Linden Lab Official:Knowledge Base FAQ

How do I go about finding answers in this new system?

Note: This article applies to the "old" Second Life Knowlege Base, not the Knowledge Base articles on the wiki.

There are a couple of different ways:

• You can browse around in the directory tree to the left of this article to get an idea of what's in there. Click on the + icon to expand a directory structure and the - to collapse one. Clicking on the name of a folder in the directory tree will open a list of the articles it contains in this frame.
• You can also search for articles containing particular keywords that interest you.

What if I can't find my answer?

Are you sure you can't find it? Did you try searching for all the relevant keywords?

If you're sure it's not in there, then talk to someone on Help Island (there are plenty of helpful Residents who are happy to share knowledge) or submit a support ticket. See the next question!

How do I submit a support ticket or initiate live chat?

To submit a ticket, go to the Support Portal and click Submit a Ticket. There are specialized ticket types for Basic account holders, explained below.

Access to live chat depends on whether you have a basic or premium account.

• If you have a basic account, go to Island Public/123/122/26/ Help Island and talk to someone there; Live chat is for premium account holders.
• If you have a premium account, submit a support ticket or start a live chat session through the Support Portal. Just make sure you're logged into secondlife.com!

Special questions for basic account holders and guests

Some issues are best resolved by submitting a ticket to our support staff, but we don't currently offer full support ticket access to basic account holders or guests (visitors who don't yet have Second Life accounts).

Basic account holders and guests can, however, use special options in the "Submit a Ticket" area to reach our support staff. Just select the Special Questions - Basic Account or Guest Login ticket type from the dropdown list and enter the information requested.

For information on issues for which basic account holders and guests may submit tickets, see Tickets for Basic and Guest Accounts.

When you're logged in as a basic account holder or guest, use the Special Questions - Basic account or Guest Login ticket type. Linden Lab customer support will ignore any other support tickets submitted by the guest login.

Any browser issues I should be aware of?

We've noticed that the Knowledge Base behaves in kind of a goofy way with IE7. You might be better off using Firefox or something.

I was used to your old Knowledge Base. Why did you switch to this new system, anyway?

Note: This article applies to the "old" Second Life Knowlege Base, not the Knowledge Base articles on the wiki.

The short answer is twofold:

• This Knowledge Base is more easily searchable.
• There's too many of you!

The long answer is as follows:

Imagine for a moment that you're the only person in a group of about six people who knows how to work the new toy you've all bought, because you're the only one who read the manual. Imagine that your five friends come to you occasionally with questions.

As it happens, their questions fall into two basic categories:

• Questions about how the toy works
  • Can I do this particular thing with the toy?
  • How does this part of the toy bend?
• Problems with the toy
  • I think I broke the front wheel off
  • The back plate doesn't light up like it should

Here's how you find yourself handling those questions:

1. You can usually answer the first category (the questions) by pointing your friends to the manual, which they can read on their own.
2. The second category (the problems) can't be answered by the manual, but you're glad to help them out. Eventually, you notice that your five friends keep coming to you with the same problem about that back plate, so you type up a short but informative answer and slip it into the back of the manual, to save you some energy the next time the back plate problem comes up.

Now imagine that instead of five friends, you've got a million. And they have the same kinds of questions and problems. What do you do? What do you do.

You can probably see where this analogy is going.

We're immensely proud of the fact that we've got so many Residents who brim with curiosity about Second Life and are constantly pushing the boundaries of Second Life's capabilities. Unfortunately, we just don't have the resources or the staff to answer all their questions, all the time.

It turns out that a large percentage of the questions and problems we encounter can be answered by the Resident taking a quick trip through the Knowledge Base. For example: You wouldn't believe how many times the old Help Request channel saw the question "Hey, I lost my HUD-thingy on Orientation Island, how do I get it back?" Well, now there's an article that answers that very question right in the Knowledge Base.

Putting as many answers to common questions as we can into the Knowledge Base should free us up to be able to handle more esoteric, individual problems on a case-by-case basis.

I have an idea for a new Knowledge Base article.

First off, are you sure it's right for the Knowledge Base? Knowledge Base article suggestions are meant to help us improve and expand upon the current Knowledge Base.

Send us a Knowledge Base article suggestion if:

• You don't understand something about Second Life, and you're unable to find an answer in the existing Knowledge Base.
• You do understand something important about Second Life that everyone should know, but there's no article about it in the existing Knowledge Base.

Knowledge Base article suggestions are not meant to cover:

• Individual technical support or billing issues. If you're having trouble with an individual issue and need help, you should submit a ticket of the appropriate type.
• How to use programs other than Second Life. There are many third-party programs available to Second Life's content developers. Unfortunately, it's impossible for us to track and thoroughly document every piece of software that becomes available. Luckily, most of these programs come with detailed documentation of their own!

If you still think your article idea's a good one, submit a support ticket about it. Use Knowledge Base Suggestions as the ticket type. Tickets of this type that don't appear to have anything to do with a Knowledge Base article suggestion will be ignored.

Can I still submit bug reports?

Yes. If you encounter a problem that seems to affect more than one account on more than one computer, or if our support articles and staff indicate that expected behavior is different from what you're experiencing, check the Public Issue Tracker to see if it's already been noted (you can also reach it by selecting Help > Bug Reporting > Public Issue Tracker from the menus at the top of the Second Life window). If it hasn't, you can submit a bug by selecting Help > Bug Reporting > Report Bug.

Can I still submit abuse reports?

Yes! Remember: The abuse system should be used for reports of other Residents not abiding by the Community Standards. You can submit an abuse report by selecting Help > Report Abuse from the menus at the top of the Second Life window.