The Newbie Help Mantra

These are five simple points to keep in mind when helping a newcomer tackle some of the most basic problems acclimating to their Second Life. Please repeat them softly to yourself 50 times a day

1) *Give ‘em something they can use!*

Most newcomers begin their Second Life with only the bare necessities. Freebies are a great way to get new users excited about Second Life and get them set up with cool stuff
quickly.

2) *Where to turn for help.*

If you’re new, you’re most likely going to have a million questions. It can be daunting knowing who and where to ask for help in Second Life. Make sure new users are aware of the support wiki, video tutorials, live help, and the forums.

3) *Meeting people is easy.*

Making friends in Second Life is probably the single best way to get a new person invested in the community. Simply showing someone how to use the event calendar or find groups to help connect them with others with similar interests is a great start.

4) *Achieve Second Life Zen.*

It’s a big world and difficult to understand at first. Put people at ease and let them know their initial confusion is normal. It can take a little while to ‘get’ Second Life.
This process should be as painless as possible.

5) *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Second Life.*

Do have a favorite spot in SL? Point out a few places on the map, hand out landmarks, even simply passing along a copy of Pathfinder’s Picks can work wonders.

0. Be friendly and BE PATIENT. New players can be terrified, nervous, shy, frustrated, anxious, excited, giddy, and about a zillion other emotional states all at once.

1. Encourage new players to take a Basic Building class and point out that building is a fundamental skill in SL (like reading is a fundmental skill in RL). But until they get to that Basic Building class...

2. Help new players with "opening" boxes. How to drag a box out onto the ground, how to right-click it, select Edit from the pie menu, click the More button, click the Contents tab, and drag individual items from the Contents of the box back into their Inventory.

3. Gave that new player some dances? Then teach them how to dance by finding the dances in their Animations folder (or the folder you just gave them) in their Inventory, double-clicking the dance to open it, and clicking Play in World.

4. Encourage new players to conserve their cash. It can be a while until Stipend Day and they don't have to buy everything in sight. In SL no one can tell you're only window-shopping.

5. Explain to new players that when they decide to put down roots and buy land to HANG ONTO their First Land as it's the cheapest land they'll ever buy.

oh...

6. Teach them how to landmark places and explain that anytime they see something interesting, that they enjoy, or that they might want to buy at a later date to landmark it so they can find it later.

One Last thing to Add:

DON'T Treat them like babies, walk them thru thins and explain but allow them to learn on their own, never hold their hands and guide word for word. Everyone and anyone would never want to be treated like that

Finally never get frustrated with them either, only makes situation more out of control i tend to loose my control sometimes ^_^

Keep the newbies AWAY from Gambling clubs so they don`t lose their money. I noticing more and more newbies gettig trapped into going into going into gambling clubs and losing their small amount of money they do have. Then they go begging for more money.

Jesse, your take on things seems so very much like my own. Here's my list from a few weeks ago:

1) Make sure people have some decent freebie clothes and accessories to start with, so that they don't feel naked and underpriveleged from the get-go. It also gives them more of an opportunity to express their individuality and an idea about what sort of things they will want to buy in future. (Have you seen some of the stuff that's in the welcome kits that people hand out? Chippendale outfits? Ugh!) Plus landmarks. NCI, The Shelter, Pathfinder's Picks, and a couple of others. KISS. They can get plenty more landmarks from those places, and you don't want to overwhelm them with choice.

2) Make sure people understand that their initial bewilderment and confusion is normal, and isn't their fault. Nobody likes to feel stupid. Soothe it. There's no need for them to feel embarassed. Being made to feel at ease in a new, strange place is important.

3) Get their basic questions answered, so that they feel confident about learning more and expressing themselves. and just living their Second Life.

4) Make sure they have some people they know well enough to talk to, socially. Without SL friends, SL is just a 3d dollhouse. My kids - I think of them that way - can always talk to me, and I like to introduce them to each-other. A lot of them contact me to tell me what they've been up to, show me something they are proud of, introduce me to their new friends, or just to chat.

5) I think everyone wants to feel special. I try to treat everyone as an individual (because...well, they ARE, damnit), and I think most of them respond to that. They don't want to be 'just another newbie' or 'just another face in the crowd'. They want to be recognised for who they are. I like to know what brings someone to SL (a blog entry? Something in the media?) and what about it that interested them enough to give SL a try. It gives me something to focus on, and to tailor what I'm doing with them without pushing the other aspects of SL into the background.

Some days it's harder than others. Your native language isn't necessarily theirs. Your cultural references and idioms aren't necessarily theirs, and SL's cultural references definitely aren't theirs.

The hardest part has got to be number 4. Some folks don't make friends as easily as others. Doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them. Sometimes it's just the way they phrase things.

My candidate for second-place on the hardness scale is number 3. Some people have questions about everything, jumping from topic to topic very quickly. Generally, you can't resort much to guides for those people. You just end up inundating them with more information than they feel they can absorb. It's like a big basket of snakes. Just hand them each snake as they ask for it, and don't worry too much about the fact that the order and range of topics doesn't seem to make sense initially. It does to them.

They're filling in gaps and confirming knowledge, and following lines of enquiry based on what they already know, what they have heard, and what they suspect. They may have some notecards already, have read an article on a website or in a newspaper, have conceptions or misconceptions. Or heck, they're just curious. They chose you, to answer their questions. Be proud of that. In a world full of wonder, there are no stupid questions....but there can be plenty of misunderstandings and misconceptions.

In a month or so I might look at those points again, but they've worked well for me so far.

I think this is particularly bad for Residents who have a preexisting gambling problem prior to SL. That means me. I really try hard not to get started, because once the bets are laid down, it's difficult to be unhooked and yah... the whole vicious cycle thing sucks.

"Second Life Zen" to me is prolly best known as rippleshock. (Subcomponents: camscanning, simpulse, etc.)

That being said... if I could offer advice... being where I am now...


I'd encourage new Resis to record their experiences somewhere, from a few jots in My Notes to starting a blog (easy to go to www.blogger.com or www.blogsome.com and start one up!)—it doesn't have to be public at first, but it has to be done keeping the long-term in mind, and perhaps even above that, with a patient perspective, the fact that if you store these memories, several months down the road, YOU WILL REALLY REALLY REALLY THANK YOURSELF, AND SO WILL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS ON HERE!

Happy memories.

You will honestly, sincerely, truely see how far you've come, how much you've grown, and what an amazing adventure it's been. And to not be alone... maybe that's the most important part of it all. At least it is for me.

Click here to read the very first day of my Second Life blog (over a year ago).

..and try to explain that shoe-rez (that horrible effect of the wrong background around your lovely shoes) happens to the best of us...

Well thats why we need to educate newbies that there are under cover people tricking into going to their clubs. Promotoing gambing on the front page as SL did a few months back caused alot of newbies to go broke and leave the game. Strange how LL lets this issue go but will not deal when it comes to protecting players that are sleeping in the same bed with LL ,( they turn the other check ) in a matter of speaking.