When is a newbie not a newbie

Hello,

I sometimes meet newbies on my adventures who ask me for help & advice, and that's no problem. I know they are newbies because they say so, and because their profile gives their SL age as 1 or 2 days.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the newbie is not as new as he/she says. I'm not sure why, have no hard evidence, just instinct.

I know it's possible to create alt avatars, but do some people 'pretend' to be newbies, and if so why ?

Or am I getting paranoid?

Thanks as always

FH

For the LULZ! (^_^)

I may be weird, but when I created an alt, I did sort of feel like a newbie all over again.

I was navigating a world I was somewhat familiar with, but without my inventory, landmarks, friends, home base, appearance, persona... Sure, I could have set home to my main's home location and shared all the landmarks, but that wasn't the experience I wanted. I wanted to see the world through fresh eyes and discover what I could do "on my own".

I also knew (or felt) that some people were touchy about alts and didn't want to out myself.

Could be they're role-playing being new, could be they're messing with you. Or it could be they're new to SL, but used to some other platform that makes them appear to be more experienced than they are. I've run into that one, too.

ETA: My alt has since settled in my home location and become just as staid and boring as I am. Oh, well.

Well sis (hehe...another Haystack! )

It could also be someone who is a fast learner. The thing about newbness is it isn't a blanket condition. Someone could pop in, figure out a few things really fast, and have these gaping holes.

So then you're left wondering...if they know A...how could they not know B? Are they pulling my leg?

At least, that's how I've been in newbland.

edit: Oh...and someone who can talk well instantly seems less newb-like.

its like a crack addict looking for their first high again

A newbie might be a year old. There are people (and I've seen this stated) who create an account and don't really get it at first so they don't log in for a loooong time. It may be 6 months or a year before they log in and get acquainted with SL so IMO a newb could even be a year old.

I was a non-newbie, newbie. I still am. I've done command driven MU**'s and Active Worlds before Second Life. That gives me about 16 years worth of Mu*ing experience and a first instinct to build rather than buy. It's amazing how much previous experience ports. I also was very briefly a wizard about twelve years ago. Talk about experience.

I've met people only a couple of days old by their profile who seemed to "know too much". I usually ask them about it, politely..."Pardon me, but are you an alt?" I don't care if they are, but if I know, I can save us both a ton of time by not telling them a lot of basic stuff they already know about.

Sometimes they are alts. But most of the time, they are simply fast learners, or they have a friend who's helping them...in some cases, right there in the room with them, giving advice over their shoulder.

I've also met people a year and more old, who are still wearing the Ruth avatar. Sometimes, they just don't get on SL much, and are really "new", except in calendar age. Sometimes they have a big language barrier, and only pick up things slowly. And sometimes, they just don't care a fig about their appearance.

They could also have the help of a friend who has been in SL for a while to help them find skins, hair and decent clothes, places to go and navigate the money and land systems. This is how I got up to speed quickly

I have a neighbour who is not much more than a month old I would guess... she is obviously quite well educated, within a few days of joining, she was building, and creating stuff that took my breath away, despite no previous SL experience. Even now, after a period of intense basic building work, I am still impressed by her ability to learn by instinct. She also seems to have a business head, setting up land for rent etc, and seems to know the answers I am looking for.
On the other hand, another friend is not interested in the technical side of things, and just enjoys the social scene in the clubs, to the point of being unaware of most of the features available via the pull down menus etc.

As for alts, they are mostly recognisable, either by dress - carefully selected clothing and attachments, and skins, or manner - a fluency in movement and skills. Most alts also have empty profiles, but then that also applies to noobs. Alts seem to move around without the drunken walk, or falling off staircases, as is my habit haha.

In short, I can see all sorts there, for legitimate reasons.

Edit - just thought of another possibility ... these 'noobs' might be mystery customers !

some create alts to explore different things in SL that they would not want to have their "main" participate in or be "seen" doing.

I have a "newb" alt whom I created recently to only dress up in finds posted on freebie blogs. And wow, you can go a long way with just that! Two days inworld, and nothing newb-like about appearance at all. I find it a strangely amusing way of passing time..

A week after I joined I had an aquintance accuse me of being an alt of one of their friends who was messing with them. I still get accused of being an alt on occasion, but not so much now that I'm a bit over 2 months old. I use to play WoW prior to SL and I was big into MUDs and BBS way back in the day. I'm use to how these things work.

Good point, there is a big difference between somone who has never played on line games and a vetern gamer. I came over from Everquest and I have played many other on line games as well. I've been playing games on the net since...well before there was a "net" dailing up to BBS's and such with 2400 baud modems! ...errr.. oh wait that was my mom I mean!!! anyhoo....

Because of my prior experiances I was able to pick up on the basic mechanics of SL very quickly... I always liked what one shop owner called me because I apeared wiser beyond my ress date... she said I was a "New Citizen" not a "newbie"..

I created an alt so I could get a fuller sense of the noob experience. See, I started SL and played around for a month, then RL got crappy and I stayed away for 4-5 months. When I got back to SL, I realized I kinda had to start over, but couldn't experience some stuff (like, were there really such things as "money trees"??? or a myth?) - so I created an alt.

So, I knew some stuff and maybe seemed less noobish than expected, but wasn't role playing or messing with anyone. Okay, plus it was fun!

Of course, that's just my story - no idea if it explains anything

(By the way, I still feel a bit noobish sometimes & I'm sure I've still missed plenty of stuff other folks "younger" than me in SL know in a short time... just different for different people, I think. Plus, not a gamer - that makes a big difference, too.)

I'm an alt/main myself. I have an account that's over a year and a half old. But, at the time I didn't have a computer that would run SL. And, by the time I got a computer that could, I forgot the password. (T_T)

Lately, I remembered it and logged that account in a couple times. Regardless... Immy is my true main. (^_^)y

I have an acquaintance in SL who began about 3 years ago and came here from 8 years in Active World. She has no idea how to do somethings that just floored me - one example is she had no clue how to put items in a box/prim.

But she has been involved the majority of her time in SL in socializing and a yearly charitable event.

You're getting paranoid.

The first question to ask is why do you care? We should be treating people with respect regardless of how long they've been in SL, or how much they know, or how skilled they are. If someone asks a newbie-type question and you're willing to answer it at all, then just answer it. A single newbie question from a non-newbie isn't taking advantage of you.

If it continues to the point that you wonder whether the person is jerking your chain, that's a sign of annoyance. Again, it really doesn't matter whether the person is new or old. It's nice that you might want to make allowances for a newbie, but it's not necessary. If you keep making allowances, it will just continue to the point where you'll either get tired of that particular newbie or, worse, get tired of newbies in general.

I keep wanting to answer this with, "When s/he's ajar."

I've got a jar of dirt! (^_^)y

Yup. I had a bad first day in SL and it took me 4 months before I was interested enough to try again. Bummer that I missed all the 30 day freebies, though.

I'm a newbie and not a newbie all at the same time. I first visited SL several years ago, and never made it off Orientation Island. Since I only had a basic account and no one could find my login information I created a "new" alt when I wanted to rejoin due to some things going on in RL, and started there. I have a lot of experience in the ol' text based M8Ds, and so SL came fairly naturally to me. I also have a lot of experience programming in Flash, and LSL is very similar, so the whole thing felt like a fit. I recently upgraded to a premium account and of course, that sets your birth date back to 0.

So...I'm a newbie but not, all at once. I'm sure I throw people for a loop all the time.

My first avatar is from 2003, there is numerous things I don't know how to do or remember
what to do. I don't get or understand gestures, AO or HUDs, probably numerous other things. Many things I had no clue how to do until I made FD nor did I have any friends.
When I joined in 2003 as Dagon Grimm I met one person when I was in orientation island
and I never saw a another single soul until I left in 2004 and never saw another avatar again
until I rejoined in 2006.
Age really doesn't determine whole lot whether or not they know things, there is lots of
stuff to know here and some of us are extremely slow learners.
Some people ask for help because they genuinely need it, sometimes they are just making conversation and are lonely want to talk to someone.
Either you're interested in want to talk to them or you're not its up to you.
If you don't want to help someone don't regardless if they are newbies or not that is
your right to do.
If you want to be paranoid that is cool too, sometimes people are really after to get you because they are made out of evil, stinky meat

well ...hells, I have been thinking to make a 1st alt for my 3rd Rez day.
Reading that seems like a foretoken from the ghost of the Altness Future.