How can a newbie find groups of interest?

I know you can search for Groups, but all that returns is groups with the search term as part of the group name (search for Zen and you get every group name that has, for example, the word citiZEN in it).

Is there a way to find groups of interest by category? As a lonely newbie I'm trying to find like-minded residents to talk with -- not about any particularly burning issue with me, just about things of common interest. So browsing a groups listing would be great ("Hey, that sounds like something I could get my conversational teeth into -- I wonder if they're accepting new members or visitors?".

Help/advice appreciated. - mDab

Hi mDab

I see from the response to your post in Linden Answers that they may well take up your suggestion about sorting groups - good going!

I don't know of any shortcuts - but why don't you post your interests here and perhaps you'll get some suggestions for groups to join?

...now I have to cobble up a list of general interests of mine to post. - mDab

LOL - life can be hard - even Second Life.

I'll come at it from the other angle and suggest a few groups. NB - I'm not in-world at the mo so I may get the name slightly wrong, but close enough for you to find them in search.

If you want to learn building, scripting, etc, you could join Basic Building, Academy of Second Life (ASL), TeaZer Edu VIP and others.

You mentioned Zen in one of your posts - not sure whether you were just using that as an example of how over-helpful search can be, but there's Buddhists of SL. There are also Jewish, Christian, and Islamic groups.

The Ethics Group has regular in-world discussions - their off-world forum is here.

There is a book club - Assembly Ground Book Discussion, and some writers' groups - SL Writers (Writers of SL??) is one.

Don't know where you're from, but various nationalities/languages have groups too, eg, Brits of SL.

Oh, and if like me you are one of that misunderstood and neglected elite, a Mac user, check out Macintosh Users Group.

Here's a tip for when you're in-world: when you click someone's profile, check out their groups and see if anything catches your eye then pull it up in search. That's how I found some of my groups. You're welcome to look at my list.

Thanks for posting what you did. It does get challenging when you're new and not quite sure how to do many things in new enviroment be it virtual or real life. LOL I am new too but I have been trying to do my own research and figure things out but it does get bit frusterating.
I sort of jumped the gun in joining without upgrading my computer which has been making things really difficult.
I guess I just be learning as I got but I did change my jeans to black bell bottom pants though I wish I could have figured out how to copy the and save the orginal jeans I got on what I think is called newbie island.
Is there anyway someone can confirm if thats the name if I want go back and hide out for bit?
LOL

Hi FD

Sorry - but like Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, There is No Way Back to Help Island. You can go to that part of Help Island that's open to everyone, though - just pull it up in search.

Two other places you might find helpful are The Shelter (Isabel) which is a sort of refuge for newbies, and New Citizens Inc (NCI) Plaza. The latter runs course for newbies as well.

In your inventory under Notecards, you should find some info about changing appearance and so on. Your jeans should still be in inventory - try under clothing, or if you can remember which of the basic avatars you picked, you should find them listed under that particular outfit.

If you want to find courses specifically geared to helping newbies, you can do that without being in-world. Click the Community tab at the top of this page (right under the fetching pics of the Lindens). When the page loads, click on Events in the sidebar menu. All events will be listed, so from the drop down menu select Education and then you'll see all the courses available. Many of them are aimed at newbies.

It sounds as if your SL experience hasn't been too positive up until now. I'm sorry if that is the case, and I sympathise over the computer problems - I'm on a Mac. [SIGH]