New to SL

[Mightmeg]

Hi so I joined SL today and i'm a mess, been trying to get it but i'm terrible at it right now and I met a guy in one of the places or whatever its called and he was walking me through it and I get timed out and I tried getting back there but couldn't so back to ground zero. I have no idea how I'm gonna find him.

How can you get your avatar to walk around freely? 

I really need help getting around SL.

[Rolig Loon]

If you entered at Learning Island, the basic tutorials there should have walked you through the skills of walking, jumping, and flying.  Unfortunately, you are only allowed to go through Learning Island ONCE, so if you left before completing it, you cannot go back.

However, walking is VERY easy.  Just use the arrow keys on your keyboard.

I suggest reading

 

[Lindal Kidd]

Hi, MightMeg, and welcome to Second Life

Everything can seem daunting at first, but don't give up!  There are lots of resources to help you learn.

• First, the Knowledge Base article (and others in the Knowledge Base), accessible on this website under the Help menu.
• Once you leave "Learning Island", the first place you showed up in SL, you automatically go to "Social Island".  There are a number of self-paced tutorials there about basic functions.  When you tire of Social Island, there are over 20,000 other places to go!  You can use the "stargate" type teleporters at the teleport plaza there, or use Destinations or your Search function to find places of interest.
• There are a number of resident-run help and learning areas.  Four of my favorites are:
  • Caledon Oxbridge University
  • New Resident Island
  • New Citizens, Inc (NCI)
  • Firestorm Help Island
• If you feel too overwhelmed, send me an IM in world.  I'll be happy to help you in person if our times mesh up.

[Nalytha]

There is also an option to use WASD to walk. I believe it is in the settings. 

[Nalates Urriah]

Second Life is amazing. Most everything from RL is here and a bunch more not possible in RL. With all these possibilities comes complication and learning curves. It isn't rocket science, but there is a lot.

With a system this complex comes problems. Connections issues are a primary problem for users. So, if you can turn in place, spin, by pressing the left & right arrows (A and D keys) but not move forward, backward, or fly then you most likely have a connection issue. Ask for help.

As to finding a person you were talking to... it depends. We can all be found by our names. The viewer has a Search feature. You can set it to search for everything or narrow it. One filter is for people. So, search for a name and you'll likely find the person. Search is available via the web. http://search.secondlife.com/ This is the same as the in-world search.

If you can't remember a name, it gets complicated. There are ways.

Since you want basic help Lindal's suggestions are best. They will prove easier than tracking down the one helping you. Even explaining how to track down someone gets overly complicated without some prior knowledge of SL and the terms we use. 

I suggest you find HELP groups. In this case I mean the in-world groups accessed via the viewer. You can ask questions without having to travel to some place. Use Search filtered for groups and enter HELP. I recommend FS/SL Gateway Help Network as it is one of the more professional groups. The most active I know of is Firestorm Support. It is for those using the Firestorm Viewer. But, that are reasonably tolerant of new people asking beginner questions.

Also, search this section of the forum for answers. There is no question you can ask that has not been asked before. Finding answers is faster than asking and waiting. Fortunately there are enough of us following this section asking doesn't take too long to get an answer, minutes - hours. But, in-world groups respond in seconds - minutes.

Good luck.

[Lindal Kidd]

Nalates said, "There is no question you can ask that has not been asked before."  I consider that a challenge.

Hey, Nalates!  Why does the turtle cross the road?

[Nalates Urriah]

I think you win. The closest I could find is 

The user Turtle isn't logged in, so I can't ask if he/she has ever been asked why he/she would cross a road...

However, now that question has been asked. So... 

Edited November 17, 2017 by Nalates Urriah

[Rolig Loon]

Well, if I had known this was a contest, I would have entered. 

[Lindal Kidd]

Why did the turtle cross the road?  Why, just for the shell of it, of course!