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It was only about 2 years ago when the helper pool wasn't blooming with over 800 y-mail helpers and only consisted of about 40 helpers. As of April 25, 2008, there are 820 Y-mail helpers. Now, to most y-mail helpers, before you go reading the rest of the article, I advise you not to get angry. I'm going to be blunt, and maybe even a little mean. If you cannot handle that, press "back" on your browser.
Now then -- I believe that there should not be 820 Y-mail helpers. I think it is ridiculous. A majority of the y-mail helpers are very inexperienced, they are still new, and less than 120 days old, aside from that, there's also many spare accounts which are used just to have y-mail helper status. It's not that I have anything against Newbies, but when I begin to see inexperienced, ignorant, unprofessional helpers, it becomes a problem. If y-mail helpers are supposed to help Newbies, I don't think there should be Newbies taking on that position. They still need to learn for themselves. I also think it is very unprofessional when I see helpers typing in capitals to whoever they're helping. I could see if it were to show emphasis on a word like, "Click where it says BUY." But when I see this, it's really unprofessional and could give the Newbie the impression that they're being rushed or bashed at:
(Name of helper was edited out due to privacy protection)
Also, misspelling words, no punctuation, etc. is just wrong. If Newbies come to seek help, they need to at least have coherent sentences to read. Many things need to be done to improve the y-mail helper pool:
- Update the application requirements, where they state that they acknowledge that they cannot be unprofessional, rude, or unwelcoming. Helpers need to have some sort of experience, for example, been a Whyville Guide, Times Writer, etc.
- Inexperienced helpers need to be, well, for lack of better words, fired.
I understand helping Newbies can be frustrating, as they are often confused and impatient, but hey, you applied for the job. I was once a y-mail helper many years ago, but I resigned due to all of the new y-mail helpers, because well, I felt the y-mail helper status wasn't anything to be proud of anymore. Inexperienced, rude people started to apply just for the status. Sure, there are some new helpers that are helpful and professional but like I said, the CWs should do an evaluation of the y-mail helpers.
I decided to do an interview with many Newbies, and after interviewing about 25 Newbies, about half said they did not get good advice. About one fifth said that they weren't paid attention to or were referred to an empty room. So what does that have to say for itself?
Afterwards, I decided to interview a few y-mail helpers whom I believe to be professional and experienced.
1260: Do you believe that it is necessary to have 820 Y-mail helpers employed?
harleysh: Heck no!
1260: Do you believe that many Y-mail helpers that are inexperienced or unprofessional should be 'fired'?
harleysh: Yes! Inexperienced: there are "y-mail helpers" who think the Y-pox started this year . . . Unprofessional: How annoying is it to try to get help from someone who types like "wat u need do is go ova 2 da bio plex they help you there by the way i b 'so-and-so' "
1260: If you were to have new qualifications for applying to become a Y-mail helper, what would they be?
harleysh: Well, my first new qualification would be longer memberships. Being on Whyville for "90 days" isn't going to give you enough experience to answer people's questions. Second, there should be a writing portion! Don't allow these slack-jawed morons to be Y-mail helpers when they can't type to save their life. I'm not all to sure if the salary potion matters a whole lot. However, City Workers definitively should send random Y-mails to helpers disguised as regular Whyvillians. They could ask questions, then evaluate how much the helper actually helped.
1260: Thanks.
harleysh: I appreciate you wanting my input. Thank you :)
1260: Do you believe that it is necessary to have 820 Y-mail helpers employed?
Barbie94: I do not believe it's necessary. If we had 20-30 it would be okay but 820? That's too many!
1260: Do you believe that many Y-mail helpers that are inexperienced or unprofessional should be 'fired'?
Barbie94: I believe they should be fired it there making rude comments or can't answer questions.
1260: If you were to have new qualifications for applying to become a Y-mail helper, what would they be?
Barbie94: They would be: Never being taped, A 5+ year experience on Whyville, and Patience, Patience, Patience
1260: Do you believe that it is necessary to have 820 Y-mail helpers employed?
Holiday50: Absolutely not, especially when over half of them are inexperienced. There are several YHelpers at a time at the Newbie Center. Since YHelpers are active users, they log on almost everyday, and answer y-mails daily. If we lessened the amount of YHelpers I don't see why there would be a problem, because there are more than enough employed.
1260: Do you believe that many Y-mail helpers that are inexperienced or unprofessional should be 'fired'?
Holiday50: Yes, because they are not doing the job properly. What is the point of hiring a YHelper who is unsuitable? I know several YHelpers who don't give correct answers or help Whyvillians. Why should they have the privilege of being called YHelpers if they don't take their job seriously? Also it depends on what you mean by 'unprofessional'. We shouldn't be robots that always help the same way; we can be quirky, but we should focus on helping more than chatting.
1260: If you were to have new qualifications for applying to become a Y-mail helper, what would they be?
Holiday50: Your account must be 183 days old (half a year). The salary requirement should be raised to 110 clams because Whyville is always adding new salary games. Also your account must be punishment-free for the last 183 days. I also believe that the YHelper test should have more questions about Salary Ledger games, Whyville activities, and open ended opinion questions.
1260: Do you believe that it is necessary to have 820 Y-mail helpers employed?
Morganna: 820 Y-mail Helpers is an awful lot, and I guess the number continues to grow because Whyvillians are taking the Y-mail Helper Test daily. Although I can understand why Whyville might ideally want this many Helpers -- in order to ensure that desk is occupied most of the time, I feel as though 820 is too much. Many of these Helpers, I'm sure, do not participate frequently in their duty.
1260: Do you believe that many Y-mail helpers that are inexperienced or unprofessional should be 'fired'?
Morganna: I don't think that it would be possible to regulate the inexperience or unprofessionalism of Helpers because that would require a City Worker to persistently judge all 820 Helpers. Instead, I think that if a Helper does not appear to be active in their duties (e.g. per hours at the desk), then, yes, I think that that Helper should be 'fired' in order to make room for prospective Helpers would be more willingly helpful.
1260: If you were to have new qualifications for applying to become a Y-mail helper, what would they be?
Morganna: I would lengthen the number of days since been a Whyville Citizen, and I would make a certain amount of days which the citizen has been ACTIVE, like how many days the citizen has visited Whyville, a requirement because this would be a clue as to whether or not the citizen even comes on enough in order to answer Y-mails and sit at the desk.
After interviewing some experienced helpers, it seems that they agree with me somewhat.
Thanks for reading,
1260
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