@Adeon
Agree 100%
And for the record, that's a large part of why I *do* advocate the idea of community gateways. Because right now the 'welcome' to SL is anything but, and I sincerely believe residents can do it better than what we have now.
It might take a bit of a rethink and rehash compared to what's been tried before, sure.
I also don't believe preloading or building areas into the client is the answer, unless you're going to have a seperate 'starter pack' client for newbies, given the frequency of viewer updates.
@Alazarin
That's certainly an interesting idea. Coupled with 'pick an avatar' on the registration pages, and moulded into 'themed signups', a specific destination and custom inventory etc based upon that choice could be a neat boost to starting a new resident on their chosen path, compared to presenting a confusing array of choice that they won't immediately get a handle on.