I was on the web in the beginning, it was all university info, some personal home pages. But some of the early e-commerce sites where based around sex and gambling as well as early leading edge adopters.

How do we know that the SL frequent hours audience is really 50 yrs and over.

The search for friends function needs to be on the friends / contacts tab, KIS, I don’t want to have to click onto another tab to find people, where can’t I do it where the people are listed. Still you have an added SNS problem of not knowing their SL AV name.

I guess that’s why Google puts their search box right smack in the middle of the screen, near the top?

No one wants the Lindens to put the search button on the *bottom* — it’s great to put it at the top. The problem is that the Sheep viewer defaults at the top to a small box that says SEARCH ALL, which produces junk — it requires “just knowing” that you have to drill down to see the other tabs where most sales occur — classifieds and search PLACES.

And frustrated, the newbie looks right to see the SHOP button where he goes to only the ESC shopping site.

The web wasn’t “founded on sex” lol. This is one of those myths people perpetrate and backdate to “fit” SL. The web was founded on pictures of people’s cats. So is SL.

SL’s greatest number of user hours are put in by the 50 years or older set.

And you’re making a very grave mistake if you look through the Geek Keyhole and assume that only your socializing/lack of socializing habits matter for a platform like this — I don’t know why you’re jamming on me as suffering from this problem of not understanding that not everyone socializes the same way — you need to hear it too.

The majority of people — even those there for education or business, socialize. They don’t stay welded to an open script and fiddle with LSL for 10 hours. That’s a percentage of people; it’s not the typical user at this point.

The presence of your friends is immediately visible in a list. If you want to look for other people, that’s in a tab.

@Jasmin Tried to find details on the SL mobile edition, but if this does exist this would be a major more onto the upcoming future web platform.

I agree once you get into SL, and start to understand its all good. But that initial nOOb experience is the major roadbloack.

In regards to dressing your avatar, I found this experience to be GREAT! It helped me to discover the controls, I met people who showed me places so discovered the social side, synergised with my avatar as I created “Jazzydee”. I still love to shop there

I find the only time of day SL is lacking in residents due to geography is mid afternoon. I rarely have time to get into SL that time of day anyway so it is not a big issue for me. Most of my SL contacts are from overseas. People tend to be flexible to meet late/early and some of the funniest conversations are when it is late morning here and the US team are dog tired :p

I believe SL has been adapted for a mobile interface a while back - will try to find the link.

Downloads? Not a big issue for me. Think they have resolved the huuuuuge regular download with smaller upgrades.

So yes there is lots of room for improvement, HUDS tend to look positively awful. However out of all the virtual worlds I have looked at, SL seems to be most intuitive in terms of controls. I am not a gamer - too confusing (I drive automatic, not manual!) but find it easy in SL now I am used to it.

Why not - well, for many of the reasons you have listed -

1. I do not have enough time - the loading, downloading and general technology requirements of getting in in the first place have stopped me playing.

2. I’m scared of how much time it will eat up when i’m there. Blogging, twittering and other occupations already take heaps of time, and I’m not sure that my children/husband/friends would survive yet another computer distraction.

3. I suppose I’m a bit intimidated - I’m not used to feeling like a total newbie any more - and am not sure I can cope with it! - probably all the more reason to do it….. remind me of what an uncomfortable place it is.

4. I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with the idea of a second life - given the complexities of life 1.

So I’m currently watching, listening and learning people I admire and respect explore in the hope that something will go ping and I will need to explore.

Is there a future for it - almost certainly - but probably not in exactly the same format - I agree, it will need to be more intuitive and less intimidating.

Also I’m not characterising SL as focused on sex. But like the web before it, SL has been founded on the two vices of commerce sex and gambling. There is nothing wrong with this, its human nature.

Capturing a Teen or Gamer market is not going mainstream. Getting the Mums and Dads and young twenty-somethings on board is going mainstream.

You are making the assumption all tech people are into socialising, this is very bad stereotype. One that I think we can dismiss.

Asleep time, yes there is, with the defined language belts there are dramatic decreases in the people with that language being on SL responsive to the level of population and the time zone.

@NathanaelB - Yes the UI does need more work, its just to complex, it needs a radical simplification.

To characterize this as a place where you can’t find avatars or things outside of the sex scene is absurd. You just type search terms in the browser. It’s not some anal walled garden; in fact, you could even use the search box on the web site and start to come up with some SLURLs, which are addresses that open up SL and pull up a map, where you can press on the target and go there.

You need not face some of those roadblocks if you bypass the orientation island, simply going to the large, marked kiosks all over these islands that give you landmarks to go to infohubs, from there, again, use SEARCH PLACES and…go to the locations of interest.

You wouldn’t expect to parachute into Grand Central Station for the first time and suddenly make fast friends and have rich, rewarding intellectual conversations. You have to search on the events list, fly around, etc.

And decide what you are there for, and why you want to use it, just like real life. It will not be entertaining you, just like real life, until you put some things together — in real life, you have to figure out at least how to turn on the TV, pick up the phone, or go to the movies if you want entertainment and socializing, and it’s really easy to do the same thing in SL.

If you came there with such a dynamic group of friends, why don’t you *make* the thing you fail to find in SL?

That’s how it works.

Millions of kids do not find downloading software from Blizzard to play World of Warcraft an “obstacle”. Not on your life. This idea that everything has to be a web browser and not a download is just a geek obsession. People walk around it.

And people without technical backgrounds, like me, land there and learn how to use it fairly quickly, it really isn’t that big a deal if you just explore and fly around and find something to do, and not set yourself the task of building the Taj Mahal the first day.

It’s always seemed to me that there’s reason tech gurus don’t take to SL and hate it — it’s been made for people to use without them. That’s basically the story that prompts tekkies to claim SL isn’t so ready for the masses, because quite a few masses did come there *without them* and start socializing and making businesses.

Does that mean the interface isn’t clunky? No, of course it has its issues, but the viewer is open-sourced, so you’re welcome to make a better one.

There is no kind of “asleep” time now in SL now that there are far more Europeans than Americans, and a booming population of Latin Americans and Asians. Sorry, that kind of comment just reveals lack of actual showing up and studying SL.