It should be noted that one of the major issues in using SL, that being getting around in the sims, walking and flying most specifically, has not been covered by any tutorial I have found yet.
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That’s because it’s easy. To walk you use your arrow keys. To fly you click on “fly” and use the arrow keys. To stop flying you click on “stop flying.”
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Nor is there any explaination as to why typing is so jerky and slow in this chat interface and what you can do to help counter this,
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If your typing is jerky it’s either because your computer/internet connection is too slow or the system has too many users at once, or a server is malfunctioning. Kind of like what happens anywhere on the net. Too obvious to require explanation.
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why they have History and IM windows cover up part of the chat interface when it is critical that you see things like where your av is moving and what or who is around you and what is being said,
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You can move those windows out of the way, same way you move windows on your computer. Click, hold, drag.
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why there is no user list which would show who is present
Because there are thousands upon thousands of users at any given moment. And because it sims the real world. Need to know who is hanging out at your fav coffee spot? Go there.

If there are people you want to keep track of, you ask them if you can add them as a friend. If they choose to allow you to do so, you can find them by checking out “friends” in your profile.
You can also search for people.
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why on the maps which take a horribly long time to load,
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Mine don’t take a long time to load. Perhaps it’s your computer/internet connection.
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… there are simply general outlines of areas and no place names among other things.
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That’s not true. If you scroll in (magnify — same way you would on a google map), you will get place names. You can also check to see if they are “Mature” or “PG.” And by the green dots you can see where people are.
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All of this I figured out without a manual and without spending a single penny.

SL does assume significant computer/internet experience, as well as willingness and time to experiment. No question about that.

But it didn’t take me long to get into the swing of things. I approached it the same way I approach other things (like learning PhotoShop): “what happens if I do this? what happens if I do that?”

Click here. What happens?

Double click there. What happens?

Right click here…etc.

I don’t go to manuals or tutorials unless there’s something I want to do and I repeatedly try what should be obvious and it doesn’t work that way.

I spent some time being lost. Same way I go about learning a new city: purposely getting lost then finding my way back.

What helped is that I met someone early on who told me about his favorite hangouts.

Of course, it does take time. It’s not something you can just spend a few minutes at and voila, there you are.

But there are rewards.

Here’s a funny story about how SL (second life) affected my RL (real life) in a positive way:

There’s a place called “Open Latte,” — a coffee house my guide introduced me to.

Anyway, I’ve been hanging out at Open Latte a lot. Had/listened in on some interesting conversations. Some not so.

Friday I decided it might be fun to hang out at my favorite RL coffee house (Spot) while also hanging out at Open Latte (SL).

So I go to (RL) Spot and take a table next to a guy who looks really interesting. He smiles at me. I smile back of course. Go get my protein shake & sit back down. He smiles again. I smile back.

But see, I’m just not the sort who will go up to a guy and say hi. Not in RL. In SL, yes. But in RL I’m kinda shy about those things.

So I “teleport” to Open Latte and start having a conversation with the folks sitting around the fireplace. And I tell them there’s an interesting looking guy sitting next to me at the next RL table, but I’m too shy to introduce myself.

Anyway, they all encourage me. “Go for it!” they say. We are chatting about this when he looks over at me again. I giggle. Because I’m writing about him at that very minute.

Ok what the hell.

I tell everyone at Open Latte I’ll BRB. And I go over to the guy’s table and say “Hi, I’m Georgia. I was just writing about you.”

He laughs. R. and I start having a RL conversation, getting to know each other.

Eventually I tell him about Second Life and start showing him the conversation folks are having. I butt in and I tell the SL folks I did in fact meet the RL guy and we are both “there” at Open Latte listening in. And I thanked everyone for encouraging me.

One of the SL guys says, “So, R., are you two going on a date?”

R. writes back, “of course.”

Now, this hadn’t even been a subject of conversation until then.

At this point the two of us are laughing like crazy, and everyone in the vicinity at Spot is noticing us.

Anyway, long story short…R. and I went RL dancing Saturday night.

On a more negative note: I did meet a very creepy guy who wanted to teleport me to a nasty place (there’s lots of cybersex, very VISUAL cybersex, in SL). But unlike RL I could easily get away from him by teleporting myself elsewhere. Or completely quitting out of SL.

BTW, I haven’t spent a single RL penny to do any of this. And I’m not a video game player.

Of course, my learning style — jump in and experiment — is very well suited to this environment; whereas folks who need orientation first are at a distinct disadvantage.

I find that video tutorials are especially helpful if they are chaptered in some fashion — either split into separate videos by topic and sub-topic, or bookmarked for easy access. For me, that relieves the burden of note-taking

Also, people have different learning styles. Not everyone who learns well visually prefers to also have text, or to take notes. But for such a strongly visual tool like SL, a video tutorial would probably be a good starting point.

Apparently now there are several books available on Second Life:
- http://snipurl.com/1p852

- Amy Gahran

It should be noted that one of the major issues in using SL, that being getting around in the sims, walking and flying most specifically, has not been covered by any tutorial I have found yet. Nor is there any explaination as to why typing is so jerky and slow in this chat interface and what you can do to help counter this, why you have to make your “home” landmark either land you own or a teleport center, why they have History and IM windows cover up part of the chat interface when it is critical that you see things like where your av is moving and what or who is around you and what is being said, why there is no user list which would show who is present and perhaps even where, why they chose to put the landmarks list inside a window that only shows up after you have teleported to your initial default destination and why on the maps which take a horribly long time to load, there are simply general outlines of areas and no place names among other things.

These are critical chat interface issues for the end users some of which are spending quite a bit of real money to use SL and I do not buy that SL cannot provide a decent how to manual in text format which would address them in one place and even though I prefer a text format guide of some sort, I don’t even buy that they can’t make available a series of clear, adult language and atittude videos which would explain all of the things which you need to simply make the program work for you. Almost every single other program out there has an in program help guide even if the program itself is freeware. Why can’t SL? Expecting the people who use the program to contribute their own “help files” is ludicrous in the extreme. How can you “help” someone with an issue if you also need a help guide on the basics? Oh wait, that’s right, they just came out with a real world book which supposedly addresses the how to’s of SL that you can BUY. Mystery solved.

like you i’m not a gamer and maybe i’m missing something soooo obvious, but this is just tedious - and there don’t seem to be any clues or tutorials that help you at this very early stage.

and while i waste my time hanging around this nowheresville, i have some some pretty wierd behaviour from some slightly creepy people.

it does make you wonder whether this isn’t all geek and corporate hype. for example, how did you get anyone get introduced to SL? did a good friend, whose opinion you respect tell you how good it was, or did you read about it in the media - possibly in an article talking about how many brands and corporations had established a presence there?

hmmmmn.

In short, dont get hooked on this video tutorial thing, because that is a long shot i belive. Go play SL some more And hopefully you find someone to talk to, that im sure will help you out.