Basic mesh avatar tutorial in-world

[animats]

There's a mesh avatar tutorial at https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lawst Paradise/89/53/2002.

It's at New Resident Island, but hidden in a skybox. If you start at New Resident Island, go the the marketplace, and there's a building devoted to mesh avatars. There, you can click on a map and get the link to the skybox.

It's a good tutorial. If you go through step by step, you come out wearing the Ruth open-source avatar wearing one of a few outfits on offer.

It's pre-BOM, alphas for the offered shoes don't work yet, and the head and body skin colors don't quite match. But it's a good start. A new version of the tutorial is being constructed, I was told. Almost all the other new resident locations predate mesh and have not been updated.

[animats]

After spending some time talking to new users, I think SL needs a Fashion Emergency Center. A place to go when clothing just isn't behaving. The most frustrated new users are the ones with clothing problems. The other common problem, "what do I do now", is less urgent. I've seen new users quite upset because a wrong alpha layer was blanking out part of their body. They need to be first talked down, then taken through the repair process.

The idea is from anime conventions. They usually have a Cosplay Emergency Room, equipped with a sewing machine, needle and thread, safety pins, duct tape, hot glue guns, and people who know how to use them.

SL needs something like that. It might look like the changing room section of a store, with private booths (if only we had mirrors!) and a counter with a helper. Have some racks of clothes around for decor.

Get someone with a big clothing mall to provide space for it. The people who go there are likely to want to shop, once their immediate crisis has been dealt with. It would probably be a win for clothing sellers to staff such a place.

Teleports to the Fashion Emergency Center should be at all help areas and safe hubs.

This would remove one of the serious "I give up" pain points for new users.