Originally Posted by NeoBokrug Elytis

Begin non-rage reply

As has been demonstrated in the past, huge estates like Anshe can pull regions offline and put regions online quite easily. This coincides with the rumor that Atlas program members don't have to pay region setup fees. Here's why THAT alone is a terrible idea:

There's a huge land glut in Second Life. There's two ways to fix this. The first way to fix this is to bring people into second life. Ever since Rodvik came to the Lab, they've been trying really hard to do that. However, that's not working out too well. The other way to fix this is simply let estates fail. It's hard to admit, but that's what needs to happen.

The problem however is that the mega estates that have no region setup fees have nothing to lose. They simply call up Linden Lab and say, "Hey, we need 20 regions this month, thanks" or "Hey we're pulling off 15 regions this month". They have no vested interest in what happens, and they don't have to pay for it. This prevents every other estate who HAS to pay region fees from competing. We have to shell out $1k per region, from there we have to make it work. Everyone who has a better business model, or better community, but aren't part of the cool kids club, literally can't afford to compete with the big estates in SL. Special treatment estates can fail and roll with the punches at no cost. Anyone who's invested tens of thousands of dollars in region setup fees are SOL.

To have LL do a marketing campaign on their behalf is just another poke in the eye to anyone who doesn't have a sweet deal with Linden Lab. For the past two years the Wastelands has stayed about the same size, and it's not for a lack of trying. Sure we're very niche, but we make up for it with just about everything else we offer. Hell, I even allow people to build non-theme at 512m+ in the sky, so it's not as if you're really limited to just the theme of the estate. On top of all that we don't have ANY grandfathered full regions, and I offer some of the cheapest tier on the grid. I really don't think *I'M* doing anything wrong.

@Trasee: I don't want to ask for special treatment vs other estates. I want all estates to have the same offers. That way how an estate is run determines their success. Although, I will admit that I would take special treatment if it was offered to me, because it seems the only way to compete these days. That no-setup fee region thing was a sweet deal when it was offered to everyone. But if the everyone was being treated fairly, I wouldn't take the special treatment because it doesn't seem right.

Originally Posted by Aribeth Zelin

I know that I was horribly disappointed in linden homes - I was expecting a community build, with homes laid out in an attractive manner, maybe some gardens and other communal areas. Instead it was almost as hideously put together as the worse mainland plots.

Originally Posted by Carl Metropolitan

I am available for new resident retention consulting at reasonable rates.

I don't expect to hear from Linden Lab

Originally Posted by NiranV Dean

i redesigned the UI , i should redesign SL! xD hire me as Linden and i will make people truly reexperience SL wuahaha

ah....well....lemme dream...

Originally Posted by Menchor Barbosa

After reading many threads about retaining people, perhaps the easiest way to introduce people is to have some game like tasks that teach the basics in a fun way, and reward them with a few Lindens when they finish. Could someone game this for Lindens, sure, but if the tasks take some time to complete and the reward is small, few other than newbies will bother. SL isn't really a game, but dumping someone in without learning some of the basics makes for really low retention. A game that rewards them is one of the easiest ways and it gives a newbie a few $L, it took me over a week to discover I could buy Lindens, I thought you had to earn them in world. (No, I got no mentoring or help when I started SL, but I wanted to build things and just kept learning.)

Originally Posted by Penny Patton

Castara, this is a feature, not a flaw. Before Rodvik was brought onboard, Philip decided to remind all of SL of his amazing decision making ability (no pesky logic required!) and announced that they had decided that the orientation itself was an obstacle to new user retention and that the obvious solution was to simply get rid of the orientation entirely.

Originally Posted by Penny Patton

Castara, this is a feature, not a flaw. Before Rodvik was brought onboard, Philip decided to remind all of SL of his amazing decision making ability (no pesky logic required!) and announced that they had decided that the orientation itself was an obstacle to new user retention and that the obvious solution was to simply get rid of the orientation entirely.

Originally Posted by Castara

Hmm. Guess the feature worked well enough because half the time newbies are walking into me because they have little idea on how to use the view button or how to cam around in the first place...

Originally Posted by Chalice Yao

You'd be surprised at how many people don't have practice with alt/alt+ctrl/alt+ctrl+shift mouse camming. Whenever I see the arrow-style camera controls on a snapshot I wince :< They are so slow and unflexible compared to that.

Originally Posted by Chalice Yao

You'd be surprised at how many people don't have practice with alt/alt+ctrl/alt+ctrl+shift mouse camming. Whenever I see the arrow-style camera controls on a snapshot I wince :< They are so slow and unflexible compared to that.

Originally Posted by Kotonaru

Alt-Ctrl-Shift?
What does shift do? (I'm not in-world right now and don't want to wait to know...)

Originally Posted by Chalice Yao

You'd be surprised at how many people don't have practice with alt/alt+ctrl/alt+ctrl+shift mouse camming. Whenever I see the arrow-style camera controls on a snapshot I wince :< They are so slow and unflexible compared to that.

Originally Posted by didda sideways

Never underestimate the amount of information even the most auto- didactic newbie might have trawled through in order not to have accumulated a skill you take for granted.

Originally Posted by Penny Patton

That's just it, tho. LL fails to convey the information that should be a part of the initial new-user orientation and leaves it up to newbies stumbling through the disorganized (and sometimes misinformation spreading) torrent of resident created tutorials and information bases.

Originally Posted by didda sideways

Idiot newbies, not knowing how to do something no- one's ever told them how to do. True fact- I just worked out I've spent something like (conservative estimate) 300 hours inworld in the last two months. In that time I have read God knows how many wikis, graduated to a TPV, started an account on SLU, built a really crappy table, been to a beginner's GIMP class, jumped in a volcano, and come home one evening to find two strangers having SLex in my living room. I've paid my dues, is what I'm trying to say. And this is the first I've heard it was actually possible to use anything other than the arrows to cam. Never underestimate the amount of information even the most auto- didactic newbie might have trawled through in order not to have accumulated a skill you take for granted.

Originally Posted by Lance Corrimal

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