Regarding the plans for a new SL website (see this blog post) I have this response (which I actually posted to the Forums, because Crap Mariner made me):

Here are the goals for the design:

* Express the richness and breadth of Second Life

* Allow us to address a wide range of potential Residents

* Set context for what a potential Resident might do in Second Life

First off, I'm strictly an amateur in design matters, so I respond as an end-user when I say: Waaaaaay too busy for a front page. And way too obscure. And all that black is trying waaay to hard to be hip. (Or cool. Or whatever the word of the day is.)

Look, if you're trying to "address" your potential customers, why not ... address them? Directly? "Are you an explorer? Click here! Serious shoppers, come this way! Creators, this door's for you ... Gamers, find some of your options over here! Learners, we've got some great locations ... Hobbyists, there's nothing you can't do here!"

Verbs, shmerbs. Don't just say "here's some pretty pictures of what you can do," you need to encourage new users to self-select and funnel them into a process that lets them start to do what they like.

SL's biggest problem is retaining new users. Why? Because it's damn hard to find like-minded people, and/or things to do with them. The Community Gateway program is apparently a start toward helping people get through this stage (though your explanatory page is dull as dishwater, seriously!!), but you need to invest more in that approach.

You already KNOW that flinging people inworld and letting them find their own way only works for what, 10% of new users? I know for sure that if I didn't know people in RL who had learned to enjoy SL, I would've been gone in a matter of days.

Call me crazy, but don't you think the fact that your strategy isn't working indicates a need for, oh, I don't know ... a change of strategy?

Fun with Interviews

While chatting with an Extropia resident for my Prim Perfect article ...

[2008/07/23 18:37] Whatcha Eaton: I think my SL is borked. I know you're three meters away but I can't see you.
[2008/07/23 18:37] You: I've been having the problem with you, actually
[2008/07/23 18:37] You: Something's up with it, I'm sure.
[2008/07/23 18:37] You: Or down.
[2008/07/23 18:37] Whatcha Eaton: lol mostly down.
[2008/07/23 18:38] Whatcha Eaton: but we keep coming back!
[2008/07/23 18:38] You: I was just going to say ... why do we love it so?
[2008/07/23 18:38] Whatcha Eaton: oh, SL. we can't stay mad at you!
[2008/07/23 18:38] Whatcha Eaton: it's like the abusive partner we just *know* we can change.
[2008/07/23 18:38] Alesia Markstein sighs.
[2008/07/23 18:38] You: It's so much fun when things are going well!
[2008/07/23 18:38] Whatcha Eaton: okay, maybe a bad analogy.
[2008/07/23 18:38] Whatcha Eaton: -D
[2008/07/23 18:39] Whatcha Eaton: remember on SL
[2008/07/23 18:39] Whatcha Eaton: 's birthday?
[2008/07/23 18:39] Whatcha Eaton: it was so nice.
[2008/07/23 18:39] Whatcha Eaton: =D
[2008/07/23 18:39] You: Yeah. Then the lag started up again ...
[2008/07/23 18:39] Whatcha Eaton: there's just no telling what SL will do when it starts lagging.
[2008/07/23 18:40] Whatcha Eaton: and SL is all like, "Oh, I can quit anytime."
[2008/07/23 18:40] You: But seriously, where else could I have an aerial garden with a view of an artist's habitat?
[2008/07/23 18:40] Whatcha Eaton: quite.

Coming Home

Long time, no post, but the class I've been teaching is almost done at last.

Just before that, though, I finished decorating my condo in Extropia, and here at last are some pictures!



This one shows the back corner of this one-room condo, with my various art objects and my lovely self, as well.



And this is half the exterior/window wall: more art, and some of the Extropian landscape.



Exterior shot - looks bland, I know, but the window-walls make it gorgeous from the inside. That red-and-blue square at the corner of the sidewalk is a TP marker up to ... my "roof" garden!



Seriously, one of the best things about SL is how you can do just about anything you want there. So fun!

Weird and Lovely: Fallingwater Flowers

Another friends' recommendation: Shiny Things, the location of Fallingwater Flowers. I was looking for garden stuff, not shoes (though I did look at them) (in fact, I even bought some), and here's what I found:




Flowers, trees, and furniture of astonishing creativity, most of which come with a variety of colors built-in. I salivated over the fountain/sculpture in the foreground of this picture (it was hard to get a good shot of), but at over 100 prims, it would've taken up most of my condo's allotment!!

Suffice it to say that I now own an Andromeda Tree, a lily chair, and a small flower (plus a pair of shoes). I would've bought more, but there's that prim allotment problem.

The selection here is not huge, but if you're looking for that otherworldly element, this is the place to find it. Some of the plants are animated, the furniture all has a certain organic look, and the prices are quite reasonable.

So why are you still here? Go look!

Damani: Store or Landscape? You Decide!

I asked a friend where I should look for furniture for my new place, and one of the places she suggested was Damani [SLURL] .

So I went. I was not expecting the immersive experience that “shopping” there turns out to be.



From Art Deco to Giger to weird fantasy/sf style - I've never seen anything like it. Furniture, fountains, sculptures, prefab houses, towers that exist for no discernible purpose except towering ... oh, and weather. All of it, apparently, by Damanios Thetan.






I did not buy an animated kitten. It was hard not to, though, especially as the black one reminded me of my late beloved Arwen ...

Damani also has that wonderful item, a map of the sim with embedded teleports (why don’t they all have this?!).


There is an actual bumper car track .... it could be an interesting location for a party - doesn't seem to cost a thing! Except possibly a little dignity (I ran mine off the track – I sure hope it’s auto-return).



Overall, though, there’s this fascinating, otherwordly landscape. I followed the main street northward and crossed from Damania into Elonia, a residential sim with houses and apartments available (at least, some of them are). Houses with lots are 2046 m & 468 prims or 4096 m & 937 prims. Several have been leased.



Apartments (NW corner of the sim): L$275 per week with 200 prim limit. Quite a few of these seem to be rented.



Most of these buildings are hard to get to without flying, but that’s okay, since we all can fly in Second Life. Amenities include swimming pools, a dance pavilion, and a pond, along with the ocean on every side.

The Elonia Covenant reads:

Hello and welcome to Elonia, part of Damania futuristic city. You are now in the rural area. We take pride in our community and when you need assistance, we offer same day service. Unless, prior notice that we are on vacation or some other project , which then we will leave in our profiles.

You won't find any griefing in the sim as guns and such are not allowed in the sims. There are no gaudy signs or unattractive builds in the sim also. it is a peaceful environment for all to enjoy. Each plot is next to some water, whether it be a lake, pool, or the sea (so to speak). We like to make our tenents feel at home and be reassured that they can rest easy without any hassles.

Damani has a website; its tone is, alas, rather self-congratulatory, and it doesn’t offer much in the way of community-building, but it’s there. Also, there are tenancy-related Groups; I haven’t checked whether their Notices have any history of activity in them. But – it is an amazing-looking place, and if gorgeous and quiet is what you like, it’s worth a closer look.

As always, see more pictures at my Picasa album.

What Is "Community?" Part One

That’s the question that ought to be guiding LL’s efforts to retain new users. They put the term “community” on their blog, but there’s not a lot behind that link – Search, Events, a few other things – but not a lot that really fosters “community” except in the sense of “user community,” which is so broad as to be meaningless.

So, what is community, then? For the purpose of discussion, let’s say that community has three basic components: shared experience, shared interests, and shared expectations; or, the community’s past, present, and future.

The past of shared experience is more than just the specific community’s shared experience, though that’s important. It’s also the individual community members’ experience. For example, a person who grew up in a small town has more experiences in common with others who grew up in small towns than she does with people who grew up in major cities. A college graduate has more experiences in common with other college graduates than with non-graduates. Individuals’ backgrounds can and do influence their interests, expectations, and behavior.

On the other hand, in a virtual world like Second Life, it’s likely that the community’s shared experience is more important in the long run. And one of the critical components of this is for the community to actually have shared experiences. In other words, communities that have regular events are more likely to develop cohesion than those that do not. Seems obvious, yes? But I’ve joined quite a few groups in Second Life that don’t hold events, and after a month or so of that, I’ve left them. The number of permitted groups is too small to keep inactive ones on my list.

On the other hand, though, there is also a practical limit on anyone’s SL community activities: spare time. With a regular literary quiz and a current events item on Saturdays, and a readers’ get-together and a book club on Sundays, my weekends are already mostly taken up. Weeknight activities tend to be held a little late for my normal early-to-bed ways; there’s a Torah study that I go to sometimes on Tuesday evenings, but so far I continue to devote my (limited) weeknight time to exploring.

It is, as I was reading in someone’s blog the other day, ultimately an attention problem. Can a community grab and maintain Residents’ attention for long enough to develop the shared experiences that form the bedrock of its existence? And what, if anything, can Linden Labs do to help this process along?

An Excursion to SciLands

I was loitering around SL the other day when a Notice from the Science Friday Group popped up: Some kind of quiz show called "2nd Question" was about to start! So, what the heck - I went.



I'm still not entirely sure what was going on, though. There were panelists, there was an audience, but generally there was pandemonium. A fun kind of pandemonium, but a bit too nonlinear for me (especially at that hour of the evening.) But they'll go on quite nicely without me, I'm sure - every Thursday at 7:00 p.m. SLT.

Later on, though, I went back and explored the sim. Spindrift seems to be a miscellaneous science sim within SciLands, though there is definitely a slant towards space exploration.

I marveled at a large (and rather unphotographical) model of Larry Niven's Ringworld by Jimbo Perhaps, emphasizes the vast scale of the thing. Mr. Perhaps also has built a model of an "Asteroid Habitat," which was small enough to photograph:



There was a wide variety of exhibits (ranging from a free-to-copy 3D histogram plotter to a Temple of Murphy), not all of which I managed to get to. It's a very quirky place, and the teleport discs are essential to getting around, since many of the places are extremely high up.

A very useful item is this map of the SciLands, which pops up a detail map and notecards when you click on any of the sims (click again on the detail map to make it go away). SciLands is a place that's been on my list of places to visit for some time, so I'm glad that I've finally made a start!