Difference between revisions of "Linden Lab Official:Destination Guide FAQ"

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Revision as of 09:25, 29 June 2011

What is the Second Life Destination Guide?

The Destination Guide section of secondlife.com and the Second Life® Viewer highlights some of the best inworld locations and Resident creations. For new and existing Residents alike, this is the place to go to explore and discover what's most exciting in the Second Life world.

Venues and content featured in the Destination Guide are not paid placements. Currently, the best way for a Resident to promote their venue, event or business is through inworld Search or the classifieds.

How do I visit the Destination Guide?

On the web, go to secondlife.com/destinations.

In the Viewer:

  1. In the search bar in the upper-right, click the magnifying glass.
  2. In the Find window, click the Destination Guide tab and enjoy perusing the variety of locations!
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How do you determine which venues and content to feature in Destination Guide?

Destination Guide is a place to show off some of the most interesting, entertaining, and novel Resident-created content. It is for existing Residents, but some entries will also be surfaced on the Web site for those Residents exploring SecondLife.com for the first time. Linden Lab editors will be looking for content that we believe surfaces the best and most popular places within Second Life. We also welcome Resident suggestions for cool spots to feature.

Criteria favoring selection include:

  • Is the venue a high-quality implementation of the Second Life experience?
  • Does the venue appeal broadly to the Second Life community, including a new Resident that is still learning Second Life?
  • Is the venue exceptional or unique?
  • Is the venue being promoted outside Second Life and participating in the inSL logo program, if appropriate?
  • Does the venue have a real and active community of participants?
  • Does the suggestion submission include a compelling and visually interesting screenshot?
  • Does the submitted description text accurately describe the location?

Criteria weighing against selection include:

  • Has the venue or one like it been included before?
  • Has the venue ever been warned for failure to comply with any aspect of the Terms of Service?
  • Is the venue currently violating the Terms of Service through use of bots, campers, illegal gambling or mainland Adult content?
  • Does the submitted screenshot contain promotion text over the main image?
  • Does the submitted description text include incoherent or inaccurate text and/or a list of keywords?

Can Residents suggest their own venues for inclusion in the Destination Guide?

Yes! Please visit the Destination Guide Suggestion Page. We value community input and encourage Residents to suggest their own venues.

What are the text and image editorial guidelines for Destination Guide submissions?

Image Specifications

Destination Guide aims to showcase the beauty and diversity of the Second Life experience. The quality and aesthetic composition of your image will help convince Residents to visit your suggested inworld location. Residents are encouraged to submit a well-composed screenshot that captures the creativity, community or aesthetic beauty of your venue. You will have an opportunity to add descriptive text separately under the Description field in the entry form, so do not layer or embed any text or logos within the photo itself.

In the Destination Guide submission form, you will be asked to include a link to a screenshot of your venue. Screenshots should be hosted on Flickr and should be in .jpeg format with the dimensions 657 width by 394 height, in pixels. For example (see on Flickr):

Robot-DG.jpg

Please note that the Destination Guide user suggestion form will only accept images that meet this exact criteria. Please see this screencast video for a quick walk-through on how to get the proper image URL from Flickr for use in the form.

KBnote.png Note: Are you getting a form error when you try to submit your suggested destination? Let us know! Please contact the Linden Lab editors directly via email with your submission suggestion and let us know about the error. In your email, please include the info requested in the form (SLurl link, title, description) along with the image as an attachment.

Inworld Photography Resources

If you are unfamiliar with taking inworld photos, check out the following resources that offer tips and best practices:

Text Specifications

The form will also ask you for descriptive text with a limitation of 400 typed characters.

The voice and tone of Destination Guide uses "third person" voice, so please avoid use of "first person" language in your entries. For example, avoid words like I, we, our and my. Also, please refrain from use of overly-hyped or promotion-heavy language. Destination Guide entries should read as informative, rather than overtly promotional in nature. For example, lists of keywords are not acceptable as descriptive text for your entry.

Linden Lab reserves the right to edit material for length and clarity.

Are there any restrictions on submissions?

Parcel Restrictions

You may suggest a destination using the form if:

  • You personally own the parcel and it is at least 512 square meters in size.
  • The parcel is owned by a group that you are a member of, and is at least 512 square meters.
  • The parcel is in a private island that you are on the access list of, and is at least 512 square meters.
  • The parcel belongs to Governor Linden and is set to show in Search Places as a Hangout.
  • The parcel belongs to a friend, it is set to show in Search Places as a Hangout, and is at least 512 square meters.

Number of Submissions

Residents are limited to two suggestions per month.

Trademark, Copyright & Terms of Service Compliance

To be eligible for inclusion, suggested venues must comply with the Community Standards, Trademark Guidelines, and other provisions of the Terms of Service. The ultimate decision to include or not include any suggested venue or content in Destination Guide is Linden Lab's in its sole discretion.

For any content that is suggested, Residents must have the necessary rights and permissions to use and they must authorize Linden Lab to use the content. Residents should not suggest content that is copyrighted or otherwise subject to another party's proprietary rights (including privacy, publicity, trademark, and trade secret rights) unless they own the rights or have the permission of the rights owner. We do not permit intellectual property infringement and will remove content from our Web site and services if properly notified that the content infringes another's intellectual property rights.

Journalists, publishers, filmmakers, and others interested in Second Life often contact Linden Lab for images of Second Life. Linden Lab may direct these parties to the Destination Guide for promotional shots.

I'm having problems with the form. What should I do?

Please see this screencast video for a quick walk-through on the form, including how to get the proper image URL from Flickr for use in the image field.

Residents can also email our editors with their suggestions. For these submissions, please include a link to your Flickr-hosted photo that meets the above criteria and identify the following:

  • Venue title (limit: 40 characters)
  • Venue descriptions (limit: 400 characters)
  • SLurl link

Can I recommend a location for the Editors' Picks and Popular Places categories?

Selections for both Editors' Picks and Popular Places are made at the sole discretion of the Linden Lab editorial staff using the following criteria:

  • Editors' Picks
    • Linden Lab editors will review all user-submitted suggestions to periodically select examples of locations that highlight some of the best architecture, activities, communities and/or or creative efforts in Second Life.
    • Featured venues will be refreshed periodically by Linden Lab editors with the intent of rotating a limited number of venues in this category at any given time.
    • Occasionally, editors will write extended profiles of locations on the Destination Guide Blog.
  • Popular Places
    • Popular Places is a manually-edited list of venues that are frequently populated with real people, communities and conversations.
    • This list does not reflect “real-time” traffic and activity of Second Life, nor does it aim to reflect the “most” popular places in Second Life.
    • Featured venues will be refreshed periodically by Linden Lab editors with the intent of rotating a limited number of venues in this category at any given time.
    • Every effort is made to include venues that adhere to Linden Lab’s policies on traffic bots and camping.

How often will you update the listings?

Regularly. We want to keep the Destination Guide fresh so visitors will return frequently to discover new ways to explore Second Life.

Will there be other places for Residents to discover cool content beyond Destination Guide?

In addition to Destination Guide, Residents should use the Search function within the Second Life client. We encourage all venue owners to review the guidelines at the Search FAQ for information on maximizing your presence using inworld Search.

There are also numerous third-party blogs and applications that do an excellent job of guiding Residents to the hottest spots in Second Life.

How do we contact Linden Lab editors?

For questions or update requests to existing entries, or to report an error — like a wrong SLurl or place that's gone — please contact the Linden Lab editors via email. Please note that we are not able to respond to all inquiries about individual submission suggestions. However, we do welcome all comments, feedback and suggestions.