Good newbie area?

[Eamonn Soothsayer]

I'm sure that there's some out there but, I haven't found any yet. The offcial Welcome Island is so lag ridden and infested with the dregs of society that I refuse to ask any of my friends to play SL because that would be their first impression. I've had friends quit simply because of how un-welcoming Welcome Island is.

 

So, are there any player made sims or areas where new players can get the feel of things? Cheap clothing, skins and everything needed to get started?

 

I'm thinking of throwing up a small newb friendly area in my 1/4 sim but, if someone else has already spent time and money creating one then I would gladly throw up a link to it. Idealy for me would be to make a small area with either ads linking to newb friendly areas and/or setting up an area with reseller items for newbs.

 

I'm building a community where I'll be bringing hundreds, if not thousands of new people to SL. We are a pre-existing online community so no, that number is not an exageration. And I want to have a good place for them to start out in. Any suggestions?

[Storm Clarence]

One of the best newbie areas I found was Inworldz.  But that was all I found in Inworldz.  

SL = your world, your imagination.

[Penny Patton]

I don't think newbies get dropped in the Welcome Areas anymore. Instead, when they get to the end of the "here, have some signs that tell you how to walk and fly instead of a proper orientation" area they wind up in a room with a bunch of billboards. The billboards all have locations, mostly resident made sims like pteron, Insilico and others, rotating to a new batch every minute or so.

The result is that most newbies these days are likely being tossed into empty, or nearly empty sims. I understand the idea behind this, but I don't believe it was thought out well enough.

 

 On the other hand. I've been wandering a lot lately, and when I can't think of anywhere better to go I sometimes drop in on Ahern, Waterhead, and some of the newer welcome areas and infohubs. They're definitely the ugly side of SL, and I'm not talking about the builds. Just tonight I was at the main Zindra infohub and a couple of 8' tall skinheads with typically ill-proportioned broad-shouldered/wasp-waisted tiny-carney-handed avatars starting going on and on about how awful and freakish my avatar was.

 Apparently I'm a fat midget. They spent some time trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be. When I left they still hadn't worked it out.

A few days earlier I'd wandered past Ahern and got a similar welcome.

 

 For LL I really don't believe there's any way around it, they need to actually have employees who keep an eye on these areas if they ever revert to using "Welcome Areas" as new user hubs. Which I actually think they should do, provided they take several other steps...like building impressive, well thought out Welcome Areas that set expectations for SL high and turn them into the resident resources they're supposed to be.

[Thinkerer Melville]

My suggestion is:

Hyles Infohub

Appearance 102: Hyles Infohub newcomer resources

http://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/2011/04/kit-appearance-102-hyles-infohub.html  

 

Here are lots of  how to pages for new people. 

Appearance 102: Hyles Infohub newcomer resources

http://thinkerer.org/SLintChan/SLiHoboKitonWeb.htm

Thinkerer

[Laetizia Coronet]

Newbies *do* get dropped in Welcome Areas and whereas they're not all bad, some obviously are.

[Claireschen Hesten]

the modern newbie get's dumped at an orientation land they learn the basics of SL then at the end they are given a choice of places they can further explore in SL, no more laggy welcome island

[ColeMarie Caramel]

Best thing to do is just to look around SL and explore. If you type in search free stuff, free clothes, etc. you will find a lot of places with free or cheap items. You can also look on the Marketplace: http://marketplace.secondlife.com. You will also find free or cheap stuff here. Here you can put the price range you want, copy, modify, transfer etc.

~ColeMarie~ 

[Hippie Bowman]

 

---

Eamonn Soothsayer wrote:

I'm sure that there's some out there but, I haven't found any yet. The offcial Welcome Island is so lag ridden and infested with the dregs of society that I refuse to ask any of my friends to play SL because that would be their first impression. I've had friends quit simply because of how un-welcoming Welcome Island is.

 

So, are there any player made sims or areas where new players can get the feel of things? Cheap clothing, skins and everything needed to get started?

 

I'm thinking of throwing up a small newb friendly area in my 1/4 sim but, if someone else has already spent time and money creating one then I would gladly throw up a link to it. Idealy for me would be to make a small area with either ads linking to newb friendly areas and/or setting up an area with reseller items for newbs.

 

I'm building a community where I'll be bringing hundreds, if not thousands of new people to SL. We are a pre-existing online community so no, that number is not an exageration. And I want to have a good place for them to start out in. Any suggestions?

---

 

Hi Eamonn!  I may be biased, as I teach building there, but check out Help People Island.  It is staffed with friendly and helpfull people, that can help with anything about Second Life.  There are events held there.  There is a freebie store, with some suprisingly good things.  Clothes, Hair, Avatars, and the like.  Check it out!  I am sure you will like it!

Peace!

[Kolby Nissondorf]

Hey Eamonn!

Check out Newbie World! It has a TON of clothes etc! Its Mainland so it may be a little laggy but the owners and workers there are very nice!

Enjoy!

Kolby

[Kolby Nissondorf]

still, its pretty laggy there at orientation island too!

[SmileyMixxy]

As a newer player, I would have to say the most frustrating thing is the Destination Guide/Search.  If I type in, say, "Weddings", I get a bunch of unrelated things.  People need a LIMIT on what they can tag.  I can't find the most relevant areas at all.

[Dark Zebendein]

There are several problems with LL retaining people.

 

 

The first one is they don't moderate the welcome areas.  I mean NONE WHATSOEVER.  So people are harassed or ignored at a vital part of their Second Life.  The time they need the most help.

 

The second problem is there are almost no mentors or helpers left in second life that go around the welcome areas. I haven't seen one helping or mentoring new people in at least 6 months. 

 

 

The combination of these 2 problems has really dropped SL's retention rate in the time I have been a resident.  2 Years ago when I would sign on sunday.  There would be so many people on the grid that every sim was lagging.  Peak usage was in the 75 to 85 thousand mark.  In the most recent months I have yet to see the grid even make it past the 55 mark.  Its a sad state of affairs.

 

If Linden Labs would hire 5 people at MINIMUM FREAKING WAGE.  To sit in infohubs (the 5 with the most traffic) clean up the language and harrassment and then after that help new people get orientated or at least send them somewhere (like help people island) where they can get orientated we might see an increase in user base.