The New User Experience and Orientation Island

Hi,

We're looking for ways to improve the new resident experience in SL and to make Orientation Island more helpful in general.

We'd love to hear people's experiences with Orientation Island and their initial experiences in SL as a new resident. Some general questions:

1) What do you remember about your experience on Orientation Island?

2) What was the most helpful thing that happened to you in SL when you were a new resident?

3) What was the most frustating thing that happened to you as a new resident?

4) After your free trial was over, what was the main reason you decided to stay?

5) How do you think we could make the new user experience and Orientation Island better?

Thanks for any feedback. We're listening.

What I remember most about orientation island was playing with the ball.

The most helpful thing I found as a new user was the Ivory Tower of Primitives in Noyo. Without that resource, I would not have been able to wrap my brain around building.

The most frustrating thing when I started was that there was no Tower of Scripting, so I couldn't learn it in any sort of reasonably paced way.

Honestly, why did I stay past the trial? Well, I converted my trial account to a premium account so I could get my L$500 and buy a Terra Cypress Shuttlecraft. That was my favorite toy for so long.

Make more in-world scripting tutorials available for new folks and old, is my suggestion. The great thing about Ivory Tower is that everything is in-world, no clumsy web browser.

1. The island had an intimate, secluded feel to it - it was very nice. Although I didn't feel that way once I got lost in a river and couldn't get out. (I didn't know how to fly up or down yet). All of a sudden I felt a sense of dread you feel when you're all alone. Afterwards I caught up with Sanura Akebono (she was the first person I bonded with in SL) and it was nice to go through the tutorials together.

2. I like the signs all over Orientation Islands clearly explaining what to do. I'm sure someone helped me get the hang of the rest of basic skills, but I don't remember who.

3. I didn't know I could fly up or down until about four? months after I joined SL.

4. This world was unlike anything I've ever seen before and I've seen a lot of virtual worlds. Unlike Active worlds, for example, where being a Tourist doesn't even allow me to change my appearance, here I could have Basic membership and be fully functional, and contribute to the community SL also drew me to it because it meant complete freedom...It's also very innovative and I just like that.

5. I'm not sure...! Have more tutorials about how to fly up and down?

Running around and examining it from about 100 different angles.

I was brought in by friends, and they showed me the ropes.

More than anything else: Low FPS and the client getting confused/stuttery going over borders.

My #1 suggestion:

Introduce them to the bottom menu and what those buttons mean in SL. The first few hours in world are madness for a new resident. Being more familiar with the interface will cut down on "culture shock". Learning how to move around and find things in-world is a lesson that should come before they make their first appearance at the WA and suddenly have to deal with the street theatre and general creative insanity that tends to pool there.

First impressions -- "Pretty. Oooh, I can toy with my avatar lots! Oh wait... aren't there any other players around here? Did I sign up for a dud game?"

Beyond that the tutorials seemed fine, if basic and a little spread out. Manipulating the beach ball was the most challenging part. And in retrospect, the 'focus' feature has proven far more crucial than at first it seemed.



I think I still qualify as "new resident" so this answer may change in the future But so far it's been stumbling across a generic party at a club (Lestat's) completely by accident, being welcomed, and showered with freebie gifts and a membership card or two.



Looking in shops, looking at price tags, and then looking at my in-game purse and realising perhaps I shouldn't have "exchanged ratings" so freely at the time. Nothing at all had prepared me for how expensive things are in game terms.

[/quote]4) After your free trial was over, what was the main reason you decided to stay?[/quote]

I had made some friends and knew I could make more. And build/design stuff, which I do in my spare time anyways.



Serveral things come to mind:

1. Integrate it more into the social fabric of SL. The greeter program seems like a good opportunity. Having someone there to interact with and ask questions of gives the environment character, lets you know it's not a vast cyber-desert without overwhelming you in the SL jungle. The other players are probably SL's most valuable asset.

2. Make the "tutorials" nonlinear. Letting people choose what to learn and in which order often improves their learning experience and information retention. It also gets players used to the notion of exploring and "choosing their own adventure."

3. Cut down on the need to travel within the orientation. While moving the avatar around is a vital skill to learn early on, there's no need to make it a barrier to learning, which the narrow hilly paths seem to threaten to do.

4. A few "changing booths" would be a nice touch in the avatar creation/customisation area.

5. Put some emphasis on the "cost of living" -- a random sampling of current items with "average" prices would give people a clue what they're getting into, and that they should spend their first Lindens wisely.

6. Make event information available. Something like a billboard with "What's Going On Right Now!" that lists events for the current hour and a little blip about the "Events" and "Find" buttons at the bottom of your screen would be very helpful. I at least did not think of them as worth clicking at first, so it was a day or two before I discovered and started to make use of these features.

Obviously none of this means that the Orientation Area is fundamentally broken in any way. It serves its purpose fairly well as a place to learn the controls. But it is pretty disconnected from SL-reality -- and to me at least that seems fixable

Thanks for any feedback. We're listening. [/QUOTE]

I remember that the only thing I saw was a big red thumbtack and it was boring as hell, luckily I had a friend in world who helped me and met lots of cool people...

^^^ on the flipside, some of that "culture shock" is really welcome because it throws new Residents into the midst of the action and just the sheer REACTION and emotional impact it can have can be amazing. Of course, easy access to Help is always welcome. Which brings us to...

Hi, I'm Torley, and I'm a Resident of Second Life. Of course, I'm also the BIG FREAKIN' BUNNY KNOWN AS TORLOP, so let's get started here.



Eating catfish. j/k Really, the whole learning how to FLY thing was such a trip. I'd read about it in documents and articles beforehand, but actually DOING it was a real wow. Also, being able to shoot "photons" (I've heard others use this term too, LOL) at the ball to move it was *magical*, although moving a 3D object with a 2-axis mouse was a bit disconcerting. I also took the time to fly around past the familiar edges 'cuz exploring is what I do.

I was pretty quick to rush to the mainland. Part of this was because SL was down for 15 min. (it was around 8:45 PM by the time I got in?) on my rezday, and I was so excited that I just couldn't hide it. You know how that goes.



LOTS of good stuff here; I'll just point out some quickies. SPECIAL THANKS TO KEX GODEL, TOY LAFOLLETTE, FLIPPERPA PEREGRINE, AND OTHER HELPFUL RESIDENTS for filling me in on stuff. PEOPLE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE. (This includes furries, of which I am one.) I am so grateful to my mentors. They were present in Live Help and WA and answered question after question. And Kex is still at it today in the WA... last I checked she had a brand-spankin' new version of her superhelpful FAQ so GO GET IT. I'll bring this up again a few questions down.

I would like to of course -- and this goes without saying but I'll say it anyway -- thank Lindens for helping me out when I was new too, like that time Morris was under attack and Nova saved the day. And the time Jill saved my slow virtual ass with a magic Linden teleport. And more! Ref:

/120/a3/29559/1.html



Here's a common one: getting items out of boxes. Speaking of which, Kex has a guide to this too.

ALSO: my first time being griefed! Which happened on the night of my first day. Welly Platini and I were sitting on rails and some poor fellow came in playing "The Badger Song" quite redundantly while cursing. And shoving. It's funny in hindsight.

ALSO: trying to get to YadNi's Junkyard and flying to locations. I'm a bad flyer still, took me awhile to get the hang of it. YadNi's has improved design now too, I might add.



My blog makes that clear for me. See:

http://torley.blog-city.com/read/821979.htm
http://torley.blog-city.com/read/825199.htm
http://torley.blog-city.com/read/828966.htm

etc.

I was actually convinced a few minutes in to stay, after seeing the wild display of avs greetings me. I was like "HELLO... WHOA -- OMG!!! WHAT A TRIP!!!" and so I'm still here.

I will bluntly state I do have frustrations here (a number of them deal with UI usability and "transparent immersion", but it's kinda like this: if I had a little baby, I wouldn't beat the stuffin' out of my chile. That'd be CHILD ABUSE! So I try to be graceful and patient and nurturing with suggestions. Thus, explaining my frequent Bug Reports and Feature Lists sent to Lindenpeople. Which is what I am doing now.

I wanna see the baby grow up into a giant who is friendly.



Good can always get better, better can head towards best. Some suggestions:

-Update Basic Help file. Is that thing HTML or what? It's handy for what it is, but loads of outdated stuff in there like references to the Outlands and previous builds that are no longer around. Changes also should be made to reflect the current UI.

-GREETERS WILL ROCK WHEN THAT COMES. I look forward to that, that's already in the can, *ka-boom*!

-Teach more camscanning and master camera-fu manipulation.

-Include more PRACTICAL tutorials on OI like... uh... "How to open stuff in boxes". And "How to change outfits". And "How to ride a vehicle instead of melding it to your forehead". Applicable knowledge, since that stuff comes a lot.

-Oh, also, having a BIG KIOSK there to inform with an early SL trivia test to make a few extra L$ would be kewl... 'cuz people are always asking "How do I make money?" So kill two birds in one stone, EDUTAINMENT R0X0RS! (Funnily enough I never asked that, although I did ask dumptruckloads of weird other questions...)

-Contact the one known as KEX GODEL asap. She is too damn modest about the excellent work she does so I'll have to praise her some more. Ask her for her FAQ (or click her panda backpack -- you'll see it if you see her), and read it from cover to cover (figuratively speaking). Figure a way to aggregate THIS VERY USEFUL KNOWLEDGE and work with her to make it official, or at least integrated into OFFICIAL, CANONIZED LINDENSOURCES. A parallel would be the scriptwikithing. Kex's knowledge is UBER-helpful (it was to me when I was fresh off the virtual boat, and the same goes today), but it is a crying shame more word isn't gotten out about it.



Oh and you're most graciously welcome. Thanks for letting me exist here.

wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Hmm, let's see, what do I remember about Orientation Island...
Well, Beta had just started! There was a post on slashdot about it, and so many people were trying to get in at the same time that the little gazebo thing we started in had several interpenetrating avatars in it.
Someone asked me to move or something, so that we would stop interpenetrating, and I think I typed "what?", and then crashed. And crashed. And crashed.
It took me bloody forever to get out of that blasted island, since I couldn't move a muscle without crashing!
My clothes wouldn't load, I looked like a black blob with a white face, I had holes all over my av, BUT I FRIGGIN LIKED IT!
You noobies are so spoiled

being given some money, learning to fly and studying the map. i'm a map nut.


people stopped and talked to me, gave me things, and hosted events to teach me things


not being able to teleport to the place i wanted to be. that's still the most frustrating thing that happens to me as a resident. no, i'm not kidding. it's just annoying for us; it's incredibly convoluted and frustrating for newbies.

i could build my own environment. i saw the potential to learn to build, texture and script anything i could possibly imagine in a virtual world. it afforded me the things i always wanted to do in those other video games and couldn't.

i wouldn't change much. i think people would rather walk through a few tutorials on their own before being exposed to the madding crowd. what needs changing is the welcome center environment. you've done a good job with that so far; but you still need to severly limit older residents' access to it. there's no good reason for us to hang around the welcome center unless we're there to help orient the newbies.

... which brings me to my next point... BUILD KEX A HOUSE THERE!

I never got to go on the orientation island... *sniff*


*runs away crying*

It was Disorientation. I couldn't seem to figure out how to get out of the way while people rezzed on my head constantly. I tried to move off to the side but then didn't see the help cards. I don't know how to make it at that point and at telehubs so that people don't rez on top of each other but rez out a bit to the front or side.

I remember once when I played Titanic, and I spend days and days and I couldn't get out of the boarding-room house. Remember that one? I finally had to write the company. They said "You would be surprised how many people can't get out of the boarding-room house." Of course all my geeky friends and relatives were roaring with laughter that I hadn't figured out that you had to just click on stuff enough, including the post-cards in the guy's drawer.

So I was figuring SL would involve clicking a lot and it just went nowhere. I was sure that many Wizards watching me crawl all over the entire orientation island were laughing because I could not find my way out of there. I tried swimming. I tried sitting on that Trumanville boat that goes by every 27 minutes. I walked around like an idiot for ever. I couldn't teleport anywhere on the list I finally pulled down because it can't let you do that. I fell into the creek. I sat on that bridge. FINALLY I got that card with the Ahern landmark. That just shouldn't be so hard! Let it come into my hands when I arrive so I don't have to hang out there forever.


2) What was the most helpful thing that happened to you in SL when you were a new resident?

Barnesworth Anubis showed me how to rez a prim.

3) What was the most frustating thing that happened to you as a new resident?

Flying. Everyone said go fly to the Ivory Tower and learn how to do the prims. I flew there and landed in the fountain. I spent an hour crawling around, stuck under or in the building, unable to fly out of there. I tried and tried. I couldn't even get out of that fountain such as to be able to go and learn about the prims.

Finally Barnesworth took pity on me and TP'd me out of there. But then I went shopping and what did they have, but some store with tatoos that later I was told were called "Girl Bits". I was trapped in the Girl Bits store with those things rezzing up at me like some horrid nightmare. I didn't think I'd ever get out of there alive. I just walked around, flying into walls, and thinking to myself "This is not going to go very well."

4) After your free trial was over, what was the main reason you decided to stay?

I'd rather not say.

5) How do you think we could make the new user experience and Orientation Island better?

As odd as it may seem, I think flying lessons for newbies wouldn't be the worst idea. A card that broke down into really tiny baby steps the process of flying. How you do it. What you push. Where to land. How to take off again. Not being able to fly makes you feel stupid.

Ingrid Ingersoll told me when I was new that it took her 30 days to learn how to fly right, and that made me feel better.

My most vivid memory of the Orientation island was the talking parrot on one of the signs..

That, and infuriation at all the little bitty pictures in the Appearence Editor that slowed my already-slow game down even further.. And since I worked on a very specific character-vision in my first avatar, it was extended frustration.

But once I was past that, all was cool, as the friend who paid my Basic Membership in was there to help me out.

As for making the experience better? Beyond everything else that's been said(and maybe this doesn't apply, but it's a viable complaint) MAKE AN OPTION TO TURN THE APPEARENCE-EDITOR PREVIEW-PICS OFF! ..Please. o.o; When the changes happen in real-time on your character anyway, what's the point of showing the two extremes?

And why'd I stay? Addictive personality, mostly. If it occupies my time and entertains me, I'm all for it. My computer was used for nothing BUT SL for at least a month and a half.

My experiences on Orientation Island were not the norm. Let's just leave it at that.

Suggestion:

Now that we have quicktime and flash support, I'd like to see nicely done Flash animations on signs that explain to me how to operate functions of SL. Like clothing, avatar customization, operating vendors, etc.

And, while we're at it, lets' have some more random AV shape and clothing options. More shape, face, skin, etc stuff at the start.

Perhaps a little training on vehicles, too? Or how to sit on objects?

A "getting stuff from that box on your head" tutorial would be cool.

Just sayin.

I didnt either

*runs away crying too *

1) What do you remember about your experience on Orientation Island?
I remember being confused at first, but enjoying learning all the different little tricks as I followed the path. Playing with the ball, looking behind the sign, flying and changing my avatar... It was peaceful, and at the time I joined I never saw another person on the island, so I got to take quite a while exploring and goofing around before I ported to the WA.

2) What was the most helpful thing that happened to you in SL when you were a new resident?
I met some very generous and talented residents who were willing to help me out and show me the ropes, from tips on where to shop, to handing me freebies, to teaching me to rez a cube and go from there. Not only their generosity but their welcoming demeanors really helped me get into the spirit of SL.

3) What was the most frustating thing that happened to you as a new resident?
I didn't have quite as much memory as I should in my machine (even though it met requirements) so I often suffered debilitating lag, and it was extremely frustrating to not be able to move, build or even keep up with lagged chat.

4) After your free trial was over, what was the main reason you decided to stay?
I wanted land to build on, and there was a Land Rush in Maroon the day before my trial was over, so I ended it early to get some land. (God I miss those land rushes. Those were exciting.)

5) How do you think we could make the new user experience and Orientation Island better?
It's been a while since I was on Orientation Island, so maybe it's changed, but.. Putting up a billboard with a shortcut-key cheat-sheet would be a huge help to people like me who couldn't see past a notecard to my av.

is this one of those things you look back on and laugh about? cause i gotta tell ya, i can't hardly type here.

It helped me navigate and change my appearance and work the camera, but that's about it. It could use some simple, optional prim-rezzing exercises, some FAQs for tweaking preferences for maximum framerate / performance, and definitely definitely should inform new users about classes, mentors, and Live Help.


Other players helped me out.


Lag. After some good advice about display and bandwidth settings, things eased up.


Short answer: SL is amazing.
Long answer: As a sci-fi geek, when I read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, I was inspired and knew I was seeing the future of the Internet. Back in college, I wrote my own white papers on how a 3-D Metaverse could be designed in today's technology. I decided to make it one of my main life's goals to aid in the creation of the metaverse. I was on my way on developing this, when I heard about SL. Once I joined, I realized that Linden Lab had a totally different approach than my own, but one that equally had the potential to succeed, where other MMOs I had seen had failed. I decided I would stay, and either confirm my hopes, or to learn from SL and aid it to my own project. My hopes are being confirmed.

(Sorry you asked? *evil grin*)


Sorry, I jumped the gun. See #1.

1) What do you remember about your experience on Orientation Island?
First of all let me state that there was about 3 weeks or so between me finding SL on a google search (for a new VR place to live) and getting a computer that was able to handle SL. During that time I combed the website, the fansites, the tutorials and anything SL-related I could get my hands on. SO! By the time I was finally able to experience SL, I was gonna make the most of it and learn all I could.

I spend hours on that island. I think I logged back in there twice to make sure I had learned everything before moving to the mainland. It was peaceful, and I spend a LONG time customizing my avatar and getting used to those tools, as well as the other how-to exercises.

I remember my first moonrise and that was lovely! I didn't meet anyone there until I was just about to head out to the mainland. I think I really liked getting paid to learn things, and I ended up with about 500L by the time I was done. I guess that's changed now? Or people are skipping on the lessons? The WA ended up being my home for awhile and I kept being puzzled by meeting folks fresh off the island who were broke. The first person I met on the mainland was Toy Lafollette! And she's still going strong welcoming new folks and teaching classes

2) What was the most helpful thing that happened to you in SL when you were a new resident?
The most helpful thing for me was the constant barrage of help LOL It sounds funny, there were classes all a the time, people giving you stuff, folks who were eager to answer questions and so forth. I know this is not a popular stance, and I've recieved info that this will never happen again - but the hourly announcements were extremely helpful. They cut through the all the input that comes from all directions (its hard to remember just how it was when you're new!) and would send us all flying for the Events button to snag the latest SL Basics class. Pure heaven

3) What was the most frustating thing that happened to you as a new resident?
I think learning the "common knowledge" things little bits at a time was a bit frustrating. Sometime's you have to ask the right question to get the answer you need, but then how do you know what to ask? I'm tired, so I can only think of a couple of these things - like turning night to day, and how to copy a group of objects into your inventory without having to link them together.

Also frustrating, and still is for me - is not being able to teleport directly to your location. Coming from a place where you could like pinpoint wherever you land, its frustrating. I'm still not used to it.

4) After your free trial was over, what was the main reason you decided to stay?For me I was pretty much going to stay if most of what I read about SL jived with my actualy experiences. It did and I joined up before my week trial was over. The main thing that was my deciding factor in sticking around, was the age limitation. I was sick and tired of sharing my online recreation time with children.

5) How do you think we could make the new user experience and Orientation Island better?
I think having all of the things to learn in a more centralized location would inspire people to stick around and learn more before clicking that huge button that says GO TO THE MAINLAND. You might consider making that button visible further along after folks have at least had a chance (or more of a choice) to or not to learn something.

The most common thing I hear when I help folks at the WA these days, is: I was so confused and I couldn't tell how to do x. y, or z. I know the layout is pretty on the island, but maybe having more direct signage or a more in your face layout would be helpful.

For instance you land in an open field with short (unhilly!) pathways radiating out clearly labled GO HERE TO LEARN HOW TO SEE THINGS. GO HERE TO LEARN HOW TO CUSTOMIZE YOURSELF etc
I still think giving cash for learning each thing is really cool. I'm a firm believer in NOT having new citizens spend any money for a few weeks in - at least until they've learned more of the ropes, the basic pricing system for things etc - however I felt I had a safety net when I arrived to the mainland with 500L in my pocket.

Lets not be shy about this. Money makes the world go around in SL. Why have sponsored links to retailers in the WA, while at the same time, cutting back on how much a person can earn while they learn during orientation? I'm not understanding the thinking on that.

Also, as pretty as my moonrise was, you might consider keeping it daylight permanently on the island. So people can see the signs and stuff. I think a big reason why some folks missed what stuff to learn, was they actually couldn't even SEE it.

Thanks Pathfinder for posting this, I hope I've been helpful and YAY! fun trip down memory lane *sniff sniffles* I'm all emotional...my 1st year anniversary is coming up next month and I'm all gloopy

No help files make SL kinda hard to learn.

The Wiki files help, but aren't very accessible.

Actually, I didn't remember 90% of it until I took it again as an alt. The only part I distinctly remembered was moving the ball around in the cage and trying to get it into the cup. My mind reeled at the physics engine possibilities.



Finding someone that was quoted in the article. Fortunately, he was a "big-time", semi-famous resident who was really nice (hi Darwin). He took me on a 3 hour tour of his workshop (with lots of totally sweet devices that, at the time, blew my mind... keypads, perpetual motion machines, security systems, cloaking devices, and so on)

The greeter program will help more people in this direction.


I actually can't remember. The first 3 months was like a honeymoon in paradise, honestly



"HOLY SHIT THIS IS TOTALLY SWEET!!!!111eleventy" I signed up on the third day of my trial.



More possibility-type statements... open up the potential for the creative mind to start flowing immediately. More friendly, personal interaction. Less commercialism.


LF

This may sound harsh, but the best way to make any learning experience more enjoyable and helpful is to assume complete and utter ignorance on the part of the learner.

In online systems, this is generally done by way of usability heuristics; with basic commands and beginner toolsets easily recognizable and accessible while advanced toolsets are nested and available via keyboard combinations or macroed/scripted commands.

But outside the command layer, there is a host of things that greatly impact the user experience.... the most common of which is that most development teams do not provide the FOUR means by which people can possibly learn:

- By hearing
- By reading
- By watching
- By doing

Indicators should be extremely incongruent with their surrounding environment. Important signage should be at eye level, in BIG LETTERS, and endlessly loopable, etc.

With all this said (and stopping myself before I get really started on the pedantism), most of my time in orientation and even now, at about the one month mark, is greatly enjoyable simply because I use and work with computers and have more than a baseline understanding of the technology.

This is not, however, an assumption LL can afford to make if they intend to draw more of the mainstream crowd.

The feedback here is amazing. Count yourselves fortunate that your customers really do care to take the time to provide it. On the other hand, with even rudimentary research on intuitive systems and usability factors, you can almost guarantee the environment you desire for your users -- covering things that seem 'no brainers' to you and possibly many of your existing customers, too.

If you're looking strictly at the best way to impart basic functionality, consider including vocals along with written instructions, and really focusing on matching voice with words with steps in a process with confirming status along the way and outcomes.

Error handling is another area where tutorials rarely meet the need. You do not just want to teach your customers what to do. You want to teach them how to know when something isn't working, or how to gracefully exit from errors.

For example, if you're rezzing a prim using either the radial pop-up or the menu bar, you need to know that you have to click (on the ground, in the air, wherever, just CLICK!) to complete the process. The cursor that changes is nice, but if you don't know to look for that (and it isn't a standard cursor, nor is there a flicker, flash, or other cue that something HAS changed), a new customer isn't going to know or won't understand that there is something else to do.

In tutorial, you want something on all four learning levels (hearing, reading, watching, doing) to lead. So at this point, there should be a number of things happening:

First step -- Instructive

Hearing: [voice] "Note your mouse pointer has changed to a creation wand."
Reading: [text] "Now your mouse pointer has changed to a creation wand."
Watching: [visual] flash glow, contrast, or size around cursor
Doing: N/A

Second Step -- Instructive

Hearing: [voice] "Click the spot where you wish the new shape to appear."
Reading: [click] "Click the spot where you wish the new shape to appear."
Watching: [visual] highlight coordinates of cursor onscreen (radial glow, pulse, etc)
Doing: User clicks ground.

Third Step -- Confirmation/Validation

Hearing: [voice] "Congratulations! You've created a [shape name]!"
Reading: [text] "Congratulations! You've created a [shape name]!"
Watching: [visual] Shape appears, magic 'glow' or other outline around it, fade to none.
Doing: Create prim.

You get the idea, and this would be especially helpful for those who didn't know how to leave the island, etc.

Bleh. It is late. I'll stop now. (No no, don't applaud for me stopping, dang it!... ~grin~)

1) that nice birdy who was kind enough to give me cash, thanks birdie

2) Most helpful, was Char she showed up and personaly welcomed me, I felt special that LL took such an interest in brand new residents that was fantastic.

3) hmmm most fustrating, not finding a basic door script, like it was a treasured jewel that needed to be protected. I just wanted a door LOL.

4) Creative and artistic freedom, physical freedom, and the fact that I was only limited by my imagination. Back in beta everyone knew everyone and it was like being welcomed into this lovely family where everyone was just like me

5) teach ppl basic building skills, how to duplicate a prim. how to add a texture to a prim. How to rez a prim. teach them all the buttons on the screen and explain where to find the informaiton for the submenus. Teach them about lag and how to avoid it.
Perhaps hire mentors (other experienced, min. 1 year old in sl) to greet noobs and answer questions on the island.