User:Jaszon Maynard/Proposed Introduction
This is a quick introduction to the critical things a new user should know to start learning their way in Second Life.
Please note, a few of the links in here function, however many lead nowhere. They're just indicated for quick illustration purposes of how this would read.
Before You Begin
For various reasons (explained in a following step regarding the Orientation Island for New Residents), when you first enter the Second Life world, you have a slightly limited time window in which to complete some valuable instruction tutorials. You can spend as much time as you like at any time going through the process of signing-up for an account (which can be free), downloading the client program (the Second Life Main Viewer), and installing it. However, when you're finally ready to enter the Second Life world, it is best if you do so at a time when you expect to have a block of available free time. This will allow you to take best advantage of the special instruction tutorials that are initially available to you.
Sign-up and Install
You may wish to first check Second Life's computer requirements to ensure you will be able to run it. You can find those requirements here. You should then head to secondlife.com and look for a "Get Started" or "Join" link, which will walk you through the steps of signing up for an account (which can be free), downloading the Second Life Main Viewer, and installing it.
Improving Your In-world Experience
As you begin using Second Life, walking around, and trying the in-world tutorials (refer to the following step regarding the Orientation Island for New Residents), you may find that the graphics are jerky and stuttering. If you are not having any problems in this regard, then you can stop reading this step right now and skip to the next step. However, if you find the jerkiness to be bothersome or interfering with your enjoyment of Second Life, there are relatively simple steps you can take to improve the performance.
It's worth spending a little time to improving your in-world performance, however, you should not spend too much time optimizing performance right now. As mentioned in the step Before You Begin, you have more important things to be doing with your initial time in Second Life. If you would like to take a few minutes to improve your performance, please see the information on Second Life Performance.
Orientation Island for New Residents
You start off in a special Orientation Island that's only for brand-new residents. It has various in-world tutorials and special screen overlays that help walk you through learning some initial ways to gets things done in Second Life.
Be aware that once you leave this special Orientation Island, whether by accident or on purpose, you can never go back to it (unless you create a new account). And while there is a Public Orientation Island that you can visit at any time, the Orientation Island for new residents has special features and tutorials that don't exist anywhere else.
Therefore, you should explore this special island thoroughly before you leave it. You should do every exercise that seems at all valuable to you, and you may wish to gather every Notecard available to you, even if you don't read them all now. Should you miss any Notecards, the information they contain can be found here.
You should do your exploration soon. If you drag it out over the course of days, it can happen that when you return to Second Life, if the servers that run the special Orientation Island are having a problem at the time you are logging-in to Second Life, you may enter the world, but be kicked off the special Orientation Island and placed somewhere else in the world. Once that happens, you have left the special island and cannot return.
(I have more to write...still working on it....)