A Newbie's Point of View on the Newbie Experience.

Jolene,

That about sums up my first day in SL on Orientation Island too...it put me off SL for a while and it was several weeks before I came back and gave it another try.

I hope that you too have continued to explore SL, because the rest of the world is a lot more fun than Orientation Island or Help Island. Rather than either of those places, the best teacher of SL is...SL. The best thing I ever did was teleport off Orientation Island and start looking around.

Also, if you haven't done so yet, seek out both in-world tutorials and some of the video tutorials on this site.

Regarding one specific question: the "out of focus" instructions. SL is much slower than the traditional Internet, because of the 3D nature of the world. You have to be patient and "wait for the world to load". This can mean hanging around near your arrival point while buildings and stuff sort of grow up around you, or it can mean standing around in front of a sign or a picture for a couple of minutes waiting for it to come into clear focus.

Three tools that'll help you out:
1. The Search function. Use it to find things of interest. For example, call up Search, select the Places tab, and use the drop down menu to select "shopping". Then type "Freebies" and get a huge list of places that have free stuff for new avatars. Click on one that sounds interesting and Teleport there.
2. The Map. The map doesn't have a lot of detail, but it can be useful for finding places where lots of people are gathered (all the little green dots). It can also be used in conjunction with a SLURL (a Second Life URL, the address of something in Second Life). Many ads on this forum, and on the Second Life Exchange Marketplace (www.slexchange.com) give out SLURL info. If you're logged into SL in another window, you can teleport there immediately.
3. Other residents. You meet some very strange people in SL (one of its charms)...but most of the people I've met have been very nice, and willing to answer stupid newbie questions.

But, if you ask someone a question and they don't answer, don't be offended. They might be engaged in an IM conversation, or in Voice Chat, or simply away from their keyboard.

If you've got more questions, IM me in-world. We newbies have to help each other!

hi jolene i am also sorry to hear about your poor first time experience

it seems to me that linden labs has messed up the "newbie experience"
and it makes you wonder..........why?

when i first heard of second life it was last x-mas eve at 2am in the morning
me and my brother was taking turns watching the x-mas dinner cook
and he was watching some program on tv about videogames and he
calls me in to the room to show me a game and at first i was not intrested
and i went back into the kitchen to continue cooking but after he saw SL on TV
he went online and looked up more info on second life and he was amazed at
what he saw so he again calls me into the room and tries to explain what SL
was, he finally got my attention when he said that it was like the Sims2 but online
with lots of other people so i asked him was my computer able to run SL and
he said yes so i told him to go and download it for me.

once he did that, i decided to fill out all the info and once that was done it was his
turn to watch the food so i was left alone to figure the rest, after the download
completed it was time to run SL for the first time and i was ready to experience
something new.

upon logging in for the first time i was on orientation island surrounded by 10-12 other
people all were the same default male and female avatars, once i looked over the few
tips i was off down the path and started the tutorial witch ended quickly and after that
i was off to the main land.(if you are wondering what all this has to do with your
experience? just keep reading cuz ill get to that in a bit)

once on the main land, i was "dropped" at a fairly populated info hub and i just
stood there looking at all the avatars walking around and some were chatting with
others but no one looked at me and said hi, so after i spent 20 mins looking around
at all of the avatars i was amazed at all the creation that went into them so after that
i was off on an expedition to explore SL and see what all it had to offer.

at this time my brother walks back into the room to see how i was doing
and he was shocked that i made it that far, we switched seats so he can
sit down and play around with some features, me and him were shocked at
all the customization options ( he is really good at customizing characters)
so i watched him play around with the avatar customization tools, it was
my turn to go and check on the food but he said that he was going to let
me continue exploring SL and take over and finish cooking for me
while i play around with more stuff on SL.

when i got back on the computer, i found myself in the middle of nowhere
and i was a long way from the info hub that i had started at and im sitting in
a go cart (i guess my brother found it in the inventory and had some fun)
so i started driving around and it went so fast that it flipped over,
when i got out the car my brother came to put it back in the inventory for me
and after that he told me to use search to go some where more populated
ans so i went to the search menu and saw something called events so i figured
that the places listed in the events tab will be populated so i clicked it and
one place caught my eyes........new citizens incorporated, this place had a
spacial x-mas party witch is why it was listed so i went there and there was a
large amount of people there and again i am so amazed at all of the other avatars
and the work that went into most of them(some others were the default M & FM )

so as i was standing around looking dazed and confused, someone finally approached
me and said hi and i said hi to him and we chatted for a second and then
he asked would i like some advice and i said yes and thats when he told me
to 1. lose the newbie skin and hair and work on my body some more.
2. got to a freebie store and get some better clothes.
and 3. don't be afraid to say hi, i mean i saw you standing there looking around
so i had to come say hi. and after that encounter i went on to explore the place
more and i had stopped in front of a shelf full of grey boxes and i got up to check
on the food that was still cooking and when i came back to the computer
all the grey boxes was covered with all sorts of textures and the words freebie
was on almost all of them, to make a long story short.........that was my first night
in SL and it felt so good that i kept coming back.

but unlike my first night my brother went through hell trying to create his first account
this started back in may when my brother wanted to create him an account,
the first problem he ran into was he could not find the last name Palmer on the
list(i later found out that the last names are cycled around)since hes my brother
i thought it would have been cool if we had the same last name but since that was not
going to happen he settled with Edman and when it came time to pick a first name
he want through almost 80 names before he found one that was available
once he got past that he went ahead and logged in and he was on OI and
he really had a hard time completing the stupid goals that LL set up
because of that hud never fully rezed and you would think that a game savvy
person like him would have went through it with no problem but that was easier
said then done, i went to help him and i got baffled at what i saw and if it wasn't for
my 4 plus months of experience.........we would have never got through it.

its so sad to see such a high number of residents only to realize that 10% of them
are truly active and the rest are unused.

and if i had to go though all that to get on SL then i would have quit on OI
and that would have been it.

and i feel sorry for the people who have to go though it and i hope LL change
it soon (even though i know they wont)

and after reading all these posts, i will also volunteer to help some new people
understand SL and hope that they will feel better about being on SL.

@Mandy Carbenell. hey if you create that group can you send me an invite
so i can also help with the new people?

well thats it for now

see yall on SL

Ranya P

I think the main reason for the switch to the HUD-based OI is because people weren't paying attention to the original one.

I can't remember the exact statistics (they used to be on the notecard you got when you joined the Mentors) but the majority of people, on the old OI, were doing one of two things:
a) running through the whole thing without reading anything then using the exit sign at the end;
b) running through the whole thing without reading anything, stopping at (or falling down) the ravine (that you're supposed to fly over) then working it out and using the exit sign.

This meant they arrived at HI - or even, in earlier versions, the WA - with no idea about how to do most things in SL, such as editing appearance, moving the camera, interacting with objects or even how to change height when flying (for the ravine, you only have to fly over at a constant height).

This meant they were stuck on these things and had to work them out later or ask for help.. which compounded the number of new folks asking the same things, which although entirely understandable, is also the number one cause of Mentors burning out.

The new OI was basically a good idea but I'm just not sure what's making the scripts act so strangely. A friend had the "can't move onto the target" bug when they tried out SL, too.

(Oh, and there's the test where you meet the "Chat Masters" and one of them tells you that a volcano will destroy the island unless you appease the gods (which, at the next station, you find out is done by doing a Hula gesture). Another Mentor has told me that.. yes, there are some newbies when they hear this, run down the mountain to warn the others folks on the island... so they've just teleporting into SL for the first time and see a frantic resi shouting that there's a volcano about to kill them. Welcome to SL. Wooooops.)

i just started a couple days ago, and i can confirm that newbie isle is not terribly friendly. i figured out okay that the tutorial was just taking forever to load, so i waited. on retrospect, i have to wonder what the problem was; the real sl loads fine. not far into the island, the script hung and i turned it off. by the time i figured out how to get it back, i had already worked out everything taught there. frankly, just pushing buttons until things worked taught me far more than the buggy script they provide for newbies, but i have been playing muds since before they were 3d. sl seems like the myspace of muds, but wandering around in the wild to see what actual players made has been fun.

The biggest single problem with creating such a 'frontline' and dynamicly variable platform such as SL, is Humans. Humans don't like reading instructions as they open a box of candy, or their new DVD player.. they expect it to be made for dummies to operate. That's why so many linear style games are so popular.. it's quite difficult to go off the rails.

How could anyone possibly explain every possible potential of SL, when it's dynamically evolving, right from the start?

As many have expressed, once out of the somewhat confusing OI, they suddenly find themselves in a vast void, like a child helped part way across a busy street and left to fend for themselves.

I have a great collection of folders I give out to necomers, Useful LM's, Note Card useful hints and tips (including how to use TP, Search, Friends list, Map, Classifieds etc), some less basic clothing and accessories, including wings (22 folders of clothing and accessories for the females, and 14 for the guys).

When I joinned SL, things were easier, not many sims, very few events, no flexi, little if any script treats, gadgets, primed hair or outfits etc.... We mainly spent hours stood about chatting. I would not like to have to redo that experience today, the whole of SL has developed dramically. Its fair to say, that most that use a PC and are internet savvy, will eventually find a niche in SL, providing there is a will to develop and they are not thwarted by the rush/deluge of information and the steep learning curve of the platform from the start.
Unless OI developes at an equal pace, it will only become more ardous.

The pathway to enlightenment must grow and keep pace.