Common questions that get asked are:
* Where do i go from here
* Were can i get a job
* How can i get money
We normally answer with either pointing them to the search tool (that most new residents seem completely unaware of), or by giving them notecards or landmarks to help them start their explorations.
More often than not though, the latter course of action leads into a explanation of the inventory (how to open it, how to use it), what landmarks actually are, what notecards are, where to find them etc.
We answer these questions so often i am considering setting up a gesture to make it easier
It seems to me that while orientation is a guided tour around the very basics of SL, it does not cover the next level of things that would make the new residents life so much easier :
I suggest that the Orientation island should be extended to cover the following topics - at least briefly :
Inventory - what it is and why it is useful
Landmarks - what they are and how to create them
Notecards - why they are useful
Search - what you can search for
I know some of this information is available in the welcome areas - but a new person arriving in Ahern for instance is faced with a group of 20 to 50 other residents, and most new residents completely miss the extra information - at least on the orientation island they are gudied through the information in a structured way.
It might also be nice if you with some residents help could devise a set of very useful notecards, and landmarks for the user to have right away (especially if you also told them how to use them. Such things might ease the pressure on the welcome areas, and improve the SL rentention ratio, as well as stopping us Welcome Area Regulars from getting RSI.