Linden Lab revamps new user experience – Social Island and Learning Island

This week Linden Lab has added two new regions called Social Island and Learning Island for new users signing up to Second Life.  The former Destination Islands and Welcome Islands are no longer on the grid. It seems Linden Lab has revamped the first hour experience by changing the look of the setup install process and new user regions. There is more to see on Social Island and Learning Island but there is still no information on getting started in Seoond Life like the old orientation islands/help islands.

Map of the new Social Islands and Learning Islands

New SL setup preview

If you click the Advanced button you can change the installation folder and now there is a tick box if you want for Second Life to start up after installing. It now gives you a tutorial on getting started when installing which is rather neat.

It will now download the latest SL viewer for you which is good so now you just need to log into Second Life with your username/password then accept the terms of service box. Wooot!

First Preview of Social Island 

When you first arrive on Social Island you will start on a beach on a island surrounded by the sea. Then you have to follow the path up the mountain to teleport to learning island. No information on getting started in SL anywhere.

Walk through the gate to automatically teleport to learning island.

First preview of Learning Island 

Once teleported from Social Island you will arrive at the welcome point. Again nothing to explain the basics of Second Life.

Walk along the path to the destinations area to teleport to well known locations across the grid. Other things to see on Learning Island: Tiki Beach, Lighthouse, Hot air balloon, Quiet Isle, The Cave Club and Club SL.

What do you think of this latest revamp of the new user islands ? 

SL10B Community Celebration ends officially

At midnight SLT today the SL10B regions closed for public access for another year after two weeks of celebrating Second Life 10th birthday. The first week of live music and events was a huge success I think. The second week was a nice relaxing week exploring the builds I missed in the first week and the final party was amazing. View my SL10B snapshots here.

Overall there was more blog coverage this year on SL10B, more visitors, less lag, more positive views this year and it was good to see Lindens attending the birthday celebrations too. This year the lab took part in providing SL10B freebies, there was more blog posts on the SL official blog this year and there was more SL10B locations to visit on the SL Destination Guide this year. A big thanks to all the SL10B organisers, volunteers, and builders etc that made this year awesome and for making this 10th birthday celebration possible.

To mark the closing there was first a SL10B flags event where all the SL10B flags were lowered for the last time. After there was a awesome firework display at the main cake stage. Then finally hundreds of avatars gathered for 8 hours yesterday at the Turtle Stage for the final live music party of the SL10B Community Celebration and it was really great to see everyone having fun.

• What are your views of SL10B this year ? 
• What are your suggestions for SL11B in June 2014? 

SL10B – Thank You! 

Goodbye SL10B!

My SL10B Blog Coverage

• SL10B Press Tours
• SL10B Opening Day
• SL10B History Walk
• Historical maps of SL Birthdays
• SL10B Bear Island & The Corn Field
• Latest SL10B videos worth watching
• SL10B Pod Tours
• SL10B shown on SL Login Screen
• SL10B Clanis Telehub
• SL10B Classy Souvenirs of SL
• Last day of live SL10B events
• Second Life officially turns 10 years old
• SL10B regions remain open until 29th June 2013
• SL10B Stats
• SL10B Time Capsule First Preview
• SL10B Closing Ceremony events on the final day

This marks the end of my SL10B blog coverage and thanks to all my SL blog readers for reading my special blog reports on SL10B. I guess the countdown starts now for SL11B which planning starts in early 2014. I can’t wait to take part!