Echovets Gateway For Veteran Newcomers Now Open

 

 

 Last month, the Newser reported that Echovets had been granted a gateway sim by Linden Lab, the first and so far the only one to be aimed at newcomers who are military veterans. But it had been an empty sim that needed to be built on. A few days ago, Echovets' leader, Stacy Lee (Stacy Maracas), informed me the gateway was now open for newcomers, the construction of it's buildings completed. 

"Here at Echo Group Band of Brothers Gateway, we know how overwhelming Second Life can be when you first rezz in.  We went out of our way to ensure our uniformed service residents, their families and supporters, not only receive the knowledge of being a new resident, but also interactive everything for hands on learning as well.  We feel that it will make new residents want to stay in Second Life and keep learning more."

Stacy described herself as exhausted, but proud of what the sim had become and now had to offer. There was a newcomer orientation area where one could learn the basics on how to get about Second Life. But there was more. There was a mall area. There was a golf course. There was a bumper boats pool. There was a sandbox. There was a picturesque garden. There was a firepit welcome area. And more. 

 

One place Stacy was particularly proud of was the Echovets Bike Track. Located over the sim, it offered a long track that would take some time for motorcycles, or perhaps cars or horses, to make their way up to the end. It offered occasional signs and other scenery along the track, sometimes funny, sometimes serious.

A valuable asset for military veterans new to Second Life.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Echo%20Group%20Welcome/15/239/25

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Echovets Announces New Veteran’s Gateway Sim

 

 

 Almost a year ago, we wrote about the Echovets sim and community, which later ended up in Second Life Destinations. A couple days ago, it's co-President Stacy Maracas (Stacy Lee) had an announcement, shared through a notecard.

Last week we were given the first and only Veteran’s Gateway Sim.  I am currently building it as we speak, and we are searching for business owners to partake in that sim with us.

What we are attempting to do is have some free items for our Active Duty, Veterans and family members that choose to Rezz for the first time in Second Life at the EchoGroup Gateway.

I have been in SL for almost 19 years, I know, and have seen us pull together to help new residents get a great start.  I am hoping I can count on you to pull together again, with us to make it a great experience for them as they come to Second Life, and to EchoVets and not only join us in the place we all love, but also to receive the benefit of having their Rezz day on our sim where we can provide LIVE assistance with the systems in place to help them as Uniformed Service Members.

We are looking for Mesh Bodies, Hair, Skins, Clothing, and any great items you think might be a nice free item or even VERY low cost that I am willing to give them the lindens out of my pocket to obtain.

I welcome you to tour the sim, ask any questions you like, and I am also including some background and our social media links for your information.

The Gateway sim, Echo Group Welcome, is just north of the EchoVets BandofBrothers sim. While much of the place is still empty, some things have been set up, such as the beginning of an orientation course, and a freebie mall. But the mall had very little. As stated by Stacy, Echovets could use a little help in getting free or practically free items for veteran newcomers to Second Life. 

In my opinion, the idea of a Gateway sim for veterans is a good one as it would encourage more to stay in Second Life.

 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EchoVets%20BandofBrothers/159/221/23

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

The VWBPE Grounds

 

After weeks of preparation, the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference is set to start tomorrow. From Thursday to Saturday, there will be numerous discussions and other events, including one with the Lindens. The theme this year is "Uncommon Realities." Gemma Cleanslate, who volunteered to help out again this year, took a good look at the the area the event will be taking place on. And there's quite a lot.

 

Read Gemma's story in Design. 

 

 

Gentle Heron at the Safe Water Foundation's "Let's Mertalk"

Every other Saturday at the bottom of the Union Passage sim, the Safe Water Foundation holds their "Let's Mertalk" discussion. Last month on June 10, the discussion had Gentle Heron of Virtual Ability as the featured speaker, talking about community gateways, which had recently been in the news when Linden Lab announced their program for them was officially returning. Gentle talked about the one at her area, describing how it worked and how it was set up with people with disabilities in mind.

Read the story in Events.

Linden Lab Announces Its Community Gateway Program Is Back

In August 2010, Linden Lab announced it was ending it's Community Gateways program as part of it's "new approach to welcoming residents" at the time. This move, along with the end of the SL Volunteer program in December 2009, was panned by critics as a sign of either cluelessness and/or a lack of interest in helping new residents. At the time, the Lab stated it had doubts about it being an effective use of their resources. In September 2015, Inara Pey stated that community gateways were set for a comeback. And a number were set up, such as the one by Firestorm, which can be seen at Firestorm Social Island.

On Wednesday May 31, Linden Lab officially announced the Community Gateway program had returned.

We are thrilled to re-introduce the Community Gateway Program!  Previously, the Community Gateway program helped bring new users to Second Life, by enabling Second Life communities to attract, register, an on-board new Residents. The program was shelved in 2010 as resources were reprioritized, and now we're excited to reintroduce the Community Gateway program along with some improvements that will make it even more valuable to Second Life.  We recognize the benefit of having Resident supported tutorial areas and have been working with several communities while fine tuning the new program over the last year.  

This powerful new tool will allow you to register new users right from your own community website and add them automatically to your group, thus helping your community to grow!

The blog post described the program as allowing communities to "create a new user experience and attract residents" to the community, help new residents into beginning their Second Life experience, guide new residents in the "creation of their new avatar personas," and help with new user retention.

Of the last detail, Second Life is described as having a very low new user retention. Increasing it would be a step in halting and reversing it's overall long slow decline in numbers.

Details about the program, including how to apply, are here in the official Second Life Wiki.


For the Blog post in full: Click here. 

Source: Daniel Voyager  , Inara Pey 

Bixyl Shuftan

Firestorm and Madpea to Launch Community Gateway, Launch Party Today

Besides Welcome Island, over Second Life's history some locations have had their own welcome areas for newcomers to provide some basic information and maybe a gift or two. Indeed for the first several years of the Grid, this was encouraged by Linden Lab under a program "enabling them to steer incoming users directly to their own orientation / support environment, and thus provide them with assistance and hands-on support in getting started in SL." But it was discontinued in August 2010.

In September, Inara Pey reported that Linden Lab was planning to bring back the Community Gateway program. "The idea is that the new registrant would begin their time in SL in the experience that matches their interest," Patch Linden was quoted as saying. Among the groups involved with the testing was Firestorm. Recently it was announced that Madpea was joining up with them, " we’re delighted to be teaming up with Jessica Lyon and the Firestorm team on their project to produce a Community Gateway for new residents to Second Life. Community Gateways will provide a rich, learning environment for new residents. Showing them how to use their viewers, how to interact, how to develop as an avatar and, with MadPea’s help…how to play games and have an amazing SL experience."

To celebrate, Team Firestorm is combining their Halloween celebrations with a "Gateway Launch Party," "The biggest Firestorm Halloween celebration to date will be this Saturday Oct 31st with live performances from Seth Regan (Mankind Tracer) @ 1PM, Nance Brody @ 2PM and Changhigh Trinity Sisters Fireshow @ 3PM. Then at 4pm DJQuad spins tunes and we open the massive month-long Halloween hunt with amazing content from over 150 well-known Second Life merchants."

The event will also be the kickoff for their "Spooky Nights Hunt organized by the Huntress Spooky Mistwallow purposed to create awareness of the gateway regions and what they offer by encouraging existing users to explore."

The locations for the party are Firestorm Showcase (239/17/26), Firestorm SB (18/17/26), /Firestorm HS1 (240/242/26) and Firestorm HS2 (20/240/26).

Bixyl Shuftan