orientation island

I hate this place... if I log out before finishing all the tutorials, I have to do them all over again when I come back and when I try to, they're buggy and ChatMaster Phitt won't say anything to me even when I talk to ChatMaster Phatt first. Clicking the "retry station" sign does next to nothing. Help, somebody???

Hi and welcome to SL
It does get easier and much more fun!
As long as you have finished the four main 'stars' in the tutorials, you can teleport to Help Island. You do not need to do the remaining three stars per section to go on.
Kaly

Is this a change to orientation island; I don't remember having to collect stars. When did this happen? I'll have to warn my friends if they decide to join SL about how it works.

I have one main star left and I can't get the main communicate star at all. I keep clicking the sign that says "retry this station" where you have to open the chat and say something and then I do that, but I get no star... I've tried going to other tutorials and then coming back, but still nothing. This is really annoying...

Yep, the new user orientation has changed. I started late January 2007 and went through the typical orientation. When I created an alt in early February, the orientation was completely different.

It is a bit more helpful, but it also won't let you teleport to the mainland until you complete the basic tasks. Occasional bugs can make this difficult even for an experienced user. One in particular is "walk to the center of this bullseye". I spent 10 minutes on that one before it registered as completed!

I don't know what it used to be like, but when you begin in OI, you have four tutorial areas to go through before you can TP to Help Island. There are four 'main' stars that you need to collect - "walk into the small circle" for transportation main star, "click on chat, type in something, and click send or hit enter" for communication main star, etc. Then, once you've completed the main star for each area, there are three smaller stars you can collect that explain in greater detail how to go about specific things in daily SL (flying for instance). The stars just help you keep track of where you've been and what you have left to do, but once you've completed the four main stars, you can teleport to HI without completing any of the smaller ones.
I hope this makes sense...it's much easier done than explained! hehe
There is an informational box that pretty much walks you through the entire process - but I completed the tutorials without ever logging off, so, I'm not sure if that remains on your screen once you log off and back on again.
Kaly

Ugh, I think the new set up is far more confusing than the old. I signed up for an alt in December, but was never able to log in with her. In February, I noticed my main had a calling card from her, so I tried again and managed to get in. I got through the Communications area fine, skipped a couple things in Appearance, then went back and redid them but was somehow still missing a small star until I bought Lindens (I was going to need them anyway) to purchase a second chainmail shirt, couldn't find a vehicle which worked in that area until my 3rd or 4th try, and never did figure out what the hell I was supposed to do in the Search area. I wound up with all of the stars in Communication, none in Search, and all of the small stars in the other two areas, but neither of the large ones. It did let me tp out at that point, though, possibly due to the avatar's apparent age. I had been in world virtually every day for 6 months prior to that, and knew how to do all of the stations perfectly well, but OI still managed to confuse me. I'm all for newbies having certain basic skills before they hit the mainland, but there are certainly some kinks to iron out in the newer system.

You can skip the tutorials even though it says you can't. Just click that Help Island sign in the hub and you'll get a landmark to the island which you can use to escape! I learned this because the movement tutorial broke when I tried to go through it and I was otherwise stranded. (The Teleport Home option, and several other menu options, are unavailable when you're on the new Orientation Isle. Also, when I was there, the world map didn't work either.)

The new hub-based layout isn't very intuitive, and the fact that a) the tutorials are buggy and b) they reset if you log out or get disconnected can make it pretty infuriating to new users I reckon.

A friend also did this to get off the island early: She had her main avatar send her newbie alt a landmark to her main's home, and her alt was then able to teleport directly there. Someone else has observed that if you do that, this automatically sets your new "home" to the first place you teleport off the grid, whereas it used to be your "home" was the first Welcome Area that Second Life deposited you in after Orientation Isle. (Perhaps LL finally realized that Welcome Areas are more harm to newbies these days than good?)

I'm stuck on orientation island.

I've completed all the tasks many times over ... when I try and teleport ... it disconnects me.

I log back in ... and I've lost all my tutorials. Sometimes it won't let me complete them again. Currently, I can't complete 'chat' and 'appearance'.

THIS SUCKS! I've heard good things about second life, but I've been stuck on orientation island for DAYS.

Please see the post just above yours (you don't really have to do the tutorial). Teleports have been way funky the past couple of weeks, but they shouldn't be disconnecting you. It IS common to have to retry them several times though.

There's one more way I can think of to get you off that damn island though:

1. At the Second Life login screen, click Preferences in the lower-right of the window.
2. On the General tab, check the box that says "Show Start Location on Login Screen," and then click OK. Doing this will cause a little "Start Location" box at the bottom of the screen.
3. Type the name of an alternate sim you'd like to log into. The only PG sim I can think of off the top of my head at the moment is named: Erzulie
4. Now log into SL like normal and you should be able to bypass Orientation Island. You won't be able to go back there, either, and your new "Home" will likely default to the sim where you first log in.

EDIT: I've had to do exactly this several times in the past couple weeks when all I wanted to do was port to another sim.

I just sent Gnascher a landmark to NCI, maybe that will allow him to escape.

Thanks, I tried your landmark. Didn't work. I was disconnected.

If that worked, then why didn't the landmark I sent Gnascher work?

I've tried again with a landmark to land that is set (deeded? I'm not sure) to a group I'm in.

Amber Linden essentially walked me through Wildefire Walcott's solution. That worked.