is introduction island pointless? discuss.

Hi,


i seem to remember a lot of hot air^h^h^h^h^h^h^htalk coming from LL about "inmproving the new user experience".


So, here's to start a discussion about how that could be done.

my main point of toothache is the "curriculum" on introduction island... which, in my opinion, is pretty useless.

The other day my wife, in her SL job, had to deal with a customer who had been around since 2006, and did NOT know how to create a notecard, start an IM with someone not on his/her friends list, or TP someone to some place.

THAT kind of stuff should be taught on noob island. And completing the following lessons should be MANDATORY for being able to leave there.

- what is the difference between a calling card and a "friend request"
- how to use search
- how to use the map
- how to create and send a notecard
- how to buy things and unpack them



what do you guys think?

Yes, the basic questions seem to be unanswered.

Then again most people want to just get off newbie island as fast as possible. I was no exception.

I think video clips would be preferable to the dry and talky notecards.

They should at least know how to search, teleport, and the two big questions everyone has: How do I get a house? How do I make money? should be answered completely before they can go anywhere.

Also, a freebie translator! SL learning curve is hard enough without being able to speak the dominant language too!

yea, ferd's google translator should be there...

ANY free translator, that is easy to use, would be great. It's an absolute must, in my opinion. At least, it is as long as hubs are not routed by which language people speak.

Also teach people how to get things (right click/buy.) And what money really is. And things like, don't pay when it might be available elsewhere, for free.

Ross does a pretty good job, but I still meet a lot of new people who know absolutely nothing about what to do in SL. Some even say, "So what is the point of this place? What is it for? What do I do here?" and mean it literally. Some expect an end goal, like with WoW.

I think the first five log-ins should be devoted to education, but I don't know how well that would fly.

When I started there was only orientation then straight to a WA for me I was glad as I wanted to learn on the fly so to speak.

To make a certain test to be able to leave HI is imho counter productive, people are in SL for many different reasons for sure.

That being said the big red spaceship mob are meant to be improving the new user experience, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with. I like Clarissa's idea of more video tutorials rather than notecards though, but different people learn in different ways so catering for everyone could be hard

But I vote no for testing before a person can enter the general SL population, its up to BRS to make the first hour a good experience so people want to learn first

Yes, I agree. Tests = boring. Tests = dull.

Someone mentioned having to take a course on ban lines before you could own property, too. It sounds good 'on paper' but a lot of people would avoid it entirely, and fake it. Especially people who are in school or just graduated. Or who've been out of school a long time. In fact, everyone.

Who DOES like being tested? No one, I think.

Make it fun to learn those things somehow. Surely that can be done.

Yes I certainly think the newcomers need more help.but learning is not fun for some.
If I have a problem with something I have sold it is usually because the ave does not know how to use it.I have to go over and give a quick SL tutorial,not easy with a translator.
In extreme cases I just give a refund because they just don't have the basic skills.

They should at least be shown how to change clothes. And how to open boxes. And how to wear things from inventory: heck, even how to find things in inventory.

My biggest fail as a new-person tutor was someone who spoke only a language I was completely unfamiliar with, that the translator HUD didn't include, and who had been born onto a newbie island that did not include his language either. :/

I felt so bad for him, when he seemed to understand how to open a box and find things to wear...only to see him wear the entire box of miscellaneous items, some of which were flashing neon and some of which were 'naughty' (I hadn't realised - it was a misc. freebie box.) He had chosen 'copy and wear.'

He probably thought I'd pranked him. Awful, awful feeling.

I completely skipped help island or whatever (I think because it was unavailable or something when I first rezzed so I got moved to a nearby location) and I turned out fine. Meanwhile I hear stories of people who did go through the little tutorial thingy, and then spent days / weeks not knowing how to move or talk or teleport.

Make it fun is a good idea for sure, perhaps even have a test on HI that rewards the person completing it with a few Lindens, or maybe some gift certificates from in world designers and creators for them to then get some good freebies or something

There isn't one way anymore, various communities have their own orientation island and are not run by LL.

They are all different, each does it in their own way. Some are dedicated to a particularly Country have a look at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Community_Gateway if your curious.

I'd love to setup one for people interested in an "adult" orientation, but I know the Community Gateway program has to be PG. ((On the off chance the right person at LL is reading this and thinks its a good idea, please let me know and I'll get working on an outline/application.))

How can the Lindens setup an SL orientation area when it seems so many of them know so little about SL themselves?


*Mitzy, your place is growing at a phenomenal rate, great job. It really is looking like something.

I don't think that people would be able to take in and retain all that they might need to know in SL.

Perhaps the First Hour should have a heavy emphasis on showing people where they can find information when they eventually need it.
They still need to be taken through the very basic survival techniques, like walking and flying, sitting, communication, Search -- and maybe Inventory and buying stuff. Beyond that, it may be off-putting information overload in their first hours or days.

I've noticed that some stores and freebie places have tutorials on display that help people with unpacking boxes, etc.
Perhaps there could be a standard "How Do I?" kiosk object in Library that could be left anywhere.Touching it would trigger a set of menus that provided basic information on the major topics and give pointers to more extensive information.
For some people, the Help option in the viewer menu might be just as good.
For others, something that did not break the continuity of the in-world exxperience could be better.

Exactly. The basics on how to function are not hard to learn, despite the overhyped SL learning curve nonsense. An hour or so should be all that is needed, learn to walk, fly, tp, unpack and wear, and get the Hell inworld,. There should be references and landmarks to assist new people learn as they go, in world.

That's not a bad idea.

I think they should all start out with $L 10, by the way.

I haven't created a new av recently, but both times I did, all the information I needed was there to be found. There will always be people who don't pay attention to what tutorials are available, or don't pay enough attention, and increasing the number of tutorials available won't help -- information overload. Things that I didn't need right away but would need eventually, like creating notecards, can usually be found easily by familiarizing yourself with the software, taking the time to look at all the menus and see what's possible. There's no way to force people to do that if they're not inclined to. And things like wearing prim hair, finding and using freebies - that's really not about using SL, only about peer pressure from SL society and what's expected to meet other people's standards. So I've never understood the urge to overhaul the orientation islands.

What we do need is more places like NCI and better publicity for those that exist. (I didn't learn about NCI until I was a few months old, and the Shelter months after that.) We also need more official, in-world, easily findable resources for newbies who've already left orientation. I'm all for copiable information kiosks. And as basic and as crowded as Help Island was, Help Island Public never sounded appealing. But more areas targeted to specific types of user issues, reviewing the basics plus going into more detail, that would be great. For instance, a public help area focused just on avatar appearance, or just on animations and poses, or just on land use. People are more likely to use the resources available if the resources are targeted to the specific issues that interest them.

Now this is the one thing that might actually work to get people to pay attention!

I spent three days on Orientation Island when I first got to sl. I got a case of stage fright about going to the main sl world. Now look at me.

Google this

Part of the problem is the Help menu in the viewer is crap. Have you *tried* Help > Second Life Help (F1), or Help > Tutorial? The latter is even in a non-resizable window that's the *wrong size*.

I am working on a solution:

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User%27s_Manual
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User%27s_Manual

Ideally you should be able to reach something like that from the Help menu.

I think both help island and oreintation island should include ivory tower of prims and the open source script library or something similiar on infohubs.........I mean seriously what real info can you find in these places?

What disappoints me is the moment they started overtly wringing their hands about new user experience, LL dropped orientation islands entirely. New residents have since been sent directly to a Help Island, then thrown randomly to an InfoHub.

This is one case where surveys don't really reflect a necessity. Forget that alts being created have answered these surveys on the way in and affected the results. People do need help getting around.

As Holocluck Henly I was thrown to an infohub FIRST in April 2008 from signing up via the CSI portal (hey. Henly was there) and it was a very disorienting experience. I used the Search button to locate Help Island 2. On a later date I went to OI.

Good ideas, all. But a bit of attention needs to be spent on a sort of introduction to fundamentals of SL culture too. Mostly basic stuff, perhaps, like don't use RL names or info in public chat, don't use someone's private residence to change clothes, etc. And also, I think, a bit on safety in SL: don't disclose info about yourself, etc.

Educators have been talking about setting up orientation areas specifically for students. Maybe we need a variety of different starting points for different kinds of people?

Silly rabbit. There is only one question a noobie wants answered: Where do I find the sex???

Good idea, I added this to the user's manual front page:

-------------------------

Second Life's Culture

Put 3/4 of a million people together *anywhere* and they will develop their own unique culture and expectations. It is no different here, we have our own way of doing things as far as the words we use, how we interact, and behave.

* You have the ability to do almost anything here, but there are rules set by Linden Lab about what you do here, and real life laws still apply in a virtual world.

* One important thing to remember is most land in Second Life is privately owned, and the owners can set their own rules in addition to the ones imposed by Linden Lab. Just because you can do something here, does not mean you should. If you do not have some information about the rules for a particular place in second life, ask yourself "would I do this in real life?".

* You are anonymous by default, and some people like to keep it that way. They may tell you about their real life, or they may not, it's up to them. Be cautious about revealing real life details. Most people here are nice, but you never know if the next one you meet will turn out to be a jerk, fake, or serial killer.

* Check out the [Second Life Etiquette] page for more details.