Welcome Center: Which worlds to showcase?

[Sherrie Melody]

Giving them a landmark is good

I just thought of something. When the new user first creates their account, where is their "Home position" set to? If their home was set to the welcome center until they created their first world, that might help things too.

[Sarge Misfit]

Re Sarge's question. I'd recommend establishing parameters.

For example, we already know that we prefer not to link to worlds that take too long to load. So could rapid loading be one criteria?

--Allen

Regarding the long-time-to-load issue, and I'm not intending to derail, but I'm wondering if there's some sort of server-side particle effect that could be done, sort of like the light show that Star Trek transporters have.

[Danko Whitfield]

The "waiting to load" problem is a serious issue. But we already have a built-in answer that can save Dot and other organizers time if this can work...

Would it be possible to route them to a Transfer Station while they wait? Then you don't have to come up with a build or gimmick to entertain them or a manner to explain what is going on, it's already there.

Not sure if it is logistically/technically possible but if it is, at least for your short-term goal for Stage 1, I think it's a good solution to the problem.

[Ilan Tochner]

With some work we could change the teleport logic to immediately TP into a transfer station if the world is offline but that would have to be system-wide not just for TPs out of the KWC. The question is whether that is the preferred behavior when TPing into offline worlds...

World ranking on the Public Worlds page takes multiple heuristics into consideration. Worlds that are on the first few pages when there aren't people inside them are very likely to be interesting but there are great worlds that have low Public World rankings because they lack a description, have no likes, have no image and you couldn't tell they are the treasures that they are just from looking at their world page (we have inworld heuristics but they don't get a lot of weight in the calculations as value is hard to quantify from build statistics).

There are various beautiful worlds on Kitely (Devokan worlds, Karima Hoisan worlds and David Denton worlds (both covered in Prim Perfect), and too many others to mention), there are worlds that belong to interesting groups (education, HIV awareness, art galleries, etc.), and there are worlds that people may find useful (e.g. Kitely Merchants Sandbox, Maria Korlov's free-access G-rated version of the Linda Kellie Freebie mall, etc.).

There are more than 4000 worlds on Kitely so we can only showcase a very small sample percentage wise. Our goal should be to showcase the worlds that would help convert someone who is checking out Kitely to an active user. Worlds that offer free access should probably be given more weight as they don't consume people's Minutes and show that people can have a lot of fun in Kitely for free.

We need to have good billboards for all the worlds we include (the World Page images aren't always as flattering as they could be). I think a template that includes an inworld image (no text overlayed on it), the world's name, maybe a 2-line description and possibly a "Touch to Enter" button somewhere on it. We don't want White billboards with images on them - we want the showcased world's billboards to look professional as well. It's all about leaving a good first impression with visitors, I doubt they'll visit most of the worlds we showcase but seeing that there are good looking ones that serve many purposes can give the right impression of what we have to offer.

As for startup times, having a measurement of how long worlds take to start up can help us decide where those worlds will be shown (average of 3 startups on different times/days should be a good approximation). We can have some indicator on the billboards of worlds that take longer to start that the teleport time may be longer (some standard graphical overlay convention or a different "Touch to Enter" button).

Long term we'll want to have an automated mechanism to switch billboards periodically and replace ones for worlds that are not available (suspended world due to lack of payment, deleted world, etc.). However for the first phase we're just going to have to choose a few dozen worlds that leave a good impression and stick with them until we roll out phase 2. The worlds we choose are more likely to be ones that have unique content than ones that use the same freebie content people use everywhere (unless the world's purpose is of very high promotional value for Kitely).

[Danko Whitfield]

Ilan wrote:
With some work we could change the teleport logic to immediately TP into a transfer station if the world is offline but that would have to be system-wide not just for TPs out of the KWC. The question is whether that is the preferred behavior when TPing into offline worlds...

My answer to that question would be No.

If it has to be system wide, I don't think that's the way to go. Too bad it has to be that way but I do understand. When I am in one world and TP to another, I actually enjoy the moment or two it takes for the system to TP me. I can stop for a moment, take a breath, stretch. I sometimes will cam around the world I am leaving one more time. I think it's a very pleasant experience. I would not want to see that changed.

[Sherrie Melody]

If it has to be system wide, I don't think that's the way to go. Too bad it has to be that way but I do understand. When I am in one world and TP to another, I actually enjoy the moment or two it takes for the system to TP me. I can stop for a moment, take a breath, stretch. I sometimes will cam around the world I am leaving one more time. I think it's a very pleasant experience. I would not want to see that changed.

I just replied about this subject in another thread. Although I sometimes actually experience awkwardness, while in the company of other people that I've told I was leaving, then was still there waiting, LOL, I really don't have a preference. Hanging around in one world till i can go to the next is fine, and so is teleporting to a transfer station to wait until the next world starts. Both are fine with me.

[Dot Matrix]

Extracting key elements from Ilan's post:

There are various beautiful worlds on Kitely..., there are worlds that belong to interesting groups..., and there are worlds that people may find useful...

...Our goal should be to showcase the worlds that would help convert someone ... to an active user. Worlds that offer free access should probably be given more weight...

We need to have good billboards for all the worlds we include... a template that includes an inworld image (no text overlayed on it), the world's name, maybe a 2-line description and possibly a "Touch to Enter" button...

...having a measurement of how long worlds take to start up can help us decide where those worlds will be shown (average of 3 startups on different times/days should be a good approximation). We can have some indicator on the billboards of worlds that take longer to start that the teleport time may be longer (some standard graphical overlay convention or a different "Touch to Enter" button).

... for the first phase we're just going to have to choose a few dozen worlds... The worlds we choose are more likely to be ones that have unique content...

"A few dozen worlds" is going to involve quite a bit of work, and we've only a couple of weeks to get all this done.

The holder design for the merchant billboards (work in progress) could be adapted for the world billboards.

Templates for the images for all billboards (i.e. Featured Merchant, Merchant, Showcase world) are yet to be worked out: size and placement of images, text elements, teleport button etc. -- any volunteers to help with that?

One way of building up a list of potential worlds might be to trawl through the first few pages of Search (OK to use just General/Moderate settings? Or should Adult worlds be included as well?)

Once the list is available, we'll need to check each world for start-up times. Lots of volunteers will be needed for this.

[Dot Matrix]

I've worked systematically through the first two general Search pages, in order, with settings for General and Moderate access, and choosing just one example if OAR-based builds are duplicated:

Universal Campus -- utility, one of the Kitely built-in world templates
Kitely Plaza -- community-built plaza (a bit laggy)
黑客不夜城 – Hackers Sleepless City -- a maze-based adventure hunt; storybuild; fun
Serenity Island -- layered build showing great variety -- good for exploring
Vana Bazaar and Botanical Garden -- utility, LK freebie furniture store and garden items, includes some hangout spots
Linda Kellie Freebie Mall -- utility, LK general mall
Retreat -- layered build with some Arcadia/Aley freebies -- slow loading
Northern Star -- a shared island build
CHARE Village -- HIV resource area
Devokan Trust -- storybuild; slow loading
Heresy Of The Intimate -- art; storybuild (see also Karima Hoisan's other lovely worlds -- not listed here for brevity)
Stuff -- utility, focus on free educational building supplies
Dragons' Teeth -- fantasy storybuild; gentle roleplay; fun
Regio Excelsior -- SciFi role play, supporting combat and non-combat -- includes Myriad RP system
MWorld -- 3x3 megaregion under development
Sri Isodhyana Online -- beautiful 3x3 world, with good learning trails for newcomers to virtual worlds
Circle Pines Center Rec Hall -- community center with NPCs and zombies in the wood
Midtown Arts Museum -- storybuild entry point for a complex set of other worlds on Kitely; steampunk; fun
Paradise Delight II -- Christian retreat
Ruminations -- a builder's personal sandbox

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

Long as it's a world with a proper description and picture that isn't unrelated to the LK clone world you arrive at..

Do I want zombies, Christians or HIV ?
Hmm..


I could suggest rotating (ie changing) boards based on the current most popular builds on the public page with a "wait time" indicator at the top of the board if Kitely keeps such metrics, but somehow that seems mean to the guys who aren't on the top of the list. A lot of good builds are way down the list, and a lot of incomplete or clone worlds float to the top Maybe add a word or two which describes the world. Maybe.

[Dot Matrix]

The list was just to try to focus minds and get discussion going -- it's not meant to be a definitive list for which worlds to include as showcases. These worlds are all free to explore.

It might be good to set up a similar list (avoiding duplicates) of the worlds that have images and descriptions but where you use your inworld minutes. There are some rather interesting examples there -- they start with the 100K prim test world. Try http://www.kitely.com/search?start=58 to get there quickly (using General+Moderate access settings).