Community Gateway Criteria

This article is obsolete, but kept as a historical record. Do not rely on this information in any way. However, it may be used in the future, so please do not delete or modify. For current information on community gateways, see Linden Lab Official:Community Gateway

What is the Community Gateway Program?

The Community Gateway Program (CG Program) at Linden Lab provides visibility for your community in the registration pathway on SecondLife.com

These gateways offer their own orientation path and give Residents an easier orientation in the virtual world. Besides supporting new Residents in getting around Second Life, Community Gateways offer a variety of regular events in-world, as well as great in-world locations to meet friends and explore the endless possibilities of Second Life. Some CGs even offer land for sale or rent, so Residents get the possibility to establish their homes close to the community they have chosen. For a complete Community Gateway listing by language, please check out this link: Community Gateway

• Do you own a community yourself, that you want to bring into Second Life?
• Do you already manage an in-world community that welcomes new Residents and offers events on a weekly basis?
• Does your community provide languages that are not offered in the Second Life registration path yet?
• Is your community focusing on special themes, topics and events that might be interesting for other Residents also?

Well, if you answer one of the above questions with a "yes", then read on to understand which criteria you need to meet to be included in the Community Gateway Program at Linden Lab and how to apply.

Community Gateway Criteria

Criteria for the Community Gateway (CG) Program at Linden Lab

Please make sure to carefully read and meet the CG Criteria before you hand in your submission.

 1) Community & Orientation criteria
 
 a. You need to have at least 4 volunteers/greeters that 
 welcome new Residents to Second Life and support them 
 during their first in-world experience. At least 2 of your 
 volunteers/greeters need to be available in-world during 
 peak usage times such as evenings and weekends 
 
 b. The welcome area for new Residents must be a PG parcel 
 (at least the welcome area, no mature/adult content 
 anywhere) – whereby the region itself can be set to 
 “Mature”. Setting a region/estate “AO” is currently NOT 
 allowed for the CG welcome region. 
 
 c. Landing area can't be an Open Space (Void Region) or 
 Homestead region - it must be a Full Region 
 
 d. If you offer more than one language on your CG, you need 
 to submit a Community Gateway request per language (for 
 the listing in the Second Life registration pathway) – You 
 will also have to offer an in-world orientation tutorial per 
 language submitted 
 
 e. One region should not have more than 2 welcome areas (if 
 multiple languages are offered). This means you can set 
 up a maximum of two welcome areas per region. If you 
 offer more languages, you need to set up additional 
 regions. 
 
 f. Show evidence of community growth during last 6 months 
 (this can be done by member lists, blog posts, in-world 
 groups or other material that shows, that your community 
 keeps growing and already has a stable membership base) 
 
 g. Offer classes, training or events on a regular basis (at 
 least weekly)
 
 h. Have a welcome area with tutorials/help content - please 
 use the Knowledge Base article: "Best practices for 
 building an Orientation Island" as guideline when you plan 
 to create a welcome area or check the current CG 
 Members how they have done their in-world tutorial 
 setup. 
 
 2) Business criteria
 
 a. CG owner avatar must be at least 1 year old 
 
 b. No verified Abuse Reports or DCMA claims against the CG 
 owner for last 9 months. 
 
 c. CG owner has no payment issues on file for last 9 months 
 
 d. Install either DirectSLURL and/or regAPI on your web page 
 - (If you would like to use the regAPI, please make sure to 
 apply for the regAPI program on: 
 http://secondlifegrid.net/technology-programs/virtual- 
 world-api/reg and state in the description field of the 
 submission form, that you are a CG requester and why the 
 use of DirectSLURL is NOT sufficient for you) to offer 
 Second Life registration possibilities to new users
 
 e. Meet all Linden Lab trademark and logo guidelines on 
 your website(s) and products/services and apply for the 
 inSL Logo Program 
 
 3) Land ownership criteria 
 
 a. For communities that offer languages where Linden Lab 
 already provides a localized Second Life web page 
 (currently English, German, Japanese and French): 
   i. At least 4 regions owned or adjacent 
   (if adjacent, CG owner must own at least 2 of the 
   regions) 
 
 b. For languages for which Linden Lab does NOT offer 
 localized web pages – but offers the registration process 
 in that language 
 (Currently: Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian 
 and Dutch): 
   i. CG owner has to own at least 2 regions which are 
   adjacent + offer a localized website and Second Life 
   help for new Residents in the given language. 
 
 c. For languages for which Linden Lab does NOT offer 
 localized web pages and NOT a localized registration 
   i. CG owner must own at least 1 region + offer a 
   localized website and Second Life help for new 
   Residents in the given language. 
 
 
 4) Community Performance 
 Based on the weekly CG metrics, Linden Lab will check the 
 following data and measure performance: 
 
 a. Active use (Registrations that finalize the registration 
 process and become active Residents – online more than 
 at least 1 hour during their first week) 
 
 b. Registrations in comparison to Second Life registrations 
 for that country, which have not opted for a Community 
 Gateway 
 
 c. Monetization – First time Linden Dollar purchase, first 
 time land purchase (Mainland), User-to-user transactions, 
 User conversion (Basic to Premium Second Life 
 membership) 
 
 d. Size of community and growth rate (Based on in-world 
 group size) 
 
 e. Average first week usage hours compared to non- 
 community average first week usage hours for that 
 country 
 
 
 5) CG Etiquette 
 Submitting your CG Submission form means, that you have read 
 and agree to: 
 
 a. Community Gateway Criteria as shown above 
 
 b. Second Life TOS: http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php 
 
 c. Linden Lab's Community Standards: 
 http://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php 
 
 d. Linden Lab's Trademark Guidelines: 
 http://secondlife.com/corporate 
 
 e. Regard all program related information as confidential and 
 do not share this information publicly.  
 
 f. As a CG member you will represent Second Life in an 
 appropriate manner and respect other CG program 
 members and their services as well as Linden Lab 
 employees. 

 
 6) Ongoing Program Membership
 
 a. You have to attend at least one CG program meeting or 
 CG office hour per quarter 
 
 b. You need to respond to quarterly CG surveys 
 
 c. Keep CG information current – update Linden Lab about 
 any changes immediately such as: Landing locations, team 
 members and ownership 
 
 d. Be member of the in-world group "CommunityGateway" 
 (You will be added to this group as soon as your 
 submission has been approved) 
 
 e. Subscribe to the Community Gateway mailing lists (You 
 will be added to them as soon as your submission has 
 been approved) 
 
 f. Register into the official Second Life blog pages (You will 
 be added to the private Community Gateway Forum 
 section as soon as your submission has been approved – 
 prior to that you have to have logged in into the Second 
 Life Blog with your avatar name at least once) 

 Linden Lab may change or amend the Community Gateway criteria 
 at any time without prior notice. 
 Not meeting the criteria described above or claiming false 
 information may result in a termination of the CG Program 
 membership or denial in the request process.

How to apply for the Community Gateway Program?

This article is obsolete, but kept as a historical record. Do not rely on this information in any way. However, it may be used in the future, so please do not delete or modify. For current information on community gateways, see Linden Lab Official:Community Gateway

 Please only submit a CG program request
 if you meet ALL the criteria above
 Any application that does not meet the criteria will be declined.

1. Please fill out the CG Submission form here and complete it with all data requested.
2. For additional questions, please send an email to: Gateway-Request
3. The Community Gateway Program Team at Linden Lab will review the application form and contact you via email about the outcome and next steps. Please note: Meeting the CG criteria does not necessarily give you a guarantee to be included in the program.
4. Once the application got accepted by Linden Lab, you will be contacted by a Linden Lab employee for an in-world interview and a check of your in-world orientation tutorial.
5. If this interview is successful, the on-boarding process starts to get you listed as a CG member in the Second Life registration pathway.