Welcome Center: Which worlds to showcase?

[Dot Matrix]

One of the features of the Welcome Center is to provide portals of some description to showcase worlds, with an accompanying photo or representative object.

The question is: Which worlds would Kitely members recommend including as showcase worlds? And why?

Please put your thoughts below. Add a photo if you think it would help.

Thanks!

[Sarge Misfit]

And how to avoid accusations of favouritism

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Thought I should clarify. I have seen cases where people would get on the FUD bandwagon shouting favouritism when the organizers where truly and honestly acting impartially when showcasing something. With the end result being something that was ugly and divisive. I raise this point to open discussion on how to avoid that.

[Allen Partridge]

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

[Dot Matrix]

The problem with setting parameters is that it might narrow choice, and at this stage it would be good to have as wide a choice as possible.

Maybe when recommending a world add a note on whether it takes a while to load, so that the choice is still there whether to include it (or not) at a later stage.

For example, some worlds such as Serenity Island do take a while to load, but they are good to explore. The 100K prim example world might be another potential showcase, simply to show technical possibilities.

[Sherrie Melody]

How many worlds will be showcased? Will the showcase area be set up and never changed, or will it be updated from time to time?

[Danko Whitfield]

It would seem to make sense to include a few of the most popular worlds...as in the worlds that get the most visitors or the longest visits. Is that something Kitely already measures?

I don't exactly know the criteria for which worlds show up on the first 2 or 3 pages of the Public Worlds page. I do understand that worlds that are currently up and running because they have a visitor(s) show up near the top of the list. I don't know why other worlds regularly make the top three pages but I assume it has something to do with their popularity. So I would think some of them should be featured in the Welcome Center. I know my world, Evergreen is always on the 2nd or 3rd page of the Public Worlds pages so I think it should be a candidate.

But popularity should, of course, not be the only criteria. There should be some subjectivity - not just objectivity - in the decision as beauty is in the eye of the beholder or so I've read. What I'm getting at is there are likely some very beautiful or very interesting worlds that would be marvelous selling points for Kitely that for whatever reason are simply not well known. A few of these should be included.

I don't know how many worlds you are looking for...but I would think the elements that should factor in include: popularity, beauty, interesting-ness , all of the various sizes (number of regions), worlds that highlight the presence in Kitely of various communities, various load times, worlds that appeal to different activities - that are good to explore or that are good to sit and take in or that have interactive elements for the visitor or are nice to photograph, etc.

covering a lot of territory in this comment but the bottom line is to show a bit of everything that Kitely has to offer.

[Dot Matrix]

How many worlds will be showcased? Will the showcase area be set up and never changed, or will it be updated from time to time?

I'm not sure that anyone knows how this will work out in the future, permanent, stage 2 version of the Welcome Center. There will need to be some sort of mechanism whereby world links are checked, changed and updated periodically.

But stage 1 will be up only as long as it needs to be, while stage 2 is being developed -- ideally only to the end of this year, so just four months, if that.

[Dot Matrix]

I don't know how many worlds you are looking for...but I would think the elements that should factor in include: popularity, beauty, interesting-ness , all of the various sizes (number of regions), worlds that highlight the presence in Kitely of various communities, various load times, worlds that appeal to different activities - that are good to explore or that are good to sit and take in or that have interactive elements for the visitor or are nice to photograph, etc.

A good summary -- thanks, Danko!

[Sherrie Melody]

I don't know how many worlds you are looking for...but I would think the elements that should factor in include: popularity, beauty, interesting-ness , all of the various sizes (number of regions), worlds that highlight the presence in Kitely of various communities, various load times, worlds that appeal to different activities - that are good to explore or that are good to sit and take in or that have interactive elements for the visitor or are nice to photograph, etc.

covering a lot of territory in this comment but the bottom line is to show a bit of everything that Kitely has to offer.

I also like Danko's summary. There should be variety in what is showcased. I would take care to give fair warning to visitors if showcasing worlds that take a long time to load. New visitors to Kitely may get discouraged waiting around several minutes to go see a world, and then upon arriving, be stuck in place for a few more minutes while things rez. If we've been around for a while, we may already know it's worth the wait, but new people should be told in the sign up front so they know before clicking

In worlds that are showcased, I wonder if there should be a teleport device placed that will take them back to the welcome center? I don't know how easy it would be for a new person to get lost.

[Dot Matrix]

Two good points, Sherrie. Thanks.

One way to cater for the different lengths of times worlds take to start up is to think about placing the links to the faster ones on the exploring pathways closer to the initial landing point of the Welcome Center, and the slower ones further away. Alternatively, the slower ones might be grouped within one of the buildings, and the faster ones kept on the pathways.

Paislee and I were talking about the pathways the other day, and wondered whether something like a kiosk with posters for various worlds might work as a portal device. I'm not sure whether this would work, but if the poster were a web page, would it be possible to automatically change the world it links to from time to time? (I'm hoping one of the clever coding people might comment on this).

I also like the idea of the teleport device back to the welcome center -- but that might be easier to implement by giving newcomers a landmark.