The role of Infohubs

What should be the role of Infohubs? As part of my SLMainland project (http://slmainland.com) I have begun a survey of these places where new residents enter the grid and many call home. After seeing a fairly expansive and new-user inviting one, the next was atrocious. So here I am to ask some of the new residents who I've seen post what they thought when they arrived at their Infohub. Was it, most importantly, "informative"?

Do the Infohubs get you excited about Second Life, do they scare you off or have limited effect? Did you keep the Infohub as your home for long or immediately set off for a new place to start?

For older residents, have you explored Infohubs since they became the spawn spots, replacing Welcome Areas? What role should they play? How can they help with Second Life's abysmal 0.01% retention rate?

As Obi-Wan once said, "Waterhead infohub.. you will never find a more retched hive of scum and villainy."

Okay, maybe not, but yes. It amazes me that there is not more oversight of the infohubs, given they were one of the first points of contact for new users. I tink they're totally needed -- but so often ignored.

Mine was the Memory Bazaar. It found it quite pretty, but *very* confusing. I still go back there sometimes to look around, but I don't think it helped me understand anything.

First off, there was no reason to move off the teleportation point. I didn't understand why everyone was piling in behind me, walking over me... I assumed that everyone understood what was going on but me.

Not only was there no reason to move ahead or to the side... there were plenty of reasons to stay right there. Why? Because a sign advised us to "touch everything". Messages came up... explanations probably; group membership. There were so many pretty and interesting things to touch right there that we all just clumped at the tp point.

AND there is this donkey. You touch *anything* else, and something happens. For sure, the donkey MUST do something interesting. But guess what? It doesn't. But I kept at that donkey for several minutes... obviously I was doing something wrong, because the damn donkey never moved, no matter how I touched it.

And I couldn't even sit on it.

I guess Saint Exupéry would say, "The time you wasted on your donkey has made it special."

Anyway...

Second: I had a bunch of freebies I picked up on OI that i wanted to try on, and there was a sign indicating that there was a changing room in the next square. I never found it. Not then or ever after. There weren't any rooms or doorways in that next square.

And it wasn't clear whether things or buildings belonged to some private individual or were there for us. The doorways were curtained, so I didn't go inside.

Third: I had no idea where it ended. I found a road and crossed it into an empty shopping mall, in which I kept falling through the floors and going through walls, and after flying around a bit, I couldn't find my way back to the Memory Bazaar.

I hate to complain, because the place is rather pretty, but there was SO MUCH in it that I didn't and couldn't understand, and I didn't learn anything about SL there.

Really, what I wanted to do was go back to the OI and figure things out some more, but I had no idea how to get back.

As far as keeping it as my home: I did keep it as my home until I rented an apartment. In the meantime, I kept *trying* to set my home elsewhere, but could not.

I hate to give this negative impression, because I'm sure someone went to a lot of trouble to create the place.

On the other hand, I've recently seen Caledon Oxbridge, and I have to give it high marks, except for one thing: you don't tp in at the starting point.

I think at one point they served a purpose when you couldn't directly tp places
now it just seems a place for the homeless to make homes and where to redirect
failed tps.

Thank you very much for that write-up, Key. Some good information to work from. So how about some of the other new residents here, what has been your experience with Infohubs?

When I was new as FD few people suggested I go hang out at infohubs to make friends
and I did, it wasn't a very friendly place. Never been back except when I create new account.
Infohubs aren't very friendly, informative nor helpful.

(more)

FWIW, I think you need to have someting like an infohub. It is, if you will, a necessary evil. There has to be some central congregation space that can also serve as a first point of contact for potential new residents. I note, for example, most new residents are mainly looking for others (this is, after all, a social game more than anyting)

The difficulty is that the very places we have for such congregation also breed the sort of behaviors that make it hard for new people to feel welcome. Regulars take ownership in 'their' infohub (good) but it can quickly turn into a clique that shuns outsiders (bad). Fun, outrageous activities that make people come back for more (good) can be off putting to a new person with no frame of reference (bad-ish). One is left trying to figure out a way to balance this experience.

It would seem that having some form of mentorship would be the way to go – but is that truly "scalable" for the SL experience? How many sign ones are there in a day? How could we even begin to keep up with it? What is the answer?

For me, I've always wondered why at least some level of orientation couldn't be done before a person even joins into Second Life. Say, as a simulated region (it gets a little third life-y here) existing purely within the application file itself. Something very basic that gives people the option to see their avatar, try the basic tools, and get the idea of how to move, speak, and so on before they ever enter the world. Then let 'em loose in the infohubs.

My own experience dumped me at Ahern: it wasn't long until I figured out how to set a home location and found the then-quiet (and now long gone) Sami Infohub. I had friends who were already here as mentors, which allowed me a much bigger head start than th' average.

I spent about five seconds at Orientation Island. I knew there was a search engine and that I had a friend who had entered SL through the NMC (New Media Center run by Virginia Tech) Portal. I found the NMC Orientation Island and teleported there. I set it as a landmark. I am one of those lucky souls who has zero trouble with the SL interface.

Then there was this other landmark in my pocket. It was for something called Nova Amaxion (probably don't have the spelling right) in Miramarre. I thought some scamming business had handed me the thing. It scaird me. I figured everyone left Orientation Island by picking a place to which to teleport.

Finally I tested the Nova Amaxion landmark. It was crowded there. It was badly lit. I was very scaird because I feared I would be hazed. I did not know there is very little hazing of newbies in Second Life. I just assumed strangers would be mean. There is a bridge at Nova Amaxion which acted as a natural draw. I learned to move by climbing up and on top of the big brick bridge.

I also did a lot of walking around on the NMC Islands which are safe and very empty, but I was a raw enough newbie that learning to climb those twisting stairs and get to the parapets on top of the bridge was a problem. It was actually a challenge because I learned to move around better after a while, but I did not feel safe at Nova Amaxion and did most of my learning and pretty much all my orienting at NMC and the surrounding academic islands.

When I did reach Nova Amaxion, I ended up walking to Bay City, out into neighboring sims, making my first visit to a store that was called Sinful Kitten. I was not impressed with their wears. Even after I could walk straight, I was still an unsocialized menace of a newbie. It took reading boards like this and reading tutorials, and deciding I was safest in a sandbox and performing several very good searches to straighten me out. I can remember handing random females copies of my emerald green midi blouse (one of my first uploaded texture clothing items) and finding my inventory offer rejected.

I also met two very kind souls that night in front of Sinful Kitten. One of them, asked me what a poor newbie like me wanted. I had been in SL long enough to have an answer. I had fallen in the water numerous times and could not swim but did not drown. I asked if there was a way to swim and got copy 1 of the Swimmer which was fantastic.

I did reset my "home" to Wengens because I decided I wanted to ski and be near snow. I did some exploring on the Wengens Road and found the infohub which was near some interesting stores and the chair lift. I was shocked that other avatarim were not wearing winter clothes. I ended up having to make all my winter things.

My real home though was the result of a very good search. I knew I wanted a more conservative environment after having done a fair amount of walking so I searched Christian and found Eternal Creations. I still use their sandbox and often dance at their club. It's probably one of my favorite hangouts.

I was NEVER a typical newbie, though I was a pretty dumb one. I had a lot of experience with command driven MU** and even helped design a world twelve years ago. I also had played Active Worlds. I knew when plunked down at Nova Whos-ee-whatsis, that what one did with a MU** including a graphical one was walk. I started walking. The other task is learn to build which for Second Life means primarily clothes.

My biggest complaint with Nova whos-ee-whatsis is that on the far side of the bridge there is a soft spot in the sidewalk. I got trapped not just under the water but under the street hundreds of times.

I thought he orientation experience on NMC and other academic islands, notably Texas Women's University, was far superior to anything at an Info Hub. I only knew Info Hubs were spots on a map that let you set them as home if you didn't own land. On the academic islands were big signs that taught about different things, including how to get clothing mesh and a pose ball tutorial.

I did not know Info-hubs had any use besides impromptu starting points for when you hit a security orb or places to get to should you beome hopelessly lost, until I read posts on this board.

It would be good to have a whole big town square with orientation signs or ads for other places on it for newbies, and please NO SOFT SPOTS. Getting stuck under the road was embarassing.

It would also be good to give prizes (pay Lindens) for walking and exploring. HoloMuck where I had a developer bit (Holo was a command driven MU**) used to teleport users to a random spot and have them walk back to the teleport area. When they walked back in one piece, they received 50 holobucks. In this way, they got paid to explore. This might be fun to do on Second Life, except unlike Holo, Second Life is not contiguous. Still, a scavenger hunt with coupons redeemable for clothes or Lindens might be a good idea.

Also it might be good to give users a choice of hubs they can join. I picked Wengens because it suited my needs better than Nova Amaxion. I probably would have chosen Wengens first and foremost had someone offered it and felt better about it because no one shoved a strange landmark in my pocket.

[ obsessive ]
Nova Albion.
[/ obsessive ]

I used to go newbie hunting in Mahulu. Funnily enough, that's where I caught my current partner nearly 2 years ago. I don't hunt there anymore.

You have some trust issues, Iyoba? lol!

Appreciate the kind comment Caledon Oxbridge is essentially open to anyone, but not active, hence the landing point thing. Well, I must confess it had a group of... 47? (can't recall) MBA students from the University of Calgary go through this week, and a few other groups are using it, but it's essentially 'just another region' at this time. If that status changes I'll mention something in more appropriate venues than Resident Answers.

Edit: I wonder where you even heard of it?

It's where you land when tp or login fails to put you in the appropriate place. One good reason I always dress before I log off. Just this week I wound up at an infohub with a Linden standing on my head.

The place gets talked about in NCI quite often. I've even visited a couple times myself. (^_^)y

There was a recent thread about someone teaching a class... maybe the one you mentioned, and maybe even the group you mentioned...

Okay... found it:

It was Brann Georgia's thread on "Teaching SL" -- Macha Morigi mentioned it in post #8.

If your going to have some staff there helping people find what they are looking for or directing them to interesting content then it is a good thing. If you encouraged the 'parking lot behind the 7-11' setting you are just inviting sim resource abuses and greifing.
.

Oh! Heh well that's what I get for a light skim of the forums here - I only read maybe one thread in ten.

And yes *some* of the free avatars set out have 19th century underwear on their skins, including longjohns and backflap... truly, take a look at that one rather rustic fellow and ask yourself: would you ever *want* to see that particular avatar naked? laughs

Thank you very much. Caledon Oxbridge is a collaboration between Caledon and NCI/New Citizens Incorporated. I created the orientation posters for Oxbridge. Desmond Shang created the buildings. The freebies and free avatars were contributed by the Caledon community and friends thereof.

The "don't TP in at the starting point" bit is due to the fact that Oxbridge is intended as a Community Gateway (like the others shown on the signup page), and once active (when LL ever gets around to it), new residents will rez directly at the starting point.

The Memory Bazaar (Ross InfoHub) is actually one of my favorites. It was designed and built by Jessica Ornitz and Prokofy Neva. It is designed to be explored and used in an interactive manner. It is not a Second Life orientation, though. When it was built, LL had dedicated Orientation Islands with an orientation path demonstrating some of the SL basics. My understanding is that the Memory Bazaar was built under the assumption that newbies coming there would already know the very basics.

NCI has built "NCI InfoNodes" close to most of Linden Lab's InfoHubs. These are designed to supplement the InfoHubs with freebies, maps, help notecards, posters & landmarks for newbie-friendly (or otherwise intersting) places, and a NCI class & event schedule.

So far we have InfoNodes near or adjacent to the Ambat, Hyles, Braunworth, Bear, Clementina, Hanson, Iris, Mahulu, Ross, and Warmouth InfoHubs. We have acquired land at (and will soon be building) near the Mauve InfoHub. We also have InfoNodes at Bay City Centre, near the Helfell "megahub", and at the Maryport/Pooley border across the bridge from the Pooley stage, and down the road from Waterhead. Finally, one of our four NCI campuses is located on the edge of the South Welcome Area in the Hamnida sim.

The Welcome Areas or InfoHubs we don't have locations at are either a) surrounded by Linden Land where we are unable to rent our buy (Ahern Welcome Area, Waterhead, Violet, b) prohibitively expensive (Nova Albion), or c) lower priority because the well are covered by another help group (Isabel--The Shelter and Calletta--Second Life Hobos).

The biggest problem I had as a new user was getting away from all the startup rubbish because I didnt know how - I wanted to get out into "the game proper". It took me over 3 months of my RL friends dragging me in before I really got into SL.

The retention ratio cannot be massively fixed by infohubs, what needs to change is the entire client experience, by this i'm referring to the graphical client who's interface and intuitiveness is inadequate.

Second Life's "limitless" experience is very "limiting" when you are new, the choice of everything is too much to comprehend: One of the most sucessful computer games of all time was a game called Elite coded by Iain Bell and David Brabham. Elite could theoretically create a truly unlimited universe, but the publisher wisely pointed out that unlimited was too big, they needed to keep the size of the game comprihensable. From this perspective SL is fundamentally flawed.

Aside from that the constrictive application of the "prim" in a 3D marketplace of vertices, polygons and shaders, is not sufficiently countered with the sculpty. SL's avatars and water are beautiful, the rest is abysmal. SL also has trouble when the number of players in a region is what in other games would be considered trivial and to this day suffers lag which in any other online game environment would cause an instant death of the entire project.

These are the things which first struck me when I played SL, better infohubs would not have effected my user experience.

O.k.

Uhm.

What is an InfoHub?????

You can tell how often i get around to mainland.

Desmond's Devil's Dictionary:

An InfoHub is a place that stores all the information needed by the very people who don't know about them.

I do not know about that..I seem to be getting by quite well without ever encountering one.

Are these the things that replaced Telehub locations, like Ahern?