Questions from a newbie (again)

I'm sure that these have been asked, but I can't find them anywhere on the site.

1)One day, I wanted to explore w/o being bothered so I unchecked 'all of my friends can see when I'm online'. One of them still found me. What did I do wrong? I'm not sure, but I think I even logged out after I unchecked and logged back in incase that had to be done.

2)I can't have an alter to my main person w/o a paying account right? If I'm wrong, how do I make one?

3)Is there a starbucks type place in SL where people aren't camping, but go to meet new people (not a club)?

I know this is a resident forum, but I hate to waste peope's time with such newb questions, even though everyone has been more than helpful here. Is there a forum for really green SL residents anywhere?

TIA as always
Katherine

How do you mean they "found" you? Did they physically find your, or did an IM go through? Because IMs WILL go through, if they send one, even with them thinking you're offline.



Just search for coffee shops

Search is your friend. If you don't get results the first time, think of another way to ask the question

And welcome!

1. Make sure you uncheck them in your friends list as being able to see when you're online, and also make sure they can't see you on the map. If you are hanging out in places where they know you've been before, however, it might be due to your historical travel habits.

2. You can make an alt with a basic account. You can make as many alts as you want...at least I think you can. You may have to create a new email account, but that's Penguin Pie.

3. There are TONS of places to hang out and chat. You have to explore, and get past all the touristy cluttervilles.

Someone could simply look at your profile and it would have the little "Online" text in the top right corner (Edit / Preferences - Communication - 'Make my online status etc' controls that).

You could have run into them without knowing (same area they happened to be and they spotted you), or if they're wearing an avie scanner your name could have popped up if you happened to be within 96m.

They could have looked at a group you were in and noticed that it said you were "Online" (purposefully looking for you, or just accidently).

They could use a script to monitor when you come online or go offline (unlikely and extreme, but it's possible so best to mention and at least you know it's possible).

And hiding online status has been bugged for the past few weeks so you may have simply shown online in their friends list when they logged on and they didn't know anything was out of the ordinary.

Or they could have wanted to leave you an IM thinking you were offline but then found you were online when it didn't respond with "offline" standard message.

You can't really hide the fact that you're online in SL, and the parts that do make it look like you can are buggy and fail to work half the time (you'll appear offline in world but online on the Friends Online portion of the site, etc). In most cases when someone IMs you when you're marked offline it'll just be innocent, simply point out that you're exploring and prefer not to deal with IMs right now and everything should be fine .

You don't need a premium account to have an alt (assuming that's what you mean with paying account).

It used to be - and supposidly still is - that you had to pay $9.95/additional account, but LL doesn't seem to care anymore and I'm not sure it's even still possible to actually do pay for an alt anymore.

First, you should never consider asking questions to be a waste of time. If you have questions, this is the place to ask.

In Preferences, on the Communication tap at the top is a check for Make my online status visible only to my friends... do you have that on?

Next, even though you set your visibility off in your friend list. anyone that is in any groups that you are in can see your online status from the group info. Nothing you can to to stop that at present. Or, if they IM you, they don't get the offline message so obviously, you are online.

There is no charge for a basic account Alt. Just go to the sign up page and make one. No charge.

As for a Starbucks type place, I'll have to let someone else answer that one.

Katherine, do you belong to any groups they may also belong to? If so, you will show up as being online in those groups, so they will know you are inworld.

You can have as many alts as you like. Great if you want to avoid those friends who keep finding you lol. You can use the same email address. But remember, you'll probably start making friends as your alt too. I now use my alt more than my main av, since she wound up with a serious BF! Who knew that would happen?

BTW - Welcome!

Some sims have village pubs. I know the Celtic Kingdom has one. It used to be really hoping late at night. I haven't been on late at night recently, so I can't say if it still is. But, you can IM Devlinn Darkstone for a LM.

Also, I know you don't like clubs but Club Rockaway is a rated PG club. Clothing must be worn. There's no strippers or escorts. It's very nice and friendly. You don't have to turn your sound on and hear the music. I've met most of my best SL friends there, including my roommate. If you catch me in game, I'll send you a LM to it.

Thanks for the quick replies. So to make another av, I just need to sign up like I did the first time? Use the same info and all? If I can get this done, I don't have to worry about who sees me on line. Also, can one alt give money to another alt in SL?


It's not that I don't like clubs, just the ones I've been to besides a hi going on except for the 'old timers'. I'll check that one out


Kat

I believe the best thing you can do is set yourself a BUSY through the WORLD menu. People might get offended if you specifically make yourself invisible to them--yet they IM you and it goes through -- or they can see you online from a group.

Just be honest and set to BUSY. IMs get bounced back and everyone understands that you have oher things to do.

Yes, sign up like the first time. You'll have to go through orientation island, but you'll be able to tp out quick, since you know how to now

At the login screen when you launch the SL viewer, there is a button to create a new account. It costs $10, but it's a one-time fee.

NO! It's free! They do NOT charge anymore.

Welcome to SL Katherine!

It seems #1 and #2 have pretty much been answered. As for #3 there are lots of places to hang out and meet people whether it be clubs, coffee shops, parks, etc. Most of us have our favorites so just as around.

On excellent place to start would be The Forum Cartel Hangout. It's a place created by many of us who are frequently here in the forums. Some days there are events, other days you can just hang out there and you'll see others or someone will be along shortly. I've dropped you a LM inworld.

Be sure to join the Forum Cartel group so you can hear when there may be an event happening. Just send an IM to Brenda Connolly or Chris Norse and they'll send you a group invite.

Hope to see you around!

I believe there may be a sporadically enforced limit of 5 accounts per email address ... but the Lindens have been less than clear about this.

Alt accounts are free now, no 10$ fee. In fact, last time I made an alt, I looked all over for a way to pay and couldn't find it.

The Shelter is a great place to just hang out and meet people, other noobs and helpers both. It's sort of a coffeehouse/hangout run by NCI.

Another great way to get to know people is to join groups that actually meet and have activities. In Search, go to the Groups tab and just type in anything that you might be interested in doing in SL. Sailing. Exploring. Your religion. Whatever! You will at least get to know people.

Some people in SL hang out at particular beaches that they like ... surf or whatever ... and build a crowd of friends that way.

I belong to a group called Girlz Rule. The group is a great way to find good freebies, and it's a nice crowd of people. Use of group chat to just ask questions, chatter, and compare notes is encouraged. Spammers are banned.

There is some erroneous info here on making an alt. You may create no more than two alts PER DAY. There is no charge. You do not have to have a paying account to have alts. You may use the same info, email, payment source (in case you want the alt to be able to buy Lindens) as your main account. To receive the validating email message, you will have to have a valid email account, but it doesn't need to be a different one. Creating alts is easily done, starting on the regular log-in page - right above 'Connect" is the "New Account" button.

You will create your "Ruth" and wind up on Orientation Island. You may want a "refresher" on some things, but you may prefer tp right out to "Help Island" from the sign on the central plaza. If you want to linger a while on Help Island, you might want to have your main av give the alt some transferable clothes, shape and skin to "un-Ruth" without using the ordinary newbie freebies available there. (Use people search for the alt's profile and "give inventory" You might even want to hang around a while and give real newbies the benefit of your main account's experience. Otherwise, tp out and join your main. You now have the nucleus of a family. (Passing out cigars is optional.)

In case people in this thread have missed it, it is very important to keep the exact same contact/payment information on your main and all alt accounts. That means using the same email address, even if the other emails addresses are valid.

For whatever reasons (unexplained as far I know), LL has been known to lock accounts when they discover a discrepancy in contact/billing info for accounts that are held by the same person. Even though the informatin may be entirely valid in terms of alternate emails and payment methods, if they can be matched (probably by RL user name) you may find yourself locked out until the account information is reconciled.

The targeting appears to be somewhat haphazard. Some people were locked out and it took them days to get through to customer support and get the "fix". I had different email addresses for my main and alt, yet had no problem. But to be on the safe side, I've now made sure all my accounts have exactly the same contact/billing info.