New Design for the Welcoming Area?

I was curious, as far as being a hanger around the welcoming area, I thought the area might be lacking intruigness, design, utility. To me now, it seems a bit too open and not generalized?

What does everyone think? Could it be redesigned to be better organzied?

Just a curious thought.

I do think a new design would be nice. There is a lot of stuff there that doesn't (to me anyway) seem very cohesive. I don't know what would be cooler to have there as I am not the most creative builder but it would be neat to maybe have a taste of what SL has to offer. I remember my first days in the game and I was totally lost as to what exactly I could do in the game.

Some note cards with links to places to visit, info about upcoming Linden sponsered events, or even just how to contact Live Help would be great too.

the waterhead welcome center is nicely built and organized. i've enjoyed being there the few times they've used it. my solution is to just move the whole operation there and auction dore. they could auction plum and lime as well come to think of it.

Ya, the Ahern Welcome area is in desperate need of a facelift.

-Ghoti

I'm sure you will get one sooner than you might think

There is also a lot of stuff there that no longer serves a purpose, but once had a purpose. The balloon port for example. At one time when there were fewer sims they had a balloon ride (When the pilots were available). You could take a quick tour of SL and see a large percentage of it. Now it's just a strange looking structure that means nothing to most people.

But if it is redesigned please don't put a roof on it. Nothing more annoying that trying to fly away from a TP station with a roof on it, and the welcome center is the local TP station for several nearby sims. Well, maybe there are more annoying things, but roofs on TP stations are a bad idea.

It would be nice if the Ivory Tower of Prims was a walking distance away. Or provide something similar to that. A combo of visual and text aids showing them basic texture creation/upload, how to buy things and take items out of boxes, how to edit attachments etc. The first thing that most people attempt to do is customise their avatar. Notecards alone just don't cut it.

Also a basic interactive pic of the interface and have popups describing how everything works. Just basic things like forcing daylight/nighttime, how to use the map. Explaining draw distance, increasing moonlight, particle count, and what settings will give the best performance.

And a kiosk or something like that, that has LM's that will teleport them directly to places like University of Second Life, museums, or $1L shops for newbies. Places that provide the new person info about Second Life. Help them get informed to avoid having the same questions asked. Questions that should've been covered back in orientation island.

I remember the balloon rides when I had a trial (which I cancelled) in March last year. Why did they stop using it? I'd assumed the balloons where on some kind of auto-pilot.

I mentioned in another thread somewhere that there should be more public transport in SL where people can just hop on and see things. It would be a mich better earlier experience for new users rather than have to see things by aimless flying around.

Good idea! Move the Ivory Tower to Plum or Lime! Or even Dore. And I also agree that there should be some other, more interactive way of showing newbie's how things works other than notecards.

Also, the Luna trolley seems to be liked by everyone who rides it. I wasn't around for the balloon rides. I'd love to see that happen again. I remember as a newb when I reached Anhern I felt dumped off.

These are some good suggestions, guys, ones I share in. Keep 'em coming! I am confident -- not based on technical diagrams but on happy faith -- that Lindens will do something about this in the future!

Thus, the Welcome Area becomes... more Welcome!!

Here is a design idea I have for the welcome area. Notice the corral to contain the noobs from wandering free. Of course, once they leave, they are subject to attack from roaming, vicious, noob-eating bears. I believe the corral design and the release of noob-eating bears will create a better welcome area experience.

If the Lindens give links to some sites or events that means they aren't giving them to others, it's intrinsically unfair to the folks that don't get mentioned. Complaints about this sort of thing lead to the removal of the top picks and their replacement by the paid ads in the find dialog.


How can you provide written instructions to people who can't figure out how to get help by clicking on the word help in the main menu? The help menu gives them links to live help and to the forums, though not to the support wiki as it ought to.


Maybe the rudimentary help info needs to made into textures and displayed on orientation island? A sign that says: Click Help in main menu for help?

Bears I thought it was Hippo's??

Is that the legendary Newbie Corral that used to be in Natoma? I came along too late to experience the whole Getting Penned In and Running From Bears Experience.

Darnit, Teeny! You uncovered my fetid plot to pass off the old welcome area as my original design!

So yeah, that's the original newbie corral. The bear, sadly, was not vicious or noob-eating in the least. But the slimes would bite your hand off! I swear!

A new WA wouldn't be bad, but please give us advance notice (ADVANCE, NOT a world announcement, post it the forums and give us TIME) when it will be taken down, as it does have sentimental value for some of us.

Usualy an open type area is better in most cases, it keeps people from feeling "closed in" or confronted or clausterphobic(sp), etc.. It of course depends on the person.

The Waterhead WA is great, but I imagine it wouldn't be the greatest thing for a definit first location due to its size and structure.

I suspect whatever the Linden's do, it'll be neat

But please for all that is shiny, give is advance warning on this.

Hello all,

Within the next week or so we will be re-routing all newbie traffic to either the Hidden Lakes hub or the Lime/Plum hub.

The current WA in Morris/Ahern will be dismantled and a face lift will commence.

I will not say much about what our plans are except to say that we have incorporated many suggestions from the community as well as those from our liaisons. It is worth mentioning that no design or informative signage comes close to being as effective a teaching tool for our new users than the presence of veteran residents. This new design keeps that in mind.

Construction will happen on the site, so you will be able to follow along with the progress in-world.

Our current WA has served us well for quite some time and I empathize with those who have an emotional attachment to it. I am confident that the new welcome area will provide a great start for many more new residents.

I just want to know one thing..... nagging question...


The rolling stairs... that lead to that platform.. can.. can I just ride that down Beverly Hills just once before you tear it down????

*BTW was that the balloon port?

And please sell me a bench... please.

It'd be neat if you auctioned off the chunks of the WA for US dollars... I wonder what the benches would go for.

Anyways, all I want in the WA, when I visit, is more seating. Preferrably with custom animation sitballs. One bench for 30 people is an odd game of musical chairs.

LF

I finally played "Prim Attack" for the first (and maybe last) time!

Though.. what if the new design is to add 30 of those things?!

Ok let's hear your best WORST ideas for the welcome are.

In my top 10 tradition...

10. Make leashes mandatory for first 60 days
9. click here for a free push gun!
8. replace "welcome" notecard with LM to bottom of the ocean
7. object: "banana phone" (free to copy)
6. note card: "Your guide to using alts to grief"
5. Mandatory Tringo lessons
4. sign: "in order to keep noise down.. please use "talk to" located on your pie menu"
3. New welcome area designed by IKEA (wait I think that's what happended!)
2. C4 demos on the hour every hour
1. Sex balls sex balls sex balls!

AWESOME AS A SACK OF BABY POSSUMS!!!

This'll be like one of those episode arcs in a dramatic series when the main cast is temporarily relocated because their "home base" is being rebuilt after an asteroid crashed into it -- so there is some sense of sadness, longing, and lost during the transient travels in the meantime -- but you know they'll be back bigger and better than before!

BOOYEAH!!!

Hah! Not a bad idea. Would like to have more fun interactive things to try at the welcoming areas like that.

Gotta take lots of pictures before it changes!

Oh yeah, definately. Just like the change between the previous area to the current one. Ahhh memories.