HOW many residents???!

Unless LL lets people catch up to the technology in SL .. then people will still have computers that cant run it.

I don't know anything and am frequently wrong.

......
First, make it a useful place for the masses.
Then, invite the masses.
......

- snip! -

Does that figure include alts?

And anyone want to take bets on 50% of those being bots that are just eating up system resources by continuously slamming the database with Search requests?

~Jessy

So, you go through orientation and it dumps you into a welcome center or info hub, where the atmosphere is that of kids hanging out at the mall, without security to moderate their rudeness. This is the introduction people have to SL. Is it a wonder retention is so low?

You've heard there's more to SL than rudeness, nakedness and griefing, so you fly or teleport around a bit. You find empty malls and clubs, and you also find busy malls and clubs where people aren't doing anything , but according to the text on their lap they're earning money. Why won't they chat with you?

And you find lots of signs. Glowing, spinning signs.

Okay, you've heard you can earn money here, so you ask people about it. And you ask. And ask. And ask. Most people don't respond. The ones you'd most like to respond are the ones with dollar figures in their laps, but they don't answer. Most others are rude to you. Eventually you find someone who does answer, but what does camping mean? Make stuff to sell? How do I do that?

Eventually, after having beed insulted, spammed, pushed, orbited, spammed, caged, crashed a few times, spammed, been locked in blue dialog hell, and seen lots of ugly crap, some kind soul gives you the honest truth: The best way to acquire money is to buy it with a credit card.

Having fun yet?

LL thinks this will turn into the next web. I wonder if the web would have turned into the web had the spammers arrived before the useful content. Or had visitors to web sites been able to harass, push, insult and orbit other visitors. Or had the first webizens been there wanting to sell something. Or had Joe Blow's spinning slutwear signs been visible from the nearby websites.

Some 3D world will become the next web, no doubt, but it won't be this one until LL recognizes the differences between the early nineties web and the current SL. Maybe I can simplify it for them...

First, make it a useful place for the masses.
Then, invite the masses.

Yes, the order of that is important. Yes, your residents will gladly help. Look for the things-to-do threads in this very forum to see what they think is useful. Note that there are few make-money-on-the-new-web-inspired things they find useful. Don't remember what the early web was like? A refresher course is right under your noses.

Sheep Labs will not make SL the next web. The Svargas and the Dublins and the Junkyard Blues and the International Space Flight Museums and the Sanctuary Rocks will. If you just introduce people to places like this instead of dumping them with the kids at the welcome center mall and hoping they'll find their way, and if you put the corporate buddy system to work supporting places like this rather than empty corporate brand spaces.

And, ferchrissake, clean up the spinning, glowing ugliness that cheapens this whole world.

Agree completely!

In the shorter term, the new user experience can often put people off. SL has a high enough learning curve without experiencing the not so nice aspects of the metaverse. I have had confused newbies ask me, "How do I play?", "What do I do now?" A formal buddy system would help quite a number of new residents IMO - but remembering the "mentor" I met as a noob, it would be hard to verify all buddies as bona fide, genuine, helpers.

One question - is the New Residents Started Kit available on the HELP Islands? It does direct new residents to newbie friendly areas - and has heaps of other helpful information.