What is Wrong With SL?

[Rowan Amore]

8 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

I realized the camera is to my back.  I'm not sure some of my family or friends would even understand they need to turn the camera position around to see their avatar.  Most wouldn't get that right away.  And, that's just the camera position and "the beginning".

So, yes, today's world wants instant, instant, instant, everything at the push of one button and zero learning curve.  lol

Strange as that may seem to us now, it's very true.  I've had to mention to a few newer men that putting pants on does not hide their willy.  They seemed to think as in rl, pants would hide it. 🤣

[Scylla Rhiadra]

38 minutes ago, RowanMinx said:

Strange as that may seem to us now, it's very true.  I've had to mention to a few newer men that putting pants on does not hide their willy.  They seemed to think as in rl, pants would hide it. 🤣

It's not just the men.

I think I've told the story before about the time I went shopping in a trench coat, not realizing that the clothing layer for the applier jeans and tee I was wearing underneath had been turned off. So, effectively, I was wandering around a fairly busy shop wearing a trench, and naked underneath. it wasn't until I cammed around and saw myself from the front that I realized I was flashing everyone.

[Amina Sopwith]

4 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

It's not just the men.

I think I've told the story before about the time I went shopping in a trench coat, not realizing that the clothing layer for the applier jeans and tee I was wearing underneath had been turned off. So, effectively, I was wandering around a fairly busy shop wearing a trench, and naked underneath. it wasn't until I cammed around and saw myself from the front that I realized I was flashing everyone.

I love the fact that of all the things you could have had on for the top layer, it was the classic trench coat.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

20 minutes ago, Amina Sopwith said:

I love the fact that of all the things you could have had on for the top layer, it was the classic trench coat.

Pretty much anything else, I'd have at least noticed I wasn't wearing pants.

There's a lesson here for us all. Always wear underwear.

[Scorpiiar]

On 10/17/2020 at 1:46 PM, Lindal Kidd said:

it also meant that SL lost its appeal as a wide open, lawless frontier town where anything could and did happen.

I know it's easy to romanticise it when you weren't there dealing with the griefers, etc, but I think I was hoping for a bit more of this when I joined.

[Drakonadrgora Darkfold]

3 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Pretty much anything else, I'd have at least noticed I wasn't wearing pants.

There's a lesson here for us all. Always wear underwear.

Thing is most of that does not matter, you can derender a lot of things except for system layers so anyone could make you naked to them if they wanted unless you had on system layer outfits and used alphas to hide things underneath your clothes. which not a lot of people think about doing..

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 minutes ago, Drakonadrgora Darkfold said:

Thing is most of that does not matter, you can derender a lot of things except for system layers so anyone could make you naked to them if they wanted unless you had on system layer outfits and used alphas to hide things underneath your clothes. which not a lot of people think about doing..

Fortunately, I don't actually care very much?

[Drakonadrgora Darkfold]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Fortunately, I don't actually care very much?

some people do.. but yeah.. if someone is going to go to that length to see some pixels.. oh well.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 hour ago, Drakonadrgora Darkfold said:

some people do.. but yeah.. if someone is going to go to that length to see some pixels.. oh well.

Well, I will confess I was mildly embarrassed to be flashing my fellow shoppers. And I don't intentionally show off my bits to everyone. But yeah -- ultimately it's just pixels, and I don't care much.

On the other hand, someone who is going to those kinds of lengths -- or camming in on a private space, upskirting, or whatever -- is demonstrating that they are a fairly gross and unpleasant human being.

And that I do care about.

[animats]

4 hours ago, FairreLilette said:

So, yes, today's world wants instant, instant, instant, everything at the push of one button and zero learning curve. 

Correct. It's a tough lesson for designers.

If you can't deliver "instant, instant, instant, everything at the push of one button and zero learning curve", the next acceptable step down is "the user never gets stuck". The first system where this was really thought through was the original Macintosh computer.

Not getting the user stuck, 1984 edition.

The original Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines, although graphically dated, are still worth reading.

[animats]

Here's something simple that could be done.

This hangs above a help island which is supposed to be defunct, although it still gets visitors.

When you push F1 for help, in the Firestorm viewer you get sent to the home page of the Firestorm wiki. This is not a good starting point. It starts out "General Index" and "Tag Cloud". Not helpful. You can click on "Getting Help". That starts out with "Firestorm System Requirements" and goes on with "How to File a JIRA". Worse.

A new user might find their way to "Firestorm Gateway - For New Residents". That starts out with how to join Second Life and how to become a helper at the Firestorm gateway.  At the bottom of that page is "Help for those new to Second Life may be found here." ("Here" is https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/new_residents:start)

There, at last, is useful info. But it's all "below the fold"; the top of the screen has a map of the Second Life continents, plus info on how to join Second Life.

Finally, we get to the useful stuff. Or at least links to it.

• How Does Clothing Work?
• How Do I Mod My Shape?
• Where Can I Get Good Free Stuff?
• How Do I Use Furniture?

and other basic topics. Retargeting "F1" would be an easy fix.

What's behind "F1" in other viewers?

 

(I just ran into a day old user who was checking out the SL election simulation mentioned on Strawberry's blog. He wanted advice on the basics, and I wish I could have just told him "Push F1". Seemingly trivial stuff like this really matters for customer retention.)

Edited October 21, 2020 by animats

[Drayke Newall]

19 hours ago, animats said:

I've made the point before that others are catching up to SL in the 3D world space. It's worth realizing that SL is also a player in the text/audio chat and group space, and other are way ahead there.

Very true, but it is just going to get worse I believe.

10 hours ago, animats said:

There, at last, is useful info. But it's all "below the fold"; the top of the screen has a map of the Second Life continents, plus info on how to join Second Life.

Finally, we get to the useful stuff. Or at least links to it.

• How Does Clothing Work?
• How Do I Mod My Shape?
• Where Can I Get Good Free Stuff?
• How Do I Use Furniture?

and other basic topics. Retargeting "F1" would be an easy fix.

What's behind "F1" in other viewers?

Whilst certainly useful information, I just cant see any new user going there and reading text after text. No pictures at all to explain where to click, no videos explaining x,y,z. And if you want those videos you have to open even more pages with a lot of irrelevant information pertaining to the question your looking answers for. Take "click on appearance" in the wiki... doing so would require the user to know what the appearance button is.

Linden Lab or any other of the 3rd party viewers need to take this help further to something like what Autodesk (and many more) have done with their help. Yes, Autodesk have the obvious F1 help section (though not just all text) but they also have the option to have on hover tooltip help.

Hovering on an icon for a little bit will give you what that button does but, a longer hover will actually extend the tooltip to offer a more detailed help about that button including video's, gifs, etc without the need of pressing F1 and trying to find info. Additionally pressing F1 (which it mentions in the tooltip) whilst hovering on the icon will bring you to the help page of that specific button. This means no searching wikis or help.

This is the type of user friendliness (toggleable in options) Linden Lab need to start introducing into the viewer which upon every new feature release just gets more and more complicated.

[Pomeline Pancake]

SL has changed. 

There used to be far more discussion groups, and educators giving free lectures on topics they love. It was much easier to begin spur of the moment conversations with people. Even a social idiot like me managed to make friends in the past.

These days a lot of green dots on the map will lead to an adult content place. Or music venues. Not my cup of Earl Grey, but ymmv.

LL does have a suburban town though. Bellisseria.

[rasterscan]

16 hours ago, animats said:

Here's something simple that could be done.

This hangs above a help island which is supposed to be defunct, although it still gets visitors.

When you push F1 for help, in the Firestorm viewer you get sent to the home page of the Firestorm wiki. This is not a good starting point. It starts out "General Index" and "Tag Cloud".

Interesting. Tempted to script one that the avvie clicks for slurl or lm or both to visit - i.e. - the shelter, a TRUE great place for genuine newcomers

Edited October 21, 2020 by rasterscan

[Lucia Nightfire]

1 hour ago, rasterscan said:

Interesting. Tempted to script one that the avvie clicks for slurl or lm or both to visit - i.e. - the shelter, a TRUE great place for genuine newcomers

Isn't The Shelter closing? For like, the 3rd or 4th time now?

[Sassy Kenin]

What if we had a thread titled "What is Right With SL?"🤯

just imagine a crazy thread that gives Linden Lab some credit (Mind Blown)🤡