For those of you that don’t know, I’m a Second Life Mentor.  Now the mentor group has had it’s fair share of trashing from all over.  Those that think we are all just little Linden wanna bes or suckups trash the group as a whole as being useless and just after a tag.  Now for some, yes that may very well be true.  But it’s not true for all.  Mentors who spend hours on end at the Help Islands assisting new residents in the first hours of Second Life are a gifted group of people.  They’ve got patience, understanding and a wealth of knowledge to share.  You try standing in a group of 10 brand new avatars all asking *Where is sex?*, *I can haz sex with you now?*, *Give me money, job*… I could go on and on.  Everytime the media does an article on SecondLife, we are flooded with new residents.  Which leads me really to the point of this post. 

What’s the best way to introduce someone to SecondLife?  The Lindens have been working on the new user experience for quite a while now.  I don’t know what their  plans are, what viewer will be used, what or if a tutorial will be out there but I do know the way it is now, isn’t good.

I’ve been in SecondLife for 2 years now and my experience as a brand new resident was much different.  I had orientation island which had a bunch of posters to read which told me what to do.  I followed along and at the end, I went to Help Island.  Didn’t stay there long.  I ended up at the Hanja Welcome Center which became my home for several months.  I wandered the area and was tp’d around the grid by people I’d met.  At that point I was trying to decide what to do with it and whether or not to stay.  I met Aribeth and the rest is history but my point is, I stayed past that crucial first hour.  I was given direction and tasks to complete.  They weren’t hard.  Learn to walk, talk, fly and how to change my appearance.

So what makes a good new user experience?  If it was up to you, what would do?  If I think about all the games I’ve played, every one has a tutorial that you must complete before you enter the game.  You read the prestory, do the tutorial and your dumped into the game.  That’s what I’d do with SL.  Intro page of what SecondLife is, a good tutorial.  Rezzing, attaching objects, changing appearance, buying something, walking, flying, communicating in open and IM.  Then dump them on a help island where they can practice.  Next stop main grid.  Put them in a welcome area or info hub.  If I was the lab i’d also ask sim owners if they want to have their sim/venue as a stopping point.  The Crown gets loads of new residents constantly.  I’d certainly add it as a new resident entry point.  Provided someone was at the Crown of course.  I know LL can limit it to sims with residents only.

So what’s your idea?  I really wanna hear what you think.

I’m a SecondLife Mentor and while I don’t get to the Help Islands very often, I do a lot of mentoring just wandering around the grid.  If I feel like being helpful and have a lot of patience, I’ll put my mentor tag on and start wandering.

This is what I decided to do last night.  I decided to take a break from putting Prad’s rezz day presents together and go be helpful.

First stop, NCI South.  Really quiet.  I hardly recognized it from my noob days.  So I wandered around a bit and was stopped by a gentlemen who wanted to know A/S/L.  If you know me, then you know.  If you can read my profile, you know.  If you are 4 days old and ask, I’m not gonna tell ya.  Sorry but some info you really need to work for.   So we chatted a bit.  He asked the typical questions, where to go, what to do, how to get money.  He went on and on about how hawt my Av is.  Asked if these were my RL clothes too.  Yes, I run around in a thong, thigh high boots, micro mini skirt, velvet drape top, ears and a tail.  All the time. Then he asked if there was a way he and I could *interact*.  I had to ask what he meant since we were already chatting.  If your mind is in the gutter, stay there, that’s exactly what he meant. LOL  I coughed and explained the search button would be his gateway to the *adult pleasures*.  Before I could type 3 more letters, poof he’s gone.  Don’t know where he went, but I hope he enjoyed  himself.

Next stop, a LM I was checking out for photo ops.  It was kinda busy and I hadn’t taken my tag off so I immediately got an IM from someone.  *OMG you have to help me* is what I got.  Now when I get this from people I know, I generally chuckle and say ok.  When it’s a total stranger though I get worried.  Seems this girl was being followed by someone in a grim reaper av screaming he had come for her.  Halloween starts earlier and earlier   Anyway, I told her that if he was a problem, she could AR him or, and this was my preferred suggestion, she could just TP away.  She told me she couldn’t leave, that she had to stay there.  Now, tps were working fine, no grid issues that I knew of so I had to ask why she couldn’t leave.  She wanted the stuff in the lucky chair.  She’d been there half an hour already and wasn’t leaving till she got the shiny new thing.  Sigh.  I told her again what her options were regarding the Grim Reaper.  Mute, AR, TP away  She wanted me to orb him away.  Sorry, not my job.  By now she was getting all kinds of angry at me.  ME??!!! I took my own advice and TP’d out of there.

Last stop, Hanja Welcome Area.  I hadn’t been back there since my noob days.  Place  hasn’t changed.  The people have though.  Welcome areas are for new residents.  Older residents come here to hang out and help.  At least that’s how it should be.  Older residents should not be hanging around acting like they own the place.  Really, there were about 5 avs, all a few months old *holding court* complete with bodyguards.  Reading profiles made me cringe.  When the *leader* of this little group has on the main page of his profile *willing raper of women* I get a bit upset.  No, I didn’t AR him, probably should have.  So here is this little group giving out information, wrong information.  So I IM’d a few people and gave them the correct information.  They seemed happy. 

Then I met this one girl who was only a few days old was looking for things to do.  She’d been shopping for freebies only as she had no $L.  I asked what she was interested in, explained search to her.  Gave her a few LMs.  Next thing I know she’s asking me to take  her on a tour of SL.  I gave her the LM to the balloon tour.  Sorry kids but I’m not a tour guide.  I’ll give you landmarks, offer suggestions, help if I can, teach you how to build and even offer a makeover suggestions if your interested. 

My last encounter at Hanja was with a guy who wanted sex.  Sigh.

Chances are really good I’m NOT going to have sex with you if;

… we just met

… you can’t form complete sentences

… your walking around with a freenis sticking 4 feet out of your pants

… you say *have sex?* in any variation/language/form to me

… you ask me for money

The above applies to both men and women. 

That concluded my evening of wandering and being helpful.  I was tired, I went to bed.