Friday, December 5, 2008

My Second Life Sign Up Disaster

I'm part of the group of students who is analyzing virtual worlds and so, after getting my parents to sign the permission form, Mrs. Vicki suggested I go into Second Life.  After three days of frustration, I still have not been able to sign on!!! I hope someone will help me!

When I tried to make an account with Second Life, I started to make my avatar's name and make an account.

You have to get a security code sent your phone, but get this they will not allow you to send it to an Alltel number. (the service I have)

So, I had to borrow one of my friend's phones and put their number in. I finally finished and told it to create an account and when I did, it said the limit to a household or individual accounts has been reached!!  I don't understand.

When my friends tried to sign up, the same thing happened.  (Note from Mrs. Vicki:  I wonder if this has to do with the school's IP address and the fact that we are behind a firewall with one IP address at school.)

I have spent about four hours trying to create my account, and I have still been unable to log in.

10 comments:

Alfred Thompson said...

Have you tried looking at Second Life's help and support forums? I would think this might be a common problem for schools using SL.

Fisher said...

Can you try to do this at home, or perhaps at a public library? I would take that friend with you too...the one who's cell phone you used! Just so you know...some of my colleagues (who are technology integrators working with teachers and students) had quite a bit of trouble signing up for Second Life as well. If you still have trouble later, please email me at mfisher@e1b.org, and can put you into contact with our resident Second Life expert! -Mike Fisher (responding from original message posted on Twitter!)

Craig A. Cunningham said...

I think your teacher is correct about the IP address. Linden limits to 10 the number of accounts that can be created in any 24 hour period. Since your school appears to be one IP address, they blocked it. Your teacher can contact Linden technical support and ask that the block be lifted. But in my experience this is better handled by the estate owner. They have special Linden contact info.

Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher said...

@Craig - the problem is that we budgeted for money to buy an estate and Linden upped the price - it is now $2300 a YEAR - -we cannot afford that! So, he's exploring the teen grid with my supervision to compare and contrast to other worlds.

We want to create a digiteen island to teach digital citizenship and for now, I guess we're stuck. Lively was a great alternative for us - although not as rich as SL. The student will be in and check these comments as well! Thank you all!!!

@Alfred - we've looked and looked.

@Fisher - I'll suggest it as well and T-Rob will see your comments.

Thank you all for responding! I'm sure this is an issue in other places as well.

Sarah Stewart said...

I had to laugh at your post. I managed to log in to SL but took ages to get out of the orientation island. It was so funny seeing all the naked people walking around-I wondered what I had got myself into aka Petal Stransky

Anonymous said...

@Alfred- thank you for the advice I will look and try that.

Anonymous said...

@Fisher- I will try to join at my house. If it doesn't work, I will be notify you.
Thanks a lot,
T-rob

Beth Ritter-Guth said...

Hi there - I am not sure if this will help you, but the reason you can't get on from your house is because SL recognizes your IP address. If you go to another house, you will be OK. If you are at school, ask Miss Vicki to email Cladia Linden to white list your school's IPA.

Good Luck!!!

glad2be said...

In addition to the idea that the school's IP address might be the issue - using someone else's phone number (who may already have an account in SL) could also be an issue. Especially with the Teen Grid, Linden Labs is very careful to be sure that people aren't signing up for Teen SL under false pretenses. My son signed up for a Teen SL account using my email address (which had an account on the adult grid), and his account was quickly shut down until they could determine that he was really not the same person who had the adult account. Good luck!

Ms.H. said...

Have you looked at
RiverCity
? It is a virtual world put together for middle school science. It might be worth your time to ask what platform they wrote it on. Also, you might find out how they got NSF funding (who could maybe fund your SL Island?).

Good luck!