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Lessons

Lesson #1 Lesson #2 Lesson #3 Lesson #4 Lesson #5 Lesson #6 Lesson #7

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Vista CL Training Site

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Welcome to the CL-Trainee program in Silicon Valley/Vista.

During the next two weeks, you will be instructed in all the little details of the job of Community Leader.

Now that you are a CL-Trainee, it is time to go to work! We are going to proceed very slowly and carefully to make sure you have a clear understanding of exactly what your duties are. In many cases, you will be the first contact a Homesteader has with GeoCities after they sign up for their site, and we need to make sure that contact is beneficial for them and for GeoCities. The best way to do that is to make sure you are well-trained.

**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** You will be assigned a Mentor who will teach you your new job. Your Mentor will be a CL who has volunteered to help you. The first thing you will do is to exchange a few e-mail letters with your Mentor to get acquainted and to learn a little more about each other. When your Mentor receives the necessary information from the Liaisons, you will be given a group of sites to scan. This will not necessarily be your final Block Assignment, so do only the scanning you are assigned. Eventually, you will be given a specific Block Assignment. In preparation for that, your Mentor will need to know a little about your computer skills so they can be listed on the Block Assignment page for the homesteaders to reference. This is part of the information your Mentor will be attempting to learn when he/she writes to you.

While you are waiting for your Mentor to write to you, and while you are introducing yourselves to each other, you will have time to start reviewing.

So, on to Lesson #1! ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Lesson #1
This lesson will include the information you need to scan sites for guideline violations.

If you are not familiar with the GeoCities Guidelines, please review them before proceeding.

You are going to be scanning the sites, determining which guidelines, if any, are violated, recording that information on a worksheet, and then sending the information to your mentor for processing. You will have other duties, but they will be covered in future lessons. This is the most extensive part of your job, and needs to be covered first so you can become comfortable with it before we add other duties.

Please use the following method for recording your scan results.

Use a program like Notepad to set up a page. At the top, list your Block Assignment (RT 1600-1699) and the date you do the work.

For each site, you will enter the site address, the e-mail address of the site owner, and, using the code below, list any violations you find. It should look like this.

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SV/Vista 1600-1699  7-25-97
1600   [email protected]   G/WN   COLLEGE PARK
1601   [email protected]   OK   
1602   porn   ALERT  
 http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/1602/link.html
1603  [email protected]   C/G/B

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Code

These codes will result in a letter to the homesteader:

G = No GeoCities link on one or more html pages

WN = Wrong Neighborhood (attempt to select the proper neighborhood for the site based on current content)

C = Illegal counter

B = Illegal Banner

UC = Under construction

JMI = Just Moved In

These codes will be directed to ALERT:

porn = pornography

com = unregistered commercial site

H = hacker/warez site

S = signpost to another server

When you use one of these codes, also place the following with each address:

ALERT = report to Alert (DO NOT report any sites immediately. Wait for me to review your work)

HINT: if you have trouble remembering the codes and what they mean, just cut and paste this information to the top of each worksheet for easy reference.

If you review http://www.geocities.com/homestead/homedir.html you will be able to properly determine which neighborhood a site belongs in.

If you find a site which you feel needs to be sent to Alert for a major violation (Porno, Commercial, Hacking/Warez, or Signpost) be sure to list the URL of the specific page where the violation occurs. Alert needs this information for proper processing.

DO NOT contact any of these homesteaders.

When you have completed 20 sites, send a copy of the worksheet as in-line text (not as an attachment) to your Mentor for review. As long as you remain a CL-Trainee, continue with a report every 20 sites.

When your Mentor gives you permission, you may proceed to send all Porno sites you find to ALERT. These are the ONLY sites you will send to Alert at this time. Be sure to notify your Mentor of which sites you have sent to Alert. Depending on the worksheet you send, your Mentor will assign you another set of 20 sites; and, eventually, refer you to lesson #2.

If you have ANY questions--no matter how small you think they are--write to your Mentor or to me IMMEDIATELY! Do not think your questions are not important. Every question is vitally important because it pretains to the Homesteaders.

If a Homesteader contacts you for assistance, prepare the letter you would like to send them, and then have it previewed by your Mentor BEFORE MAILING it to the Homesteader! If you are unsure of the answer, simply forward the entire letter to your Mentor.

Table of Contents ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Lesson 2
Congratulations! You have successfully completed Lesson #1, and have been promoted to Lesson #2.

I bet you have been asking yourself "what in the world do I do with the scanning worksheet now that it is done?" Well, that is Lesson #2.

First, take the worksheet, and with nothing else on the letter except the worksheet, send it as clear in-line text to your Mentor. DO NOT send it as an attachment.

Second, take your copy of the worksheet, and gather all the e-mail addresses together so you can send a single message to all of them at once. DO NOT include any which you have marked for ALERT since they won't be there any more! Be sure to seperate the addresses with a comma, but not with a space.

Third, place this collection of addresses on an e-mail form IN THE BODY of the form, and send it to your Mentor.

Fourth, if you did it right, you will be able to move on to Lesson #3 in about 5 minutes! *smile*

Lesson #3
Congratulations! You are now ready for your first real contact with a Homesteader.

You will be sending a letter to the list of addresses you gathered in Lesson #2. This will be a form letter, but you will have to make some small adjustments in it to reflect your name and status.

Here is the letter

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Dear Geocities Neighbor,

My name is ___ and I am a Community Leader-Trainee for this block in Silicon Valley/Vista. One of the responsibilities of the CLt's (Community Leader-Trainees) is to make ourselves known and available to our neighbors and to act as a link to the Silicon Valley/Vista Community Leaders.

We are available to answer questions, offer assistance in setting up pages, and making sure that your needs and concerns are conveyed to the proper person. If I can be of service to you please contact me by email.

Regards, _________

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As you can see, you will have to copy this letter, and place your name in the first paragraph (use either your member name, your real first name, or both--whatever you are comfortable with).

You will also have to affix some sort of signature to the letter. You can include "Silicon Valley/Vista Community Leader-trainee" in your signature file. And, of course, be sure to include your URL--the whole thing so they can click on it and go visit your site--so you can get all those extra hits.

Now that the letter is customized for your needs, be sure to save it to your hard drive for future use.

When you have the letter customized and saved, copy it to an e-mail form. Now, copy the list of e-mail addresses to the BCC line, add your Mentor's address to the TO line, and send it out.

As soon as your Mentor receives this letter, if everything is alright, you willbe able to proceed to Lesson #4.

Lesson #4
Congratulations! You are ready to receive your first letter FROM a homesteader.

A letter from a homesteader could concern any of a large variety of needs, problems, or questions. To assist you with your responses, I have prepared a page of Useful Links

Lesson #4 is to study these links. Review the pages, visit all of them, and study the information found on them. If you have any questions, contact your Mentor immediately.

While you are studying, you will probably receive your first letter from a homesteader. If this happens, here is what you are to do: Read the letter carefully and determine if you can answer it with the information you currently have. If it is possible, write the letter but DO NOT MAIL IT to the homesteader. Instead, send the original letter, and your answer, to your Mentor for approval. You will do this with each and every letter until your Mentor tells you you are ready to be on your own.

If your Mentor approves of the letter--and he will be looking at grammar, punctuation, and courtesy in addition to accuracy of the content-- he will contact you and you will send the answer to the homesteader.

If there is a problem, your Mentor will assist you in correcting it and then you will send it out. This entire process should take less than 24 hours.

NO HOMESTEADER LETTER SHOULD REMAIN UNANSWERED LONGER THAN 24 HOURS!!!!

If you cannot answer the letter yourself, or if you are unable to do it within the 24 hour period, you should send the following to the Homesteader immediately:

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Hi,

I just received your e-mail message, and am researching the answer. I will be contacting you within the next day with the answer. If I am unable to answer it myself, I will forward it to another Leader for assistance.

If there is anything else you need, or if I can help you in any other way, please write.

(your name here)

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Put your name in the appropriate spot, and send it out. Then, contact your Mentor immediately with the original question.

(Of course, you are still scanning more sites, and sending in a report every 20 sites, right?)

Please proceed to Lesson #5. Table of Contents ********************************* *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Lesson #5
In addition to the letter introducing yourself to the homesteaders, a CL sends form letters to the homesteaders asking them to correct various violations. These are the violations which do not get reported to Alert.

To prepare your worksheet for this step, sort the sites according to the violation--all the ones which only have a missing GeoCities link in one list, Wrong neighborhood sites in another list, illegal banner or counter in a third list, etc. If a site has more than one violation, set it aside for a special letter.

Gather the e-mail addresses from a list, and use the form letter to send the necessary letter to the homesteaders in the same manner that you did with the Introduction letter. When you use the Wrong Neighborhood letter, be sure to fill in the name of the neighborhood where they should move. In some cases, you can do a multiple person mailing even for this letter since you might have several which will have to go to one neighborhood--like Times Square for the Gamer sites.

Proceed through the addresses until you have mailed a letter to each violating site. If you need a letter which is not covered by the ones listed, cut and paste the necessary information to make a new letter.

If absolutely no letter is correct, ask your Mentor. If necessary, your mentor will contact Brenda about a new letter. Or, you can compose the appropriate letter yourself. In that case, have it previewed by your Mentor before you use it.

When you are comfortable with this part of the job, please go on to the next Lesson. Table of Contents ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Lesson #6
In addition to sending the introductory letters, you are responsible for sending Birthday Wishes to each Homesteader in your assigned area. To make this easier, GeoCities lists all the birthdays for each Neighborhood each day. If you will refer to the Links list, you will find the link to the Birthday list.

Now that you have the list, you will scan down the list and find any sites which are in your area.

Gather together another list of e-mail addresses--this will usually be only one or two addresses per day--and prepare to send them a Happy Birthday letter.

Here it is:

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Dear Geocities Neighbor,

Happy Birthday! My name is __________ and I'm one of your Community Leader-trainee. I saw you listed on our community birthday page, so I just thought I'd drop you a note to send my best wishes. :)

The Community Leaders are available to answer questions, offer assistance in setting up pages, and making sure that your needs and concerns are conveyed to the Geocities staff. If I or any of the other Community Leader can be of service to you, please contact us.

Again, happy birthday!

Regards, __________

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You know all about adding your name, so you are all set to wish them happy birthday each day.

You are also ready to proceed to Lesson #7. Let's get to work!

Lesson #7
Believe it or not, we are almost done adding new responsibilities to your job!

Let's take another look at those worksheets you have been turning in.

You are doing the Introductory letters, and sending the Porno sites to ALERT. Now you get to send a few more sites to ALERT!

If you have been sending in your worksheets regularly, your Mentor has been correcting any problems and feels, by now, that you are familiar with most of the common problems. He will now give you permission to send Commercial, Hacking/Warez, and Signpost violations to ALERT in addition to Porno sites.

When you send them to Alert, make a copy of the URL's and give a copy to your Mentor so he will not duplicate your work.

Remember, if you are uncertain about a site, you can ask your Mentor, or you can confer with any other CL in SV/Vista. They are all available to help if you need them.

Also remember, you are NOT the last person who will determine if a site is deleted or not. The staff at Alert is highly trained and will make the final decision.

Even though you are now a full-fledged CL, you will continue to send your questions, and problems to your Mentor.

Welcome to the Team, and GET TO WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!