Previously
- Starting in Second Life 1: Creating an Account
- Starting in Second Life 2: Installing the Firestorm Viewer
- Starting in Second Life 3: Firestorm First-Run and Player Welcome
- Starting in Second Life 4: Movement -- Jump Down, Turnaround, Fly Away Home
- Starting in Second Life 5: THROWN OFF THE ISLAND? Getting Back Anywhere. Mostly
- Starting in Second Life 6: Howdy Stranger! Getting Chatty
- Starting in Second Life 7: Friends? I Hardly Know You!
- Starting in Second Live 8: And Now for an Important Message from ...
For now, notice that there is an option to IM anyone listed in People Nearby (shown).
That extends to anyone whose profile is viewed.
As a newbie, I wanted to let my friend Rena, who told me about Second Life, know that I had created an account. I let her know by direct communication that I have "tyronube" as my account. (Yes, I am both of them. Play along with me here.)
Rena Finds Her Friend
Rena used the Search button to toggle up a Second Life search dialog.
Using the Firestorm Search panel People search, Rena finds that "tyronube" is unique and that the profile is for a 15-day-old newbie.
Clicking "Add Friend" starts the friendship-invitation procedure.
The request is sent without changes to the default message already included.
There is a confirmation notification.
The notification is in the upper-right corner of the Firestorm window.
Important Tip. This "notification area" needs to be kept clear so that notifications are never obscured by any dialog panels there. There is other useful information in this corner of Firestorm. Explore that later.
Tyronube and Rena Connect
As tyronube, I see there is something new in Chat as the chat button blinks in a changed color.
Opening Chat, there is the Friendship offer from Rena.
We chat it up.
There are some important features of the Conversations panel that are now visible.
- The text box (next to "Send") in the panel indicates where an entry will be directed. Pay attention. It can be embarrassing to have sent something to the wrong conversation.
- The Contacts list indicates which conversation is currently selected by color.
- The Contacts list indicates any conversation that has new messages with the lightened background.
- A conversation may also receive notifications (as for the friendship invitation). As soon as the offer from Rena was accepted, Rena's online status was also notified.
Switching to Nearby chat provides further evidence of the kinds of notifications reported there.
Some private notifications will be echoed in Nearby Chat. They are not visible to others. There are limited notifications about other avatars that appear in your Nearby Chat also. There will be further examples as these tutorials progress.
Chat messages are time-stamped and the speaker is identified. Names of speakers are another access to account profiles.
Staying in Touch
Now that there are some friends, the People panel Friends tab becomes useful.
Rena is shown as online. Friend Ebony (the inspiration for this tutorial) has already been connected; she is not in-world at the moment. Tyronube's on-line status is visible to both of her friends. That's indicated with the "eye" symbol status toggle.
IM messages that are sent to someone who is away will be delivered.
Email notifications to your Second Life account will report unread messages that have arrived for you. And when you log in, there will be conversations that have the unread messages held for you.
The log of some past chatting (the dim text) is also retained along with the saved messages you hadn't received yet.
Although I had friends to connect with here already, this ability to sustain communication, in context, is also yours for any friends you connect. There's more ahead.
Continuation:
Last updated 2022-12-09
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