In order to join the SL-FST chats you need to create a secondlife account. The account is free, you join on the web. Its a bit of trouble learning to use the interface, but it is worth it. The topic of the chat depends on what the students bring to the table by way of questions etc, and I often teach things that are not part of FST.
Secondlife is a virtual world. In this world you are represented by an avatar form which can be human or just about anything you want. I have one that is a little glowing ball of light, but most people prefer a face to talk to. You can move around in the world, chat with other visitors, make friends, fly and explore the thousands of sims that welcome visitors. SL is not a game, there are no set goals or quests. The "Grid" representing the 50,000 or so sims (256mx256m square on the map) in secondlife is hosted on servers at Linden Labs, but almost everything in the world is created by residents, and it has a lively marketplace. There are artists in secondlife who make their real world rent with creations they sell to other residents, from clothes to houses to spaceships. People join secondlife for many different reasons, some are pursing a roleplay fantasy of an alternate life but many use it as a social network, meeting people with shared interests even if real names are never exchanged. Some universities have a presence there, so do some countries: virtual embassies and recreations of famous places promoting the tourist industry. Think of any author, movie, TV series, hobby or history, probably somebody has built it and has a group in secondlife.
Including me... I built Kundalini Mystic isle and filled it with shakti-charged interactive art, and it is where the FST chats are held. I have wanted to build a virual kundalini temple since the 90s but the technology wasnt up to it. Besides the artistic opportunities, two things intrigued me very much. One was people reporting they could feel my shakti field from my avatar even if I was away from the keyboard. The other was that if my avatar was standing for a long time, my physical feet would get tired. The effects of identification with the avatar form intrigued me and Goddess led me on a few years sl immersion doing research and the results are immesurable. One outcome is the island, virtual 3d shakti charged art that you immerse yourself in through your connection to your avatar.
First thing you are asked for is a name for your account, you can use your FST username or tearoom name if you want. Avoid licence plate style of adding numbers if the first name you choose is taken. Your name floats above your avies head in sl. Its best if it looks like a real name or nickname, friendly if it is less than 6 letters, and handy for later if its also a gender neutral name like Jamie or Starfish.
Some members have found benefit in getting to know their DB by making an avie for it and walking it around in the virtual, however sl allows you to make up to 5 avatar accounts so you can always do this later, let the DB choose its name and shape. I have found benefit in doing various experiements in consciousness regarding identification with the avatar form: try the purple yoga mats on the east side of the island and feel your physical body responding to the poses your avatar expresses. I have extended the energy based communication I use in FST lessons to secondlife art, and a visit to Yggdrasill or the Chakra temple can give nice energies to your rl self.
Many people just want sl for the chats, and if your computer is very slow you can use a text based viewer (metabolt) and you will see nothing but text. Other members will see you, so pick a nice looking av. Chat range is 20m, you wont be able to move but I will tp your av to stand in a corner within range.
Most of the chats are just sitting chatting but sl is a virtual world and the island has lots of k friendly toys so sometimes we do wander out of the temple, and a walkable avie is useful.
You have options for viewers, the new SL viewer2 is a bit difficult to get the hang of, look for the 3rd party viewers like coolviewer, firestorm or pheonix that use the old style viewer interface. The secondlife website has a page of approved 3rd party viewers, or google them for download. We got coolviewer to run on a netbook on a marina wifi... it was slow but it ran. A really good graphics card makes sl faster and prettier, especially the water but it will run on quite a minimal system and the graphics levels can be tweaked in preferences.
If the viewer says your grapics card is not compliant, it may just be that it isn't on their list. Don't worry, it probably will run. If your graphics card is overheating, it may be that dust in the computer is diminishing the effectiveness of the cooling fans. Take it apart enough to dust the fans. Do not vaccum, static can be damaging. Use an air compressor, cans of compressed air for blowing dust from computers are available.
If you are going to visit the chats with visuals, please plan ahead. Dont make a last minute avie and tp right to the chat from help island. SL has a bit of a learning curve so it is better to make your sl account a day in advance and spend an hour on the welcome island learning how to move, fly, teleport, rezz, move your camera view around, sit on furniture, change your clothes. On the welcome island you will find people with the word "Mentor" above their name. They are volunteers who help new people, and you can ask any of them for orientation lessons. The viewer also will help you, with information popups each time you do something new. I like the chats to focus on FST stuff, I dont want to spend 5 minutes explaining to the nervous noob how to sit down while everyone waits.
You can also use youtube: search Torley SL and you will find heaps of tutorial videos on how to do almost anything in sl.
When you feel comfortable with your avie, use the search> people for Mystress Weatherwax and send me an im telling me you are an FST student and your account name so I can add you to the FST members group for SL. In my profile picks section of my profile you will find a button to teleport to Kundalini Mystic Isle. At the gateway area look for a sign saying FST members home and a photo of a white temple. Click on it to tp (teleport) there or just begin the quest walking along the path you will spot it and the bridge to it. When you are added as a member you can set your home spot in white temple. With the group tag on you can rez there, unpack your shopping, change your clothes. Be sure to clean up, pick up what is rezzed before you go.
Lag: is the term for when something cannot keep up. You see it trying to scroll a web page when its not fully loaded.. controls arent responsive for a few seconds. With secondlife, the internet is communicating a lot of information on the surroundings, and updating all the time as people talk and move. Lag can have many sources. If there are a lot of people on a sim (>40) and a lot of scripts running the server can have trouble keeping track of it all and the sim will lag. More often, it is the network connection failing (I find wifi to be unreliable at times) or your computer cannot keep up with the incoming information. Turning your graphics down can help, choose custom and turn down your draw distance, reflections and shaders.
LL currency: secondlife money is called lindens, symbol is L$ and they run about 270L$ for 1 usd. So one linden is about 1/3 of a usa penny. If you are only coming to chats you wont need any, if you are going to spend time in sl then probably you will want some. Some things like taking a snapshot in sl and saving it to your sl inventory costs 10L. Saving snaps to your hard drive is free but if there are other people in your shot it is polite ask them first, and to save the snap to inventory and pass them a copy. I will often give FST noobs a few hundred L$ to get you started.
Customizing your avatar: My avie looks a lot like me, for your easy recognition! Near the landing point of KMI you will find a lot of boxes with FST logo on them, these contain free hair, skins, shapes, clothes etc for you to play with. The library folder of your inventory also usually has lots of stuff, including all of the avies you were offered when you signed up.
At least, pick up radar and flight feather. They are both HUDs, heads up display that appears on your monitor not your avatar. The feather allows your av to fly higher than the cloud layer, and radar shows a list of the names of all avatars within 96m of you on a corner of your monitor. Handy to see the names of who is in the chat. In a corner of the white temple near the fireplace are two spirally cones of landmarks (places to teleport to) and useful items.
Rating: There are three maturity ratings in sl: pg, mature and adult. Everyone can get into pg, but avatars under age 18 cannot get into mature. You have to verify your age by registering legal ID or a payment method to get into adult areas, and some may specify you need one or the other. KMI is set mature. Avatars can be quite anatomically correct so running around naked in pg or mature areas is frowned upon, and not all adult areas want it either.
SL customs:
When in rome do like the romans do.. well, maybe not the human sacrifices but you can experience that in sl if you want to.
Privacy: some say there is none on the internet, or in sl but nevertheless there are customs. Some areas of sl are private, you will find fences or devices that boot you off the land. People rent land in sl like you could rent webhosting, and be aware whether a place you visit is a public area, shop, park or a private residence.
In sl locking doors is useless because you can "disconnect your eyes" and let your camera do the walking, and you can teleport past walls. Security devices are wide ranging, nothing can really harm your avatar but devices range from a polite warning, a red banlines barrer to a security ball that will send your avatar home and add you to a ban list for that property.
Be respectful. There are tons and tons of public areas to visit, often privately hosted. You could go to the moon or spend a few hours in mexico or venice.
Kundalini mystic isle is public everywhere on the ground and up to 500m altitude. Above 500m is private although there are some public spaces wthin it like the Canadian embassy. Please respect the 500m privacy barrier and stay below it.
Gender and sex.
Yes there is sex in sl... quite a lot of it and in varieties you never thought of and probably a whole lot you never wanted to. If you choose to play sexy in sl, be reminded that it is a fantasy world and people there are not what they seem, they are their fantasy selves.
The quote goes "80% of new users to sl are men. 30% of them choose a male avatar." Do you think the rest choose robots, or puppies? No. Mens reasons given for choosing a fem avie range from "I would rather follow her ass around all day" to "part of pre op therapy for my rl transgender surgery." Translated, it means only 20% of female residents are female behind the keyboard, actually less because some of the women are probably wearing an av of a male, robot or dragon.
Most people when it comes to sexy play, most want to know the rl gender of their partner. The people who play opposite roles and lie about it, tell themselves "its only a game" and some of them break hearts. The emotional intensity of SL can catch you by surprise, most sl relationships dont last 2 months. A lot of people do not want to talk about their rl, sl is an escape for them.
Men are centered in the power chakra and women are centered in the heart, so if your discernment is working you can detect someones gender online by where the energy of their chat touches you. There are visual cues as well, which women are better at spotting than men. If its all T&A with a tiny head and dressed like a stripper, its probably male.
There are a few "cultural groups" in sl you want to avoid. One is a sort of vampiric pyramid scheme called bloodlines, if someone asks to bite your neck, just say no, and a moment wearing the garlic necklace will make the bite requests disappear. The game says the bite steals your soul and since the soul has a tendency to go where you think it, I have done too many soul retrivals because of this stupid game.
In the 60s and 70s a philosphy professior with the pseudonym John Norman wrote a series of extremely sexist SF novels about an alternate earth called Gor where the people were kept in a primitive state by alien overlords and any woman who showed a trace of sexual interest could be claimed as a slave by any man, and have fewer rights than a cow. Especially kidnapped earth women. Slave training in a gor novel looks like a manual for inducing stockholm syndrome and it has spawned a few real life communities and at least one serial killer. They are very friendly to noobs in secondlife, looking for fresh meat... and best to avoid.
Overall, sl is very safe, when in doubt "My rl is calling" (real life) and log off or teleport away. I think more than anything it can be emotionally dangerous. People feel safe and anonymous behind their avie, which at times makes them more naked... like how they use dolls to get children to identify sex abuse. The sense of distance from the puppet makes people feel safe, and open up more. People fall in love with a fantasy.
By the same token, it makes an emotionally safe and intimate space for the FST chats. There is a sense we really are gathered in the same room, more than with web only chats. You can adjust your preferences to archive your chat and ims onto your hard drive. You are allowed to do this, but as with this tearoom, do not share the text of the chat with anyone, even another member who was not there.