm SLT (after 11pm EDT) slot, stay as long as you'd like while new users continue to appear on the OI (obviously not intended to be all the way until 5am)