Linden Lab Official:Destination Guide FAQ

General information

The Second Life Destination Guide 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 Second Life. We keep the Destination Guide fresh with regular updates, so check back frequently!

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.

To visit the Destination Guide on the web, go to secondlife.com/destinations.

In the Advanced mode of the SL 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 peruse the incredible variety of locations and events!

   

Information for landholders and other stakeholders

Currently, the best way for a Resident to promote a venue, event or business is through inworld search or the classifieds. We encourage all venue owners to review the guidelines at the Search FAQ for information on how to maximize your presence using inworld Search.

Venues and content featured in the Destination Guide are not paid placements. However, we welcome Resident suggestions for cool spots to feature. Some entries included in the Guide are also surfaced on the website for Residents exploring SecondLife.com for the first time. Please visit the Destination Guide Suggestion Page to submit a venue for consideration. Be sure to follow the submission guidelines below.

Note: By nominating a venue, you authorize Linden Lab to use its content. 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.

How venues and content are selected

Selections for inclusion are at the sole discretion of Linden Lab.

Criteria favoring selection:

• The venue is a high-quality implementation of the Second Life experience.
• The venue appeals broadly to the Second Life community, including new Residents.
• The venue is exceptional or unique.
• The venue is being promoted outside Second Life and is participating in the inSL logo program, if appropriate.
• The venue has a real and active community.
• The submission includes a compelling and visually interesting screenshot.
• The submitted description text accurately describes the location.

Criteria weighing against selection:

• The venue or one like it has been included before.
• The venue has been warned for failure to comply with some aspect of the Terms of Service.
• The venue is currently violating the Terms of Service through use of bots, campers, illegal gambling, or mainland Adult content.
• The submitted screenshot contains promotion text over the main image.
• The submitted description text includes lists of keywords and/or incoherent or inaccurate text.

The Basic mode Destination Guide

The Basic mode of the SL Viewer is the default experience for the newest Residents of Second Life. Since the "first hour" is so critical in determining whether someone will ultimately stick around Second Life, the Editorial Team applies heavier scrutiny to those venues or locations featured in this streamlined version of the Destination Guide.

If you wish to be eligible for inclusion in the Basic mode version of the Destination Guide, please consider the following guidelines:

• Is the landing point (and any immediate surrounding areas) optimized for Basic mode? For example, is it set correctly so arriving visitors land at the right spot? Also, do navigation tools like teleporters route people to the right place?
• If some of your key attractions are not in the immediate vicinity of the landing point, be sure to include clear signage or arrows that point visitors in the right direction. We recommend including calls-to-action for nearby activities and games so that newcomers can easily find fun things to do.
• Avoid use of "insider" language or instructions that may be confusing to someone accessing Second Life through Basic mode.
• Is the venue arrival experience free of unsolicited group invites, notecards and other inventory offers? These notifications are confusing to many new Residents, who are unfamiliar with how groups and inventory work in Second Life.
• Consider how your venue design and its surroundings will be experienced by someone in the streamlined Basic mode. For example, do seats use one-click sit actions? Do other interactive objects, like vehicles, work? (We recommend that you test them using an alt account to make sure non-owners can use them, too.)
• Where Advanced mode is necessary (for example, if you have shops elsewhere in your region), are there instructions explaining this choice to visitors? (As of June 2011, Residents can’t yet buy items in Basic mode.)

For inclusion in the Newcomer Friendly category only, these additional criteria apply:

• There are helpful signs or tutorials that are up-to-date and reference features in Basic mode.
• There are clear pointers to get further help with Second Life. For example, a scripted sign that links to Second Life Answers community help.
• The venue has an active and welcoming community within close proximity of the landing point.

Editors' Picks and Popular Places

You can nominate venues for inclusion in the Editors' Picks or Popular Places categories on the Destination Guide Suggestion Page.

• Editors' Picks features venues that highlight some of the best architecture, activities, communities and/or creative efforts in Second Life. The features are refreshed periodically.
• Popular Places features venues frequently populated with real people, communities and conversations. This list is periodically refreshed but does not reflect real-time traffic and activity, nor does it aim to reflect the most popular places in Second Life. Every effort is made to include venues that adhere to Linden Lab’s policies on traffic bots and camping.

Submission guidelines

You may suggest a destination using the form if:

• You personally own the parcel.
• You belong to the group that owns the parcel.
• You are on the access list of the Private Region that contains the parcel.
• The parcel belongs to Governor Linden and is set in ABOUT LAND > OPTIONS tab as a Hangout.
• The parcel belongs to a friend and is set in ABOUT LAND > OPTIONS tab as a Hangout.
• The parcel is 512m² or larger.

Suggested venues must comply with all of the following:

• Community Standards
• Trademark Guidelines
• Terms of Service
• DMCA policy
• [[Linden_Lab_Official:Snapshot_and_machinima_policy|Snapshot and Machinima Policy]

Warning: Do not suggest content that is copyrighted or otherwise subject to another party's proprietary rights (including privacy, publicity, trademark, and trade secret rights) unless you own the rights or have the owner's permission. Content determined to infringe upon intellectual property rights is removed from our website and services.

Residents are limited to two suggestions per month. You can also email our editors your Destination Guide suggestions. Please include a link to your image that meets the submission criteria below:

Image specifications

The quality and aesthetic composition of your image helps convince Residents to visit your suggested inworld location, so submit a well-composed screenshot that captures the creativity, community and/or aesthetic beauty of your venue. Do not layer or embed any text or logos within the photo itself. You have an opportunity to add descriptive text separately in the Description field of the entry form.

Focus on specific attractions you want visitors to see first. Specifically, if you're submitting an image for a store, generally emphasize your products rather than the store building. For example, if you make clothes, pose your avatar at a flattering angle in one of your dresses, and snapshot that. Or if you have an attractive vendor display, use that. If you've been selling in Second Life for awhile, you likely already have product photos as part of your branding that you can repurpose to save you time. However, an exception applies if your store is an attraction itself, like it's in a beautiful forest worth exploring.

The Destination Guide submission form asks you to include a link to a web-hosted screenshot of your venue. Your image can be hosted on any photo-sharing or web-hosting site, such as Flickr or Photobucket. Use JPG format with the dimensions of 657 width by 394 height, in pixels. For example (see on Flickr):

Be sure to include the full URL (ending in .jpg) to the web-hosted screenshot for your listing. Please note that the Destination Guide user suggestion form may reject images that do not meet this exact criteria. If you use Flickr to host your image, make sure to include the proper image URL (ending in .jpg) in the form.

In some cases, Linden Lab editors may re-shoot images to improve visual clarity or composition, but we strongly prefer you submit quality images to begin with.

Note: If you receive a form error when you try to submit your suggested destination, please email the Linden Lab editors. Include the submission suggestion and the info requested in the form (title, description, SLurl link) along with the image as an attachment.

Inworld photography resources

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

• Torley's Guide to High-Quality Photography
• Taking high-res snapshots - From Strawberry Singh.
• The Checklist - Comprehensive photo shoot preparation, from Cajsa Lilliehook.
• Second Life Flickr Group - Many pictures from other Residents.

And of course, look at existing Destination Guide submissions to see what your fellow Residents and the Linden Lab editors have done.

Text specifications

The submission form asks you for descriptive text of up to 400 typed characters.

Destination Guide uses third-person voice, so avoid use of first-person language (such as I, we, our and my). Also, please refrain from using overly-hyped or promotion-heavy language; Destination Guide entries should be informative rather than overtly promotional in nature. Lists of keywords are not acceptable as descriptive text.

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

Contact the 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 — contact the Linden Lab editors via email. Please note that we are not able to respond to every inquiry, however we welcome all comments, feedback and suggestions.