Finally managed to grab some time for this - and due to the overwhelming support for getting the hell off Orientation Island, this diary will show you where you wind up once you click that key on the HUD.
First, my standard caveats:
This diary is to help people who are having trouble in Second Life. If you think Second Life is a waste of time, or you're not interested, you really don't need to tell us about it.
There will be pictures, and a lot of them. Huge pictures that will take a geological era to download over dialup. If you're on dialup you won't be able to use Second Life anyway, but if you want to see what Second Life is like, you Have Been Warned.
Links:
Second Life
Second Life Client Downloads
Kossack Fullstop Part 1
Kossack Fullstop Part 2
Kossack Fullstop Part 3
Natalia Zelmanov's Guide to Getting Started in SL.
Yeah, looks like y'all are getting sick of Orientation Island. I still recommend that you all go through all of the optional tutorials - most of the questions I have been asked were answered there or on Help Island.
But, because you'd rather have a friendly Moody Loner rather than in impersonal, heartless, and intelligence-insulting tutorial teach you, I'd be happy to lend a hand if you're having difficulties.
So, where do you wind up when you click the key? Here:
There's a bunch of secondary tutorials about video, sorting inv, and other subjects and much of the time there's a person there to help. They also have the first of what will be very many freebie stores:
Once you leave Help Island (like Orientation Island, you won't be able to go back) you'll be out in Second Life proper...and the first thing you want to do is find the naked people the rest of us.
Just as an example, let me show you how to find the Netroots Nation group:
If you click the Search button at the bottom of your screen, then click the All tab on the window that comes up, enter "netroots" into the text box, and press Enter - you'll get something that looks a lot like this picture. If you select the "Netroots Nation" group, and click the "Join (L0$)" button, you will be added to the group for the princely sum of zero Lindens.
Extra Credit: Try going to the "Groups" tag and searching for "Kos".
Why look, something called Netroots Nations Headquarters came up. If we click on that, and then click on the "Teleport" button under the picture that comes up, what do you suppose will happen?
That was fun, but nobody's here - and I want to find some other progressive places to go - what will happen if we search for "progressive"?
Fortunately, I have been through this so that you don't have to - and I know that RootsCamp on Progressive Island keeps a list of progressive landmarks. Let's go there and get it.
Look around - and when you see something that says "List of progressive landmarks" or something to that effect, click on it. It will give you a notecard full of things that look like links to web pages - only when you click on them you can go there.
You can also see that I've clicked on the "Draft Gore Tshirt" bag there and recieved a free "Draft Gore" t-shirt - you can see in my inventory where I'm wearing it. I also made a landmark at RootsCamp by going to the World menu and selecting "Create Landmark Here" - you can see the landmark on the screen and in my inventory.
Hey, it would have been a great idea to landmark the Netroots Nation headquarters. God damn it.
