Thank you Nico for creating this discussion. Thank you Jupiter for your information and input. Let me explain further what I am looking for in a place for Newbies. It will be longwinded so grab a cup of tea. And a snack. Maybe a potty break. :)
Ideally, one would start in SL where it is set up to guide you when you first create your account and log in. I remember going through that tutorial all those years ago and learning how to walk like a duck and fly which was amazing. I learned about teleporting and getting around and how to find new places. I was lucky enough to somehow end up at the OLounge and meet the owner who was my first friend. He told me to dump the SL viewer and get Singularity. Then he taught me about the settings and how to use the viewer. He was a wonderful first mentor and we are still friends to this day. He let me set home there, and he also gifted me my first $100 Lindens. He told me everyone should have a bit of pocket change when I protested. The year was 2011.
The next day, I met another "mentor", just a guy in a sandbox I had landed in who helped me with my Avatar and took me to a freebie place to get everything I needed to make myself look better. It was great to stop walking like a duck and instead have this sexy walk that was almost embarrassing. I have tried to walk like that in RL. Kudos to my Avatar for being able to pull it off because I sure can't!
Anyway, I was taught the basic tutorial from what SL had set up, but the most useful was meeting these two gentlemen that were willing to take a total newb and teach her the ropes enough that my learning curve in how to exist in SL was so much easier. I am forever thankful for their help to a stranger they made a friend.
THAT is what I am looking for someone willing to mentor my friend on getting around, shopping, how to dress, etc. And just be her friend as well. Help her make friends. Besides me. She needs friends and people who will learn to care about her. Everyone should have a good friend circle.
I don't have time to teach her because of my projects in progress and other obligations, and honestly, I am not sure I have the patience atm. I have helped a few people over the years, so I know how difficult and time-consuming it can be to mentor someone, so if there are people out there willing to mentor Newbies, then we need to know about them because I am sure my friend is not the only person that will be interested in joining Open Sim, rather than SL and needs friendly folks willing to help them.
The perfect situation IMHO would be a grid accepting new accounts that are willing to give them a home so they have a home base and a place to live (some people can't afford to pay and folks that are willing to pay, it is after they have been around long enough to see the value of it).
Second, have members who are willing to mentor Newbies. A lot of times, people want to join virtual to connect with people, so they need to learn about all the social opportunities in OS. There is always a party going on somewhere to hang out and make friends. Teach them how to hypergrid and go shopping.
If we want to grow Open Sim, if we have newbie-friendly places and mentors out there, that will certainly help that as well. I know it is a lot bigger and a lot more populated than it was when I discovered it in 2015 and it had been around a long time by then and I never knew. Well, I am usually the last to learn about anything. :/
Thought?
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