Looking after new users.

[Drayke Newall]

13 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

I'm with you on everything but the questions. Those need to be submitted days prior to the meeting, not the day of. About the only excpetion I can think of at the moment would be TPV meetings. Yes, the Lindens do hold regular meetings with the TPV devs and their teams. Pretty sure that hasn't ever stopped. Point being LL has meetings of different kinds they hold that, while they aren't exactly open to the public, they aren't exactly closed either. Most people just aren't aware the meetings exist.

Ah I see, I only mentioned it as I was told in the forums by a Linden that I need to go take my questions and ask it in person at the meeting. No mention of submitting it etc. Just shows how convoluted the process is and the average person would find it to bothersome to even try.

[FairreLilette]

2 hours ago, Lancewae Barrowstone said:

Ok, so the upshot, as I believe it, is that many people come to SL not so much to “do” something as in a game experience, but more to “be” something, like another gender, a furry, a character role, a bf or gf, a Gorean assassin, a Star Trek crew member, a housewife, a wrestler, a biker at some hideaway bar, or a dancing girl who loves to flirt.  SL is full of so many odd, interesting, quirky or just down right repulsive groups and regions out there. Hah.  The list goes on.  But this is where the various interests will lie.

Yes, Second Life is a Second Life and to many of us it means another life.  In my suggestions and other's who are suggesting games, games are a great way to break the ice and make friends and perhaps even win good prizes...not 17 year old Classic body stuff.  

I just wanted to say regarding some of these "niche" interests that you mention, many come to SL and look in the search for their niche interest, go there and it's empty.  I found this to be the case for me too when looking for niche (not often heard) kinds of music I was looking for.  It was there in the listing but I'd go and there was no one there.

And, also I don't think a lot of newbies know about the things you list there above...that sounds more like for advanced users to get an alt to me.  

I have many newbies frankly tell me SL is boring....and the main question is "So, what am I supposed to do here?" 

But, I got to thinking if it is boring at the beginning, SL may not really be for them.  *shrug*  I dunno. 

p.s.  I never came here to be anything other than a female avatar.  Building is what I did mostly.  Avatar creation came much later.   

But, most of these threads go round and round in circles as to whether SL is a game or not and that is not what posters who are taking their time to attempt make SL perhaps more interesting and maybe even appeal to younger audiences end up discussing whether SL is a game or not.  

RL has all kinds of games in it.  I grew up watching game shows with my Mom.  They are popular in rl.  

Edited March 9, 2020 by FairreLilette

[Hunny Bunny]

2 hours ago, Lancewae Barrowstone said:

This could then free up a onetime “payment” from LL for this achievement and maybe a participation period should be appended, oh, say 30 days of active participation, and upon clearance by the group leader, LL will release this stipend — some decent Lindens, say $2000L

The problem with giving away L$ is people would create throwaway accounts to grab those L$ and transfer them to their main account. If I were to buy L$ at the time of this post, L$2000 is $9.18 USD. Scammers creating an army of alts could rake in thousands of L$, buy a prim from their main for L$2000 or just straight up transfer it and then sell that back to the Lindex for real currency. Now, if there was some kind of promotional currency or token that could offset creators costs for uploads or even a % reduction in fees since they would be helping to retain new customers than that could be a possibility but it seems unlikely.

[Drayke Newall]

4 hours ago, MichaMoz said:

The problem with giving away L$ is people would create throwaway accounts to grab those L$ and transfer them to their main account. If I were to buy L$ at the time of this post, L$2000 is $9.18 USD. Scammers creating an army of alts could rake in thousands of L$, buy a prim from their main for L$2000 or just straight up transfer it and then sell that back to the Lindex for real currency. Now, if there was some kind of promotional currency or token that could offset creators costs for uploads or even a % reduction in fees since they would be helping to retain new customers than that could be a possibility but it seems unlikely.

Linden trees are still around. But they do suffer the same issue with people creating alts. That said this can be easily resolved by LL just actually enforcing their alt limit rule which as far as I am aware they haven't done so for many a year.

5 hours ago, FairreLilette said:

I have many newbies frankly tell me SL is boring....and the main question is "So, what am I supposed to do here?" 

The problem is that there is no one at the starting area to guide them. The days of mentors been gone has led to no one to help newbies from the get go. As far as nothing to do, whilst generally true, this is also a by product of LL poor utilisation of what they have.

The experience that new users should have is land at noob island, go through a quick basic tutorial with a prize at the end of a high quality avatar, skin and accessories. Even better would be a token that gives the new user 30 days of premium for free (aka a free trial) so they are introduced to premium as well as showcased owning and decorating a home. The mentors at the newbie area (could be similar to moles) would be there to answer questions or even offer a more advanced building tutorial for example. From the newbie area, after completion of the basic tutorial they should be automatically teleported to Linden Realms where they can participate in the game to earn money, with explanations as such and also offer other money making avenues as suggestions. Give them a basic start and a good experience on how to 'play' second life and what is possible in SL whilst earning money.

The Linden Trees used to be really popular back in hype days (with new users not alts), with even if I recall the hud being offered for free at the starting region. Now those are never heard of by the new users despite being around with the possibility of earning quite a lot of lindens. The more trees around the more lindens on offer. In the hype days you also had numerous freebie places. Unfortunately places like freebie warehouse etc, whilst still around, still generally only have free items of poor quality or made decades ago. These need to be updated with decent products and advertised by LL through the intro to SL.

By doing the above the new user start will be a good cross section of the fun SL can be and all the while learning, meeting, playing and earning lindens.

If you want to go even further upon your sign up and avatar creation on the website have a list of things people like. If for instance they like adventure manga's when they tick that and go in world they are sent to a sim that is themed like an adventurers guild hall whereby the have to go and register at the guild hall desk (this could be register for payment info on file) and from there they could go to Linden realms to earn lindens and experience (or another custom zone). They could also have a guild recruiting board which is a place RP sims could advertise their particular RP zone "like a guild".

The above example could be expanded for exploration with Paleo world, or it could even be expanded by LL actually finishing cross region experience hunts whereby they could get a monster hunting experience to hook them in.

LL should be offering the hook for people to see what SL is. Relying on the community at the start is to much for a new user as there are so many places to go, most of which are either empty or boring (sorry to say).

Noob island could also be converted to a game system whereby apes have stolen all of your belongings and clothes leaving you only with minimal coverings (and a decent avatar). The goal is to find your clothes through the region by fighting the apes or doing puzzles to find your belongings. Hidden treasure chests could also offer some small linden prizes. All through this process it guides the user on how to use the viewer and controls, including basic prim creation.

There are so many possibilities to improve the new user experience, however there has always been the mentality in LL that all that needs to happen is sign in, quick tutorial then your on your own.

Edited March 9, 2020 by Drayke Newall

[Evah Baxton]

8 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

Even better would be a token that gives the new user 30 days of premium for free (aka a free trial)

I agree with this. They will spend time decorating their house and will end up with something of value that they don't want to give up.

 

[Drayke Newall]

10 hours ago, Evah Baxton said:

I agree with this. They will spend time decorating their house and will end up with something of value that they don't want to give up.

Not to mention it will give them 4 weeks of stipend to spend, potentially eliminating the major gripe of new users stating they have no money to buy anything. This would be in essence the hook, with as you mention not wanting to give up the home the line and the bonus L$1000 the sinker for good uptake of LL premium.

Another good thing to help even further would be a sim accessible for 2 weeks only to new premium users that offers every single monthly gift made for free.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Drayke Newall

[Evah Baxton]

1 hour ago, Drayke Newall said:

Not to mention it will give them 4 weeks of stipend to spend, potentially eliminating the major gripe of new users stating they have no money to buy anything. This would be in essence the hook, with as you mention not wanting to give up the home the line and the bonus L$1000 the sinker for good uptake of LL premium.

Another good thing to help even further would be a sim accessible for 2 weeks only to new premium users that offers every single monthly gift made for free.

Others are worried that people will sign up for fake accounts and then transfer the stipend. LL should be able to tell the difference between L$ that you purchased yourself and L$ that was given to you by LL and only allow the stipend to be used to purchase things. Sort of like how most starter credit cards don't allow you to access cash. In fact it could be a totally separate L$ balance.

[FairreLilette]

While a stipend or a gifts are not a bad idea, what hasn't been discussed here is a good starter shape.

The shaping of the mesh body and head is different than the Classic avatar.

I did not start with a good avatar when I joined.  It was far too short, a nearly Yoda sized female Angel.

It took me a long time to get any kind of a good shape for my Classic avatar.

But, the mesh avatars...this is me:  The head's too big, the head's too small; the neck's too big, the neck's too small; the legs are too long, the legs are too short; the hips are too big, the hips are too small...and repeat this about 50 million times...including all parts eyes, nose, mouth and then have to tweek stuff for each new outfit.  

I gave up.  Even pre-designed shapes that I bought, imo, had a really large body and a very small head.  

Just a good sensible starter shape would be very helpful.  

I went dancing last night as a human and saw a lot of mis-shaped bodies.  It looked like some of the people also gave up trying to make any kind of a sensible shape and just had big boobs period.  Big boobs or butt but the rest of the styling not even cared about.  One was so thin every where except in the boobs.

This is why I enjoy being a Dinkie so much more...I feel set free of all this hell of trying to get an avi into a good proportion.  

Edited March 10, 2020 by FairreLilette

[Hunny Bunny]

On 3/9/2020 at 2:46 AM, Drayke Newall said:

Even better would be a token that gives the new user 30 days of premium for free (aka a free trial)

On 3/9/2020 at 11:23 AM, Evah Baxton said:

I agree with this. They will spend time decorating their house and will end up with something of value that they don't want to give up.

 

Ummmm, okay but.....

 

[Drayke Newall]

7 hours ago, MichaMoz said:

Ummmm, okay but....

Your point? They could have offered the 30day free trial years ago even before the new houses.

Clearly, I run my RL business differently than LL as if this was my business I would have told my employees that we don't open the new Linden Homes up until current supply can be met. In other words take how many current subscribers there are and then make that many homes first then release. There after continue to update as they are to accommodate further subscribers. But given past and present experiences with LL its no surprise they released it without the appropriate numbers. Just look at experiences where we still don't have grid wide, or EEP where despite being told otherwise they will be releasing it with bugs and all.

Just because LL messed up (again) and couldn't work out a basic supply and demand calculation prior to releasing something doesn't mean that a 30 day free trial for new users is bad and wouldn't work.

Edited March 11, 2020 by Drayke Newall

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Drayke Newall said:

Your point? They could have offered the 30day free trial years ago even before the new houses.

Clearly, I run my RL business differently than LL as if this was my business I would have told my employees that we don't open the new Linden Homes up until current supply can be met. In other words take how many current subscribers there are and then make that many homes first then release. There after continue to update as they are to accommodate further subscribers. But given past and present experiences with LL its no surprise they released it without the appropriate numbers. Just look at experiences where we still don't have grid wide, or EEP where despite being told otherwise they will be releasing it with bugs and all.

Just because LL messed up (again) and couldn't work out a basic supply and demand calculation prior to releasing something doesn't mean that a 30 day free trial for new users is bad and wouldn't work.

LL did offer a one week trial way back in the day but they dropped it around 2005/6. One week wasn't long enough then for retainment purposes and it wouldn't be now. SL needs more than week to be able to determine if it works for you or not. A 30 day trial is a much more reasonable amount of time to be able to make an informed decision.

[Ardy Lay]

1 hour ago, Drayke Newall said:

Your point? They could have offered the 30day free trial years ago even before the new houses.

Clearly, I run my RL business differently than LL as if this was my business I would have told my employees that we don't open the new Linden Homes up until current supply can be met. In other words take how many current subscribers there are and then make that many homes first then release. There after continue to update as they are to accommodate further subscribers. But given past and present experiences with LL its no surprise they released it without the appropriate numbers. Just look at experiences where we still don't have grid wide, or EEP where despite being told otherwise they will be releasing it with bugs and all.

Just because LL messed up (again) and couldn't work out a basic supply and demand calculation prior to releasing something doesn't mean that a 30 day free trial for new users is bad and wouldn't work.

Seriously?  You think everybody that is eligible wants one?  That's madness.  😉

[Drayke Newall]

1 hour ago, Ardy Lay said:

Seriously?  You think everybody that is eligible wants one?  That's madness.  😉

Never said everyone did unless with the smiley your being sarcastic.

I said if they had calculated it to accommodate the current supply they would have been fine and everyone would have been able to get one and those that didn't would have simply passed it to new subscribers.

[Hunny Bunny]

8 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

Your point?

The point is adding even more people to an already overcrowded pool means more people that are currently paying to swim in that pool would be left high and dry. What business model gives away free samples of a product that's already in short supply and where do we line up for these free toilet rolls? Oh let me count the ways I could have an army of alts in a flotilla of LL boathouses buying me all kinds of gifts with their newfound free L$. 

Edited March 11, 2020 by MichaMoz

[Drayke Newall]

4 hours ago, MichaMoz said:

The point is adding even more people to an already overcrowded pool means more people that are currently paying to swim in that pool would be left high and dry. What business model gives away free samples of a product that's already in short supply and where do we line up for these free toilet rolls? Oh let me count the ways I could have an army of alts in a flotilla of LL boathouses buying me all kinds of gifts with their newfound free L$. 

And again your point is moot as I have already stated in my previous post that it is simply bad organisation from LL. I am well aware that there was a limited amount of houses but like I said, LL should have done a supply and demand calculation to solve this. I mean come on, they didn't even create enough new house supply to transfer all of the people that had an older Linden Home.

So I will say again

Step 1: look at how many actually own an old Linden home
Step 2: build the equivalent new Linden Homes to match the old linden homes and release them ONLY once all demand is met
Step 3: move all existing premium users WITH an old Linden Home into the New homes (i.e. don't allow new accounts or those that don't have a linden home on their account)
Step 4: Create new Linden Homes for all new subscribers.

Which steps did Linden Lab take when they released the new homes... They started with step 4.

You are taking the assumption that the 'free samples' would have affected the current house owners by using the way LL released the homes badly. If they had done it properly at the start by meeting the current demand and building a +10% into the first phase they wouldn't have had any issue at all. When the older homes were released there was no shortage as they finished the entire Linden Home area PRIOR to releasing it to the userbase.

Also as far as I am aware there is now plenty of homes available for new subscribers so introducing a 30 day trial now would be fine which is what my very initial post suggesting it implied (never did I mention they SHOULD HAVE I said they COULD). In other words why do I care that there wasn't enough supply to meet the demand when there is now and any form of trial introduced now will not be impacted by it.

That's what happens when you post a blog post from July last year, it is not current nor is it relevant. 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Drayke Newall

[Selene Gregoire]

9 hours ago, MichaMoz said:

The point is adding even more people to an already overcrowded pool means more people that are currently paying to swim in that pool would be left high and dry. What business model gives away free samples of a product that's already in short supply and where do we line up for these free toilet rolls? Oh let me count the ways I could have an army of alts in a flotilla of LL boathouses buying me all kinds of gifts with their newfound free L$. 

There are quite a few premiums who have several of the new Linden Homes, making sure that others can't get one because so many are being hogged. It's those premium residents who need to curtail their LH greed and allow others who want just one to be able to get one. The short supply is not LL's fault so much as it's the greedy premiums who insist on having 3 or more Linden Homes.

I notice you aren't jumping on those premiums for creating a shorter supply than it would have been if everyone had limited themselves to just one or two Linden Homes.

[Pussycat Catnap]

On 3/6/2020 at 1:22 AM, rasterscan said:

Looking after new users

I am told SL still gets up to 3000 new sign ups every month.

I am always highly suspicious of figures like this.

Back around 2011-2013 or so I ran a forum for a small academic book company. If you weren't trying to pass your exams in a very specific field you had no need to ever see our forum and probably had no idea that company existed... The number of people that would fit this bill would likely be under 1000 a year globally...

We used to get from 1,000- to at least twice - 100,000 forum signups "attempts" per day. Average was more like a couple thousand...

After my various attempts to block spammers and bots FINALLY succeeded... and I stopped having to delete upwards of 100,000 accounts every morning... that number went down to about 1-5 new users a day... and a WHOLE LOTTA pings against our security...

So when I see that 3000 people "sign up monthly" and yet only 1-2 stay... I read that as "3 sign up, 2 stay, and 2997 bots make accounts that mostly never get used because it's the wrong kind of content for their ad-farm company...

Most of the bots on that forum I ran were never triggered - but they had distinct patterns to their creation that I learned to suss out letting me safely delete them en-mass... the few that did trigger... I have seen here in SL's forum as well in years past... not for a few years now... but we used to get some weird random posts filled with keywords in between nonsense paragraphs designed to mess with SEO... especially back in the days when you could get a 6-figure job as an "SEO expert" - this was the "cheater's way" to get results for your client... inject their SEO into other people's content in order to make more terms seem relevant to driving clicks to them, while also making other pages look like spam needing to be downranked...

 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Pussycat Catnap

[Evah Baxton]

11 hours ago, MichaMoz said:

The point is adding even more people to an already overcrowded pool means more people that are currently paying to swim in that pool would be left high and dry. What business model gives away free samples of a product that's already in short supply and where do we line up for these free toilet rolls? Oh let me count the ways I could have an army of alts in a flotilla of LL boathouses buying me all kinds of gifts with their newfound free L$. 

Shouldn't LL neighborhoods be auto-generated (in a nice way) and practically worthless? Maybe they already are, but I am clueless about them. The value would be in retention and giving new residents something to do and somewhere to go right away.

Instead of giving away free L$, would it be feasible to give gift cards to be redeemed at trusted furniture, clothing, vehicle and mesh vendors and somehow insure that the items are no-transfer?

I would think they would spend time in-world decorating, shopping, meeting new neighbors, and eventually want to venture out and start participating in the SL economy.

If they didn't want to upgrade to premium they would lose any inventory purchased with the gift cards and lose their LL home. Then they would essentially start over where you start now. Their stuff could go into a "premium only" folder so they could get it back if they upgraded.

Even the trolls would be visually appealing in their first 30 days... 😆 EDIT: (on second thought ... they would probably look sooooo much worse)

 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Evah Baxton

[Beth Macbain]

When the first homes on Bellisseria were released, there were around 3,300 of them I believe.

There are 65,000 premium accounts according to Ebbe. 

Nearly a year later, there are over 10,000 homes on Bellisseria. 

Should LL have waited six years to release any new homes? 

Should they have made a single region and cloned it 3,000 times? 

If you believe they should've, then Bellisseria wouldn't be Bellisseria and would be no different from the old Linden Homes.

Not all 65,000 premium accounts want a Linden Home. Some premium accounts that never wanted one of the old Linden Homes now want a home on Bellisseria. 

The LDPW have worked their asses off for the past year and show no signs of slowing down. It is not difficult to get a home on Bellisseria now. 

There has been a solid year of buzz created by Bellisseria, and that also doesn't seem to be slowing down. 

The idea that they should have had 65,000 homes built before releasing any is ludicrous. The idea of having even half that many ready before they released the first one is ludicrous. 

 

[BelindaN]

I like my old Linden home on a deserted sim, and I can't face packing everything away and chasing a new home.

But I do like the idea of a simple transfer into a new home......but I doubt that will ever happen.

And the one time I called at Bellisaria it was busy and laggy. So realistically I'm better where I am.

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Evah Baxton said:

lose any inventory purchased with the gift cards

You had me up until this part.

They don't take back the LL premium gifts, items purchased via a gift card that is a gift to begin with, shouldn't be any different. Losing the land and the Linden Home has been a part of the deal for a long time so one wouldn't expect that to change. But for LL to start taking back gifted items? That makes LL look really crappy. 

If I were a noob and that happened to me, no way in hell would I ever log in again.

[Evah Baxton]

1 hour ago, Selene Gregoire said:

You had me up until this part.

They don't take back the LL premium gifts, items purchased via a gift card that is a gift to begin with, shouldn't be any different. Losing the land and the Linden Home has been a part of the deal for a long time so one wouldn't expect that to change. But for LL to start taking back gifted items? That makes LL look really crappy. 

If I were a noob and that happened to me, no way in hell would I ever log in again.

I can see that. Maybe it's too harsh.

Most other games or services that offer a free trial take it away at the end. I was trying to think around people using alts to accumulate free objects. Furniture, vehicles, pets, etc would all be vulnerable to this if you didn't take it away at the end of the trial.

And it's not even really taking it away if it's all still preserved in a folder.  

If during your trial you pick up freebies or buy stuff on your own, you'd keep all that.

Lots of warnings and a grace period would be helpful too. 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Evah Baxton

[Hunny Bunny]

First let me ask why must LL do anything at all? I believe that if it were in their best interest they would after all they've been doing it for seventeen years but since this is on the forums I believe real question is what can "we" do to look after new users. What I've heard from many new users is SL technically too challenging when compared the other "games" listed on this very forum which have very minimal customization in avatars and certainly environment I tend to agree. IMVU is about the closest thing I've found to SL and while it's not as customizable as SL it's a whole lot easier. The biggest hurdle is it's all just too much for the average person with a low spec machine. While having a house or land and yuge variety of shiny, free stuff sounds great to people that have been in world for 4, 8, 10 or 15 years and while better starter avatars would be awesome but they would still be starter avatars. Dial it back to when you were new compared to today and there's simply too many choices in addition to all the stuff you have to do before you feel confident to walk out into the world where people are often rude, won't talk to you simply because you're new and even call you names like "noob". Some people are lucky to find a someone who gives them something more valuable than premium and that's time and/or friendship. Someone who takes them under their wing and walks them through the most mundane of tasks and while a lot of times it's a thankless job, occasionally you get back ten fold what you put in. If YOU really want to "look after new users" then YOU have to be willing to sacrifice YOUR time and not LL or someone else's money. 

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Evah Baxton said:

I can see that. Maybe it's too harsh.

Most other games or services that offer a free trial take it away at the end. I was trying to think around people using alts to accumulate free objects. Furniture, vehicles, pets, etc would all be vulnerable to this if you didn't take it away at the end of the trial.

And it's not even really taking it away if it's all still preserved in a folder.  

If during your trial you pick up freebies or buy stuff on your own, you'd keep all that.

Lots of warnings and a grace period would be helpful too. 

Just because "most" do something doesn't make it right. 

If I go to the trouble of shopping for something and then pay for it with a gift card, you're damn right I expect to be able to keep it even if I don't continue with a subscription.

If you were to give someone a gift card for them to purchase a gift for themselves since you don't really know what they like or need, would you later on take that gift they purchased with the gift card away from them simply because you all you got in return was a thank you?

Warnings and grace periods wouldn't be needed because retention wouldn't just be in the toilet, it would be flushed.

[Drayke Newall]

6 hours ago, Beth Macbain said:

When the first homes on Bellisseria were released, there were around 3,300 of them I believe.

There are 65,000 premium accounts according to Ebbe. 

Nearly a year later, there are over 10,000 homes on Bellisseria. 

Should LL have waited six years to release any new homes? 

Should they have made a single region and cloned it 3,000 times? 

I'm sorry, where did you get the idea that anyone meant that every premium account needed a Linden Home. Please read what people say before posting such rubbish.

Supply and demand for homes was easily obtainable to Linden Lab from the start as they had the old Linden Home region already built to work this out. Given that many of the homes in this older region were empty, they could have easily said ok we have x homes that are taken so we will provide homes for those first in the initial release +10% extra and then create more supply after if it was needed. Not rocket science. They could have even just looked at how many homes they had on the old home regions and replicated that number exactly and this would have accommodated for everyone that has one and most people that wanted one.

You actually stating it took them 1 year to build enough that it "is not difficult to get a home...now" proves that you are exaggerating when you imply they would need 6 years. That is to say, they have met the supply and demand target within a year - if LL actually took the time to calculate a supply and demand figure.

IMHO the building of Bellisseria has been very slow (considering it is repeated assets) and could have met supply and demand targets sooner based on the fact that I can build RL subdivisions and individual unique homes quicker, but not going to get into an argument about that.

-----------------------------------------------------------

4 hours ago, MichaMoz said:

First let me ask why must LL do anything at all? I believe that if it were in their best interest they would after all they've been doing it for seventeen years but since this is on the forums I believe real question is what can "we" do to look after new users. 

Because it is their responsibility for them to ensure that the new user gets what is advertised in their marketing campaigns, of which they don't. The fact that they are now listening to marketing suggestions of users in another thread on these forums, goes to show they are now trying to fix their mess, but perhaps its a little of "too little to late".

Quote

What I've heard from many new users is SL technically too challenging when compared the other "games" listed on this very forum which have very minimal customization in avatars and certainly environment I tend to agree. IMVU is about the closest thing I've found to SL and while it's not as customizable as SL it's a whole lot easier. 

All of which comes back to decisions LL have made that made it as such as well as the lack of improvement in viewer features and UI.

Quote

The biggest hurdle is it's all just too much for the average person with a low spec machine.

No, the average person has a decent modern computer. It is only in the SL universe that apparently they expect a graphical demanding platform (for use of a better word GAME ENGINE) to not need the demand of a good PC. The tech forums with posts of people asking for a computer that SOLEY is built to run SL with bare minimum cost shows this as most people build a computer or buy a computer for multiple possibilities, not just to meet the lowest denominator. That is an SL thing and an SL thing only. A simple update in the minimum specs would resolve all this but LL refuse to do this as well and even still listing hardware that hasn't seen an update in 10 years.

Quote

While having a house or land and yuge variety of shiny, free stuff sounds great to people that have been in world for 4, 8, 10 or 15 years and while better starter avatars would be awesome but they would still be starter avatars. Dial it back to when you were new compared to today and there's simply too many choices in addition to all the stuff you have to do before you feel confident to walk out into the world where people are often rude, won't talk to you simply because you're new and even call you names like "noob".

I'm not sure how long you have been around SL though I could have a guess based on your response, but once again poor decisions on LL behalf led to that which has been talked to death on these forums so I wont mention them here.

For perspective, when I was a new user back in 2003 I bought premium straight away as did most people as you got land, could build on that land without 3rd party software, have fun on that land and most of all was provided money every week that you could actually buy multiple things with that $300 lindens (2006 figure). It had nothing to do with there was to much choice as, especially in the hype years, the same choices existed back then (apart from the messed up mesh body system which is another fault on LL behalf). It had everything to do with you could do a lot for what you got with premium and once again in the hype years, I would argue quite convincedly, it was far more fun and community driven than now.

Like all economies, SL has suffered inflation and an increase in cost of living. Where back then I could create an entire avatar for $300-$600 Lindens ($1000 at most), which would take 1-2 weeks worth of stipend in around 2006, now it costs around $15,000-$20,000 Lindens. You might ask what is my point? My point is that back when premium and its stipend was decided (finally set in stone to the amount provided today i.e. 2006) it was actually worth it. Now to get that same body using the stipend provided would take me 66 weeks. Irrespective of the house which despite what you say is perfect for new users (it is a primary feature asked for in every MMO even demanded if it isn't in the game already).

Also take into consideration that many of the freebie items from large freebie warehouse areas where at least up to par in most cases to what was on offer in stores. This allowed for any new user to go to these places and get a comparable look (perhaps slightly less) to what everyone else had. These places were also advertised on newbie island not only from LL free landmarks provided to new users but also by other residents.

Quote

Some people are lucky to find a someone who gives them something more valuable than premium and that's time and/or friendship. Someone who takes them under their wing and walks them through the most mundane of tasks and while a lot of times it's a thankless job, occasionally you get back ten fold what you put in. If YOU really want to "look after new users" then YOU have to be willing to sacrifice YOUR time and not LL or someone else's money. 

It is this statement that shows your age in SL. LL actively contributed to the community in the very "look after new users" way you suggest we take. Back when they were actually engaged with the community (Rod the old CEO put a stop to most of this engagement) they had mentors, LL even made a group for them. They were volunteer users who dedicated THEIR time to helping new users and, new users knew who to ask for help due to LL providing those mentors a specific group, title and support. These mentors would also be stationed on noob islands making it easy for new users to get friendly help straight away whilst learning the ins and outs of the viewer and SL.

It was LL who specifically and abruptly stopped the mentor program and despite efforts from users to take it up again, without the LL support it only failed due to their been no official LL support or representation for it. Consequently new users became left in the dark and left to wander the SL plains by themselves (as no mentors were on noob islands anymore) actively trying to work things out for themselves in vein. Due to most users that were not interested in helping as they were engaged in other activities and in most cases not educated enough in SL to tell the right way to do things the new user began to be left by the wayside and from there felt like everyone was rude in SL.

So please, enlighten us who is responsible for the mess SL is in as far as the new user experience and possible help avenues go and why it is the residents responsibility to fix it despite, evidence and experience showing, that only LL and its support of specific residents and groups can achieve such things?

Edited March 12, 2020 by Drayke Newall