View source for Orientation Islands

[[Image:Orientation Island - 05-27-05.jpg|thumb|right|One of the Orientation Islands; users start on the left and work to the right learning basic skills. Date: 05/27/05]]All new SL members starts on one of several Orientation Islands.

'''The Orientation [[Island]]s''', originally named "Prelude", did not always exist, having been added sometime in closed [[Beta]]. [[Jessie]], now a [[combat]] [[sim]], was originally a copy of Prelude that [[Linden Lab]] put on the [[grid]] so people could see what it was like. 

They [[feature]] small stations that teach [[new user]]s the basic operations of [[Second Life]]. Each "Orientation Station" teaches a different aspect, such as [[camera]] zooming, basic [[chat]]ting, and [[avatar|appearance mode]] features, among other things. Each station also used to give [[money]] when a task is completed (though most of the [[resident]]s never realised that). Although many [[notecard]]s refer to this money, the practice was discontinued sometime before [http://history.secondserver.net/index.php/Second_Life_Through_The_Ages#1.6 SL1.6] was released.

For most of [[SL]] history there were only four Orientation Islands, but they were recently expanded to nine, although only six of which are generally in use at any given time. All of them are visible only to [[Linden]] employees and hidden from normal residents on the [[mainland]]. Once a user leaves the Orientation Islands they can never return, so it is always suggested that new users complete all there is to do on the island before leaving.

This "forbidden fruit" was, in the early days, a tantalizing challenge for the more technically-minded residents--[[James Miller]], in particular, became a living legend among Linden employees for coming up with interesting new ways of getting into them.

[[Mentor]]s, [[Greeter]]s, [[Live Help]]ers and some Lindens have access to the Orientation Island sims and to [[Help Island]]

When a new user is ready to leave Orientation Island they are given a choice between the mainland and Help Island. If they choose the mainland, they receive a [[landmark]] which [[teleport]]s them to the [[Welcome Area]] (split between [[Ahern]] and [[Waterhead]]). The Orientation Stations are also setup in [[Yamato]] located in [[Dore]] for anyone to go over the basics again.

==Links==
===Forum===
* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=1524 "Emphasize rating importance during Prelude." (Dave Zeeman post from 26-03-2003)]
* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=1587 "My Second Life" (Zeta Omega post from 29-03-2003)]
* [http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=1619 "Prelude Sim?" (Bino Arbuckle post from 01-04-2003)]
[[Category:Sims]]
[[Category:Linden Sims]]