Newbie needs help getting...anywhere

Hi. Absolutely new to SL, and I have finished with my appearance...now how do I get anywhere? I've wandered and flown around the building and islands, but no one is there, and I can't seem to get anywhere.

I was thinking this would be far simpler than it is...was anyone else overwhelmed at first with all the choices?

Now that my appearance is set (for now), I have no idea where to go or what to do. Please be patient and gentle...I'm utterly new to the online avatar and life scene.

click the search button on the bottom of your screen, and look for events, it should show you where the action is within a particular time period

also do a search for NCI and The Shelter under the places tab, those are noobie friendly places with lots of helpful info.. and theres almost always something going on

welcome to the grid

Welcome to SL, Hone, and to the forums.
You can also click on "map" at the bottom of the screen. Green dots on the map represent people so if you click on a place near some green dots then hit the "teleport" button - lower right on the Map window - you will teleport to a place where there are other people.
Be prepared to tp to another place on the map quickly in case those people are doing something obviously private. Or press the PgUp key on your keyboard and fly up, then use the arrow keys to fly around exploring.

Are you still on Help Island (the first place you landed when you arrived in Second Life)? I don't think the search and map functions work until you're off that area.

If you're still in that area, fly back to the island where you arrived and walk around it until you see a large sign saying either 'Exit' or 'Ready to enter your Second Life?' (something like that; I can't remember the exact wording of it). There may or may not be a big green arrow pointing down to it, too. Click that sign and you *should* be given a landmark to a welcome area on the mainland. A small window will pop up and at the bottom you'll see a button marked 'teleport'. Click that button and your screen will go black with a progress bar, then after a few seconds you should be on the mainland of Second Life.

The search and map functions should finally work, so then I suggest following advice you've already been given. Click 'search' and enter NCI into the search bar. The NCI places are a good starting point for new residents, with tutorials, info and a freebie wall you can get stuff from.

Be aware that some of the welcome areas you might initially land at could contain griefers. If yours does, just run the search for NCI (or try for New Citizens if NCI doesn't bring up anything) and teleport away.

Have fun

Could????

Check out the SL video tutorials - click on the browse column on the right side and select beginners. After viewing those, try a more specific category that interests you:

http://secondlife.com/showcase/tutorials/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skell Dagger
Be aware that some of the welcome areas you might initially land at could contain griefers. Have fun




Indeed. All new people should be made aware that there is NO obligation to let vampires bite them.

When you figure it out, please let the rest of us know.

Really.

I don't recommend looking for green dots on the map. If you look for large groups you will find bots, or you'll find nothing at all because the bots are hidden. If you look for small groups you'll find people in pairs doing private things, or individuals busy building or shopping.

I speak with a lot of experience: http://greendots.typepad.com/

You can find things through random discovery but it takes forever. Your best bet may be to read here for threads about where to hang out, or where to shop, or whatever you're looking for.

Any effort to create useful guides are generally turned into crap:

1) Automated tools are gamed and spammed to hell. Witness search.

2) Human-created resources fall into one of two categories:

a) Resident efforts that showcase their buddies and recommend stuff that is not the best, and is mostly full of shopping opportunities.

b) Linden efforts that look to offend nobody, showcase a few pets and push the corporate experience, and recommend uninteresting things.

There are a few blogs that are almost useful, but they tend to recommend things to *look at* and not things to *do*, and they tend to die. Does anyone have an organized list of current, non-shopping blogs?

You could try going to the Blarney Stone. I go there at all hours on business and there always seem to be people there. I rarely hang out myself but I get the impression the people are pretty friendly.

The Blarney Stone is a good place for a natter, and has music on regularly. It used to be a favourite haunt of mine when I was still finding places to go and stuff to do.

Forgot to add, once you start tp'ing around, you can get back to your home location by pulling down 'world' on the menu and selecting 'home'. You can also reset this to another location if you so desire ...


Good luck !

"What to do?" has come up a few times before...

Can Someone Recommend a nice LOUD English speaking/French/German club
11-21-2008
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Popular SL hang outs.
11-20-2008
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favorite hang outs?
09-18-2008
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Must See Places Ideas?
08-25-2008
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A 1 hour date, where to go and what to do?
07-24-2008
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Where do the humans hang out?
07-17-2008
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Fun places to go on a date?
07-01-2008
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Lonely secondlifer
06-25-2008
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Finding active places?
06-13-2008
/327/1c/264721/1.html

Where is a good place to make friends?
06-08-2008
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Neko places
05-21-2008
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Where do the grown ups play?
04-07-2008
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Advice for new folks who ask: Where can I go to meet people?
03-19-2008
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Latin Dance Club and/or Night
03-01-2008
/327/07/243984/1.html

Most Romantic place in SL?
02-21-2008
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all the dark places
02-18-2008
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What is the most fun place you've been to in SL?
02-13-2008
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Can you recommend a great nightclub?
02-10-2008
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Best dance clubs? Any suggestions?
01-18-2008
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best places to just hang out
01-07-2008
/327/ac/233982/1.html

Hands up, any and all fun people
12-28-2007
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sci fi places
12-20-2007
/327/f4/230903/1.html

name one cool place...
12-19-2007
/327/88/230840/1.html

Exploring SL
12-12-2007
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Romantic Dance Spots?
11-24-2007
/327/02/225596/1.html

im bored
11-18-2007
/327/52/224126/1.html

Nature Places to Go in SL
11-16-2007
/327/ae/223755/1.html

Social Hangouts
11-14-2007
/327/a3/223226/1.html

Searching for things to do
11-07-2007
/327/0e/221794/1.html

What happened to all the dance clubs?
10-14-2007
/327/a9/216974/1.html

Fun Suggestions
09-20-2007
/327/75/211762/1.html

Best clubby places to show friends new to SL?
09-08-2007
/327/37/209177/1.html

Chatting places?
08-23-2007
/327/f1/206215/1.html

nice place to hang out???
07-10-2007
/327/a7/196460/1.html

Silly one.....or not.......Why are ballrooms generally unsociable?
07-06-2007
/327/46/195744/1.html

Have any other women had trouble in an SL gay bar?
05-19-2007
/327/f1/185069/1.html

Anybody knows what's up with Taco?
04-11-2007
/327/01/176853/1.html

Looking for places to go Dancing
03-28-2007
/327/c4/174094/1.html

Are there any hostels?
11-28-2006
/327/66/151556/1.html

Are there any dance clubs without sex?
11-12-2006
/327/1b/148543/1.html

Where do the nice people hang out?
11-11-2006
/327/b4/148460/1.html

I've been meaning to visit the places mentioned and put together a non-commercial, non-gamed, scratches-nobody's-back, maybe-actually-useful, resident-generated list of neat places, but it's a lot of work.

YES! My first two weeks were spent in a crazy blur of trying to figure out how to TP (teleport), learning that I need to start grabbing LMs (landmarks) of places that I visit, and trying to figure out just what the hell was going on in this place. After I learned how to navigate the screen, I felt silly for not getting it at first; it is definitely overwhelming. But you will learn quickly.

My advice is, give yourself some time to just explore, always let your surroundings rez for a minute or two before moving anywhere (to avoid bumping into people) and definitely check out the Search button. It is the gateway to tons of locations in SL. Also, look in the Events tab under search, and use the dropdown menu to select "Education." There are a lot of great Newbie classes offered by different groups.

Where you go mostly depends on what you want to do. If you want to be social, type "Welcome Area" or "rock music" (or whatever kind of music you like) into the "all" or "places" tab, or look in the Events tab to find clubs and other places to socialize. If you want to get into building, search for "Sandbox"the acceptable place to build if you don't have your own land), or look in Events for classes. Also, wherever there are people around, right click them and look at their profile - other people's picks and classifieds are a great way to find new places.

have fun!!

just remember this is second 'life' not second day, take your time, enjoy.

Regardless of what miss doom and glom says up there. There are a lot of popular places without all the bot and camper infestation. Best way to explore is use search Click on the places tab And search words or tems you are interested in. All places will be listed by highest traffic. Keep in mind that not all in the list will have people.. But work your way down the list and visit places and make your own conclusion of weather or not you should visit it again. There is plenty of time and thousands and thousands of sims to see. Take your time and see whats out there. It will be fun to explore.
Miss doom and gloom needs to not focus so hard on the bad and bring a balance to her reports and show the good places as well. Not all places with green dots are bad.. Visit Sweethearts Jazz when you get a chance. Lots of great people. VERY popular and not a bot farm.. During the day we have anywhere from 60 to 80 avatars there. Gets a little busy and laggy but people still have fun ..
Enjoy your second life and welcome!

One of the reasons I created wikiTiPi... just wear the HUD to get started.

http://www.wikitipi.com

Woo, baby! All can say is get used to it! The learning curve on Second Life is steep as all get out, and seemingly climbs forever. I'm still waiting---after 11 months---for it to level out. And without much hope now too.

After you sort out your appearance, learn to walk and fly, build and find people, you'll drop into the minefield of interpersonal relationships, and the G force on that curve will take your breath away. Hang on if you like intense---there's no place intenser! If you don't, run away now!

But whatever you do, don't expect it to get simpler. It ain't gonna...

One thing I do notice is that you mention "getting somewhere" on your post. Since you've flown around I assume you don't just mean travelling, but mean making progress in some sense.

If that IS what you're looking for, then you may not find it in SL at all. Second Life isn't really a game with progress. If you want to learn a skill, like building or scripting, then you can do that, but it's largely for your own satisfaction that you can do so - there's no "achievement points" or anything like that. You can sell things to earn L$, but the problem is that it's a real market (your customers will probably have paid real money for the L$ they pay you) and is very competitive now; doing so requires quite a lot more than just the creative skill - you have to run a business, do marketing, learn "tricks" such as SEO, etc. Some people do enjoy doing this kind of thing and make a success of it, and that's great if you do; but don't depend on it to be a "score" mechanic in a game sense, because it doesn't work that way.

As others posted, basically most of what you do in SL is hanging out and talking with others - and all the drama and fun and romance that involves.

Geeze, you've ALREADY done a lot of work. What a great list of lists, Anya!

To the OP: Join some groups that interest you. You'll quickly develop a network of friends who will keep you informed of Stuff That's Happening.

The Forum Cartel is a good, if chatty, group for this sort of thing. For newcomers, "learning" groups like GQ Start and NCI are not only good places to take classes, but good venues for meeting like-minded people.

Other special interest groups cover everything from discussing philosophy to racing sailboats.

For general partying, join some club groups. Taff's Pub is lively, as is the Blarney Stone. Madhu's Cafe has a regular Monday night gathering. Blackhearts has had long-running popularity. There are hundreds of others. Some of Anya's threads will disclose more of them.

If you decide you like SL enough to want a permanent home place, rent some land or a house in a community that you like. If you like socializing, look for an active community, like Desmond Shang's Caledon sims. If you want quiet and privacy, you can find that too. I was almost always able to find quiet time on my island parcel in the FairChangs.

If you want to IM me in world I will show you around PG places in world. And answer questions, etc. I don't mind playing tourguide.

PS if you mean 'getting around' as in visiting new places, you teleport. Either use search (bottom of your screen) button and click places and type a keyword, then look through and click on names of places you night want to see. Look on the right side of the results pages. Choose Teleport.

Or, a good way is to check out people's picks pages. Click on them, choose profile, and click the Picks page in their profile. Find something interesting, choose Teleport.

I'm still finding places I would never find in Search, that way.