Suggested for Discussion: Getting Settled in Kitely

[Deuce Halsey]

Last year the idea of a couple of documents to help new Kitely Residents and Kitely Merchants get started was discussed. At the Mentor's Group meeting last week (1/8/2014) I said that I would come up with an outline for at least one of these documents for this week. The following is the result of my efforts so far - a partially completed first draft for the "Getting Settled in Kitely" document, which is intended to help new Kitely residents settle into the grid.

NOTICE: The following is in no way an official document or intended as official communication by, or on behalf of, the staff of Kitely, Ltd. This is the first draft of a document created by a single Kitely resident. The idea is for this document to be discussed here in the forums, and possibly in Mentors Group meetings in an effort to eventually produce a document that can be provided to new Kitely residents to help them get started.

This is what I have so far - as of 1/15/2014:

Getting Settled in Kitely

Advice for new residents of the Kitely grid.

Residents of a new grid almost always face the same issues, no matter if this is their first time in a virtual world, or if they are Metaverse veterans.

When you first log into the Kitely grid, you are asked to chose between a male or female avatar. Then are placed into the Kitely Welcome Center world wearing a generic avatar and clothing appropriate to the gender you chose. You will have few possessions, although you will have access to a basic set of items from the OpenSim Library.

Your goals for getting started will probably include the following:

* Finding and wearing slightly less generic avatar shape, skin and clothing options.
* Finding places to buy or obtain for free the basic items you need.
* Finding other avatars operated by real people to interact with.
* Finding out where events are being held on the grid.
* Finding out where to get more information and where to get questions answered.
* Finding your first home on your new grid (a place to change clothes in private and rez items you obtain during your explorations).

The specific order of importance for these goals may change from person to person, but nearly everyone will want to do these things early on during their time in Kitely. The following is some advice from experienced Kitely residents on how to best accomplish these initial goals.

*) Finding and wearing slightly less generic avatar shape, skin and clothing options.

If you are still in the Kitely Welcome Center, there are a few basic male and female avatar and clothing sets available for free. Proceed Northwest from the initial arrival point and you will find five different avatar/clothing sets for female avatars, and five sets for male avatars. Simply click on the desired set or sets and select buy. The price for each set is Zero Kitely Credits – they are free.

Note that you are buying the contents of the Avatar set vendor. There are no boxes to rez, the contents of the vendor should be in your inventory. Assuming you purchased the male avatar set called Ian, there should be a folder in your inventory called “Ian Avatar”.

If you are new to virtual worlds, here is a fun trick to quickly change your clothes. Click on the Ian Avatar folder and drag the folder from the inventory and drop it on your avatar in the game window. (If you bought a different avatar, click and drag the folder you actually purchased.) Presto, change-o! Within a few seconds your avatar should be wearing the shape, skin and clothing of the set you just purchased. Don't be afraid to purchase more than one avatar set. You can keep buying them and trying them on until you find a set you feel you can live with until you find better stuff later on.

*) Finding places to buy or obtain for free the basic items you need.

There are many freebies available to all users in Kitely. Much of this free content is from the Linda Kellie collection available throughout the OpenSim community.

Here are a few worlds that offer freebie content and are open to all Kitely users, even free account holders.

Freebie Shopping Mall Plus
http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Suz ... -Mall-PLUS

City Life
http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Joh ... /City-Life

Donnybrook Beach
http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Deu ... rook-Beach

If you are looking to purchase some non-freebie items for your Kitely avatar you can find several displayed in the Hall of Merchants in the Kitely Welcome Center. Simply walk Northeast from the arrival point to enter the Hall of Merchants. The displays in the Hall of Merchants provide links to the Kitely Market listings of the merchants on display.

The Kitely Market is an excellent place to find virtual goods of all descriptions to outfit your avatar in Kitely. Many items in the Market are also available in Export versions, which can be used on any other OpenSim grid.

http://www.kitely.com/market

*) Finding other avatars operated by real people to interact with.

Your best bet for finding a Kitely world with people active in it at that moment is the Public Worlds page on the Kitely.com website. Login to the Kitely website and click the Public Worlds tab at the top of the page. You will be presented with a list of publicly available Kitely worlds. Whatever world in listed first – in the upper left of the world list – is the world with the most avatars active at the moment (or one of the most active worlds if two or more worlds are tied with the most active avatars).

Click on worlds in the list until you find one with a description that looks tempting to you. When you find a world you'd like to try, click on the “Enter World” button near the upper right corner of the page. If you are already in-world in Kitely you should automatically be teleported to the selected world. If you are not in-world when you click the Enter World button, you will need to start up your viewer and log into Kitely. Use the “log into last location” option. The Kitely website will automatically substitute the world you just selected for the last location you actually visited and you will enter the selected world.

Another good way to find other people to interact with in Kitely is to attend events in world. Virtually all public events are announced on the Kitely forums under the “Events and Activities” forum.

(end document)

This is not a complete first draft, but it was all I could complete at this point. I hope to finish it within the next day or two, possibly with the guidance or assistance of other interested Kitely residents. I would also welcome a discussion of this document at the Kitely Mentors Group meeting on 1/15/2014 if there is enough time and interest.

[Constance Peregrine]

There is another, what some may call a tip, that when in a no build region/parcel/etc you can wear a box of items, put it in edit, and drag any of the items into wherever you wish in your inventory.

Nice for when you can't find a sandbox, or build place, or are in a hurry.

[Dot Matrix]

A good, clearly written summary.

Are the last two bullet points going to be tackled in the document, or are they the subject of a second one?

[Deuce Halsey]

Miney, thanks for the tip. I had never heard of that one before. I'll have to give it a try. That sounds like something that would be appropriate for the "Getting Settled in Kitely" document.

Dot, the first three bullets are fleshed out in the document posted above. The intention is to flesh out the rest of them before the document is released. The posting above is all I could get done for this week. I wanted to post it several hours before the Mentors Group meeting so people could read it in case we get a chance to discuss it today.

The second document was supposed to be the one intended for Merchants who were getting started in Kitely. I'll try to get around to writing at least an outline for that one next week. I believe the tentative title discussed last year was "Setting Up Shop in Kitely".

[Constance Peregrine]

Miney, thanks for the tip. I had never heard of that one before. I'll have to give it a try. That sounds like something that would be appropriate for the "Getting Settled in Kitely" document.

Welcome-))

I learned that one while watching someone [I often use my radar to focus on people as I am such a curious cat I have used my 9 lives and more!!] and saw them attach a box of avie stuff, then it started rezzing on them, thought it was pretty cool-))

[besides, I like tricks]

[Chav Paderborn]

Your best bet for finding a Kitely world with people active in it at that moment is the Public Worlds page on the Kitely.com website. Login to the Kitely website and click the Public Worlds tab at the top of the page. You will be presented with a list of publicly available Kitely worlds. Whatever world in listed first – in the upper left of the world list – is the world with the most avatars active at the moment (or one of the most active worlds if two or more worlds are tied with the most active avatars).

This is what I've been doing, only it gets me worlds with one person in them, usually the person who's busy building that world. I've been spending most of my time uploading/making things, but again that's in an empty sandbox. As far as I understand it, people are all hidden on worlds that I can't get to. Would I have more luck if I was premium and could go to the metered worlds?

[Constance Peregrine]

Chav, you can go to metered worlds where they have opted to pay for your time [regular accounts], such as my own.

But since the one I have here is also one I have in Metropolis, you, don't really need to...lolol

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Chav,

You will see more people in public worlds with a Premium Account - you'd see the people who are in public worlds that are set to only allow Premium Account users. The majority of people, however, are found in private worlds that you won't see listed in the Public Worlds page. The best way to know when those people are inworld is to friend them - you'll then see them listed as online in your viewer.

[Selby Evans]

I will be interested in posting some of this material in my blog:
http://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/
You might write it as several guest posts if you like, or I might pick up excerpts if you permit. There would be links to the website of the entire document, of course.

I would want each post to focus on a single topic so that readers can select from the table of contents what they want to read about. I think the majority of my readers are familiar with SL, but not with Opensim, so that would be the main audience I would want to aim at.

Selby

[Constance Peregrine]

I just love your profile photo Selby-))