Best Newbie Hangouts?

Can anyone recommend the best places for newbies to hang out and meet new people? Thanks!

The Forum Cartel Hangout is probably a good place to start. I've never been there but it is populated with quite a few residents of long standing. Many of them are regulars to these forums, which explains the name, and I gather they quite enjoy helping and advising newbies.

Also the University of Caledon Oxbridge has a really neat walk around course designed to help familiarise new residents with the basics of the SL interface.

New Citizens Incorporated (NCI), have courses and all sorts of stuff geared to help, you guessed it, new citizens.

I believe all these places also have plenty of good quality freebies. Look them up under the 'Places' tab in 'Search'.

New Citizens Incorporated (Kuula)
Help Island Public
Help People Island
the Shelter (Isabel)
Info Island

There seemed to be new people at the Braunworth Infohub when I was there last, and it looked to me like it would provide a very informative entry into Second Life.

I'd only suggest the infohubs if you have a thick skin. (^_^)

The best places I can think of:

New Citizens Inc.

The Shelter

Oxbridge Caledon

(^_^)y

Also look up groups in search using key words that reflect your interests. That is a good way to meet people, too. Also, there are some clubs that often have people in them, if you just feel like company but not especially like conversing.

What do you like or want to do in SL? If you want to share that, of course.

And there is always a sim named "Extreme" ... find it from your map button or my picks ... Enjoy!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I wouldn't mind learning to design/make clothing for avitars although I don't know if I have the skill/programs that I would need to do that, it's something I would like to look into. I guess you could say right now I'm just on SL to socialize and explore and just be amazed by this virtual world, I find it fascinating!

For some good tips and also links to templates and tutorials for making clothes, see the Texture Tips forum in these pages.

Also look up the blog "The Mermaid Diaries". Sirena has some great tutorials.

Awesome, thanks I'll check those out.

Join NCI and you will get notices of classes being held. You can also find their class schedule on their website.

Also there are really some easy to follow tutorials on you tube. For just about anything you want to learn in SL.

on Ross. NW corner, somewhere about Ross/20/250/20

Low key, famous, infamous, lots of stuff nearby, lots of gadgets in the nearby rooms.

You know there really ought to be newbie guided tours of some of the cooler places, like the Science Islands, Weather Channel Island, Greenies (is that still around?), and other fun stuff. If I were more outgoing, I'd consider organizing it myself. Maybe there already is such a thing.


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You could try Swoon. It's a social dance club with live DJs and events running most of the day. (They do have a PG dress code, which may or may not appeal to you.) Honestly, I frequently find there's not a lot of conversation there - but that's changing over time. There are live people there, at any rate. I started going because a couple of my friends DJ there.

I'll second three you've already been given: NCI, the Shelter at Isabel, and Caledon Oxbridge.

Another suggestion: Search -> Events -> Games & Contests - look for trivia events. They're usually laid back and fun, and people have actual conversations.

And not just a location: search Groups and join The Forum Cartel. All the chit-chat you could ask for, delivered to your IM box, and frequently there will be postings of stuff to do or things going on that you can join in on. I don't often go the the Hangout, but the good folks from the forum have kept me company many an evening.

Oh, and if you're on Monday nights between about 6-9 SL time, drop by Madhu's Cafe for World Music Night. LOTS of friendly folks and interesting conversation!

The step to take right after New Citizens is probably Builder's Brewery.

That's not what you asked for, but everyone else already put up New Citizen's... so... there you go.

At New Citizens, take classes.

You can find them by opening search to the events tabs and searching for NCI, class, or New Citizens Inc. Its been a while so I forget exactly which one you want.

Join their group too.

Also, for some good initial freebies go to:

Free Dove
Sarah Nerd

Some of my freebies are available at Sarah Nerd's.

There's also Freebie Dungeon - but a slight mispelling lands you in a different place that is all 'dollarbies' and as a new user, that's probably not the best choice. But the actual free store, if you find it, is a good start.



Also... fill out the second life about box in your profile. Say something friendly, and then list a few things you're interested in. End by saying you're new and looking to meet friendly helpful people.

What ever you do, don't put in anything mean, or any of the 'I'll punk your a@@ if you mess with me!' stuff I see on a lot of people's profiles. That kind of statement attracts the wrong attention.

Finally...

search showcase, events, and places for 3 things you are into, 3 things you think might be interesting... and keep in mind 3 things you want to avoid while screening the results.

Before teleporting in, you can always do 'show on map' and look to see if there are green resident dots there. If there are, that's other people. And if you're looking for a social event, those are handy.

(though sometimes showing up at an empty place will encourage others to pop in after and next thing you know, there's a chatty crowd there.)

Milky 9 is not a bad freebie mall, if you want the one stop shopping thing but anything on the walls is not free. They have a changing room on the very top floor, too. Sometimes it's laggy but usually it's not too bad.

Any freebie mall will attract Bloodlines spampires and various people trying on newbies what some tried on fresh off Ellis Island types back in the day...various scams and money making schemes that don't pay off.

You might try googling "SL Free Blog" instead and maybe joining various groups at nicer clothing, hair, shoe and skin shops. Groups often give out freebies and the free blogs list current freebies to be foudn all over SL. I personally prefer going to 'real shops' and getting their gift, as opposed to going to the malls but some do prefer to go once and get it all over with so they can set about doing other stuff in SL.

I got by with freebie mall freebies for ages and didn't seem to notice I didn't look all that hot so not everyone wants a perfect av from the word go...so it depends what you want.

Curious about this, I Have a dim memory (I think) of a couple years ago, wasn't there a mall across the street from that infohub, called Promenade Mall and a park called Promenade Park?