A Plea to Firestorm from OpenSim

[Ada Radius]

I sent someone to the website, less VR experienced, and we couldn't get it done either. What he needed was:
A button on the home page that says START HERE or something like that, that links to a page that has:
DOWNLOAD PLUGIN
a list of the acceptable viewers and links to where to get them.
Instructions on installing the plugin and a viewer.
A link to more complex stuff like configuring other viewers (he'll never click on that, lol)
A brief description of the pricing concept with a link to the full explanation.

Something like that - easy to find, easy for an intelligent noob to follow.

I couldn't find the information pages until I looked up the forum posts where Ilan posted the links, nor the place to get the Kitely plugin. Googling didn't work - it kept asking me if I wanted the Kitty plugin.

[Bladyblue Bommerang]

Googling didn't work - it kept asking me if I wanted the Kitty plugin.

I'm afraid to google that.

[Marstol Nitely]

We're taking your feedback to heart and will be making changes to simplify the login process for people who are trying to login for the first time and/or trying to login directly via the viewer.

That said, I think the best way to allready help people who are new to Kitely get inworld is to give them one of your world pages and tell them to just press the Enter World button without trying to instruct them to install anything ahead of time. This is what people who just stumble into our site do and many of them succeed in getting inworld.

This does the following:

Once an Enter World button is pressed it detects whether the Kitely Plugin is installed. If the plugin isn't found, the Enter World button is replaced with an Install Kitely Plugin button which, when pressed, sends the user an installer for the plugin.

Once our browser plugin is installed it will check whether the user has an OpenSim-compatible virtual world viewer installed. If one is detected then the button turns back into an Enter World button (which will work as expected). If a viewer isn't found the button is replaced with an Install Virtual World Viewer button which, when pressed, sends the user an installer for the OpenSim-compatible version of Firestorm.

Once the Kitely Plugin detects that a compatible viewer is installed the user should be all set for automatic login and the button will turn back into the Enter World button.

The only problem we're currently aware of in this software installation procedure is that a user who has the SL-only version of Firestorm installed but no OpenSim-compatible version of that viewer (or one installed in a non-default directory) will get the viewer automatically launched (when an Enter World button is pressed) but won't be able to log into Kitely. We've already added a feature to overcome this problem and are just waiting for the Firestorm team to roll out an OpenSim-compatible version of Firestorm that installs in a different default directory before we can enable it. Once enabled, this new feature will provide users who already have the SL-only version of Firestorm installed with an installer for a Firestorm version which works with Kitely as well.

The aforementioned login process is a pretty straight forward with high completion rates for people who actually begin it. The best way to get people into Kitely is therefore to tell them to just go to some world page (yours or one from the Public Worlds page), press the big Enter World button they see and install everything it sends them. If they complain that their Firestorm viewer was launched but they couldn't log in then (until we automate this solution) just give them the following link to download the OpenSim-compatible version of Firestorm: http://www.kitely.com/file?type=viewer

[Marstol Nitely]

A quick update:

As part of the usability improvements we'll be adding, we just updated the FAQ with links to download the plugin and the viewer. If you want to point people to an official answer for how to set up their system for Kitely then please direct them to this FAQ question: http://www.kitely.com/faq?id=how-do-i-g ... ess-kitely

[Adagio Greenwood]

Very nice, thank you! What would you think of adding some screenshots? I know it sounds incredibly elementary but some folks really do seem to need that level of hand-holding.

Also, I think you had mentioned at some point the possibility of having brand new accounts enter some sort of reception area (I am imagining it might look like Linda Kellie's Conference Center: http://lindakellie.com/New/?page_id=1145) If they are VW newbies, they would need such a place to learn the basics; if they were more experienced users, they might still appreciate a moment to catch their breath, pimp their avvies a bit and figure out how to access the other public worlds. Just a thought........

Adagio

[Bladyblue Bommerang]

Also, I think you had mentioned at some point the possibility of having brand new accounts enter some sort of reception area (I am imagining it might look like Linda Kellie's Conference Center: http://lindakellie.com/New/?page_id=1145) If they are VW newbies, they would need such a place to learn the basics; if they were more experienced users, they might still appreciate a moment to catch their breath, pimp their avvies a bit and figure out how to access the other public worlds. Just a thought........

Adagio

I think the new Kitely Plaza might be one of those places.