where to send newbies immediately

So maybe you all can help with this question... You're sitting on your land, chatting, building or worse, and a newbie shows up with whom you have limited ability to communicate. They can't even begin to appreciate the idea of private land in SL, and you don't want to be rude and boot them, but you don't want to explain the World to them at that moment either. What is the best one or two places to send them immediately on their way?

Heh... my chance to shamelessly plug again. (^_^)

NCI Kuula... It's usually filled with great helpers from around the world, so there someone there practically 24/7. (^_^)y

NCI celebrated its 3 anniversary recently, helping with that longevity should show anyone that NCI is very serious about helping

International Info Island...where the library is..they are manned 24/7 by a RL staff of librarians from around the world and have a fountain of info at their fingertips!

Two more good places to send newcomers:

GQ Start in Zugspitze

Help People! Institute

freebies dungeon

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The Shelter is also a great place to send new residents, and is the oldest new-resident help area (Our 4-year anniversary is coming up in August! )

Its a non-profit recreation center for new residents, and supporters of new residents. Our goal is to provide a positive & supportive social environment, along with fun & free things to do for those who have recently landed in SL.

You can find the Shelter by searching places on 'The Shelter', or teleport to Isabel (20,220)

I can personally vouch for The Shelter. Great place for newbies. People to hang out with, people who are there to help newbies - patiently! Send them there.

Another thumbs up for NCI or The Shelter.

Red Light District, Amsterdam

Apart from the typical help places like NCI and other language help places we have a new service.

Tell them to open the profile of Valie Eun and look at the web-tab or give them the url: http://members.a1.net/secondlife/profil/index.htm

There are some 150 places with descriptions so they will see a lot of SL and keep you in good mind.

A special entry is to lots of freebie places and we are going to supply a new residents section soon.

Wol
SL Guided Tours

All hail Wolwaner and his SL2Go website!

This is a great resource to hand out to newbies.

NCI Plaza at Kuula and the Shelter are defiantly good choices. Also you can point them to Help Island Public where there is usually a nice mix of newbies, Mentors and other helpful types. I like sending the new and curious to the Free Dove too where they can learn to open boxes and find lots of nice free shapes, skin, hair and clothes to get them started.

I find that when I give new people a landmark to anywhere, they immediately click it and disappear even while I am trying to say something to them.

Here we go!
We have enhanced our profile version (in the web-tab of the profiles of Valie Eun and Wolwaner Jervil) with a large list of freebie-places and a news section to have a quick reference on updated items since last update - we usually enter the date in the news link.
In addiditon we start giving courses for beginners (currently developen in german languge, but can be held in english too).

For those preferring browser variants have a look at http:/members.a1.net/secondlife to find the index of great places and more....

We still try to help new residents on their first days, so they can have all the fun we already have now since long.

Wol
SL Guided Tours - we guide you through SL

Yes, this is a real problem. I try NOT to hand out landmarks until the end of a session with a newbie. They are curious puppies, and can't resist clicking on strange items.

Since I have LM's in my profile I usually don't hand over LM's and it takes them a while to come there, so I can tell in between that it is or is not time to teleport - at least a bit of control.

But if I give them a LM the first thing BEFORE giving them the LM is to tell them "NOT to teleport now!".

Success factor some 50% ....

Wol

I have stopped giving LMs to new members. Instead I teach them how to search for places themselves. It does somewhat avoid that problem, although yesterday I did manage to teach a new resident how to use search in two seconds flat, because she disappeared right after I'd explained it.

send them to our mall; we have free avatar kits (skin, shape, hair, shoes, clothes, ...); lol

I think it is time to recognize that diffeent people have different entry needs. Business people are coming into SL to hold meetings within company and with customers. Students and instructors are coming into SL to hold classes. Writers come into SL to work with other writers. Their entry needs are different from those of gamers.

I have set up some webpages to provide the kind of introduction I think is needed by people like this.
http://www.thinkerer.org/SLintChan/SLintroch.htm

These pages offer instructional videos, mainly by Torley Linden. The videos are embedded on a couple of web pages so that a person can easily watch several in succession. As I find other needed information, I will put it on the pages.

Manpower, Inc. has a good entry path on its island:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Manpower%20HQ/124/78/23

I think this path provides a more efficient path than Orientation Island for the kind of people I am talking about. I intend to use this path or others like it for peopel I bring into SL. I am also identifying people in SL who will be available to help newcomers of similar interrests

I agree, Thinkerer. Such there are also businesses in SL who cater to newbies who are in SL for business/more serious purposes. SL Grid comes to mind whenever I encounter such people, and I have friends who are in the metaverse development field in which they can go to, but I also love to refer them to the visually imaginative build in SL so they could develop a fascination for SL's more creative parts. Usually The Lost Gardens of Apollo and Svarga comes to mind, and lately, Eshi's flower creation, which is now permanently in Dusan Writer's sim.

For everyone, whether they are in SL for fun or business, when it comes to enriching their wardrobe for free, I direct them to Cherlindrea Lamont's blog http://fabfree.wordpress.com and tell them to join the Fabulously Free in SL group where there are many friendly people to help them with freebies. Also a great group for meeting people and making new friends.

I tend to recommend them there when it comes to wardrobe stuff and freebies, because in the event of content theft being so rampant, this place is 100% original and legal. I hate for newbies to know of that shady side of SL, and most freebie places are rampant of BIABs, stolen creation that will make it bad for SL's reputation.

I also love to send them to NCI. I used to hang out in The Shelter and I really love it there. It is the most helpful place, and if there is no one to help you out, there are always notecards to click and read and those huge walls to learn from in their other areas.

If they stay around longer, I'd give them a more comprehensive tour, teach them how to use search, send them to Torley's parcel, give them blogs to check out, and if they are really nice, give them a makeover...