Burl

Once upon a time there were seperate Help Islands like the Help Island Public on the mainland. These were staffed by Mentors, volunteers that helped new people. Sadly, there are no Mentors to greet you on your first login, like there used to be. That's gone now. I really love my time in SL, but Linden Labs seems intent on shooting itself in the foot sometimes by making bad decisions that affect old and new residents in bad ways. Fortunately there are places like NCI, Builder's Brewery, Caledon Oxbridge, and other places that new people can go to and learn, if they find out about these places. . But I get the impression a lot of times that there are certain people that don't want to learn, even when offered help. I've been in SL since 06 (yeah, an alt ) and only last year did I get a skin. I had been using the basic skin and hair (a mohawk), and a lot of times freebie clothing (depending on what I was doing, I do have some nice clothing though). All the time I made friends, had fun in SL, and was never called noob, even though I might have looked noobish with the basics. I think a lot has to do with your attitude and it comes across when you talk to people. So, even though my outfit might be free and using the basic skin and all, I had no problems. A friend who was new told me once that an oldbie came up to him (he was a couple days old) and pretty much insulted him on how he looked and that people would not talk to him unless he had expensive outfits, expensive skin, prim hair, high prim attachments (whatever that meant) and things that showed he had spent a lot of Lindens on his look. BUT she offered to help him become one of the beautifull people. yeah right, welcome to Second Life Ok, part of that was a bit of ranting. If someone is in need of help and willing to be helped get started, that's very cool. By all means then give then some pointers at least and guide them to places that they can get cool freebies and places that specialize in helping new residents. New Residents, you can look good and feel good about yourself as you start your new life in here. There are people that are willing to help you get started. Having a good attitude is a great first step. Burl

As a premium member one thing you can do is take advantage of the Private Homes LL has. Log in and in your Dashboard you'll in the upper right, "Your Own Private Home in Second Life. Click "Get Your Home Now " and you go to a page that tells about them and how to get one. But you have to use the home provided. You membership lets you have that free each month, no extra charge. You can however buy land. You have to buy it from whoever owns it. You pay that and you can build and have control over the land. Your membership lets you have that first 512 free, with no extra charge each month. You only pay your monthly (or whatever plan you went with) membership fee, If you buy more land, then you will have to start paying tier. Check "Land Use Fees" in your Dashboard and you'll see how much tier is for different amounts of land. This applies only to the Mainland. You can rent from Private Estates, but you can't use your free 512 on these. You'll have to pay weekly or however they have the rent setup Hope that helps, Burl ****** wow, I"m a slow typer, ya'll answered already ******