As with any specific place and time, there are traditions, local phrases and customs, and manners. There are also things that are really annoying to other players (though you might not know that at first, until it happens to you or you have spent many hours in world.)

Now, let me be clear: is there a certain way you have to act or should act in SL? No. One of the greatest things about SL is that you can act however you want to act, speak however you want to speak. Express however you want!

OK, now that we have that established, let's say that you want to get something done in SL. For example, you want to trade with people, make friends, participate in groups and role play games, get help building, have a party... you get the idea. If you want to interact with people in SL and get things done, there are ways that work... and ways that don't work.

By etiquette, I mean the ways that work; the manners an attitudes that produce positive results for you.

So here's how to learn all the tips and etiqeutte quickly and easily. This can give you quite a jump in the game - especially the social aspects, which can be tricky for some folks.

These are 'generic' etiquettes. Second Life has about a thousand different subworlds, where the exact etiquette varies. For example, being Caledon-style (19th Century Victorian) polite in the City of Lost Angels (Vampyre-Demon battleground) is likely to get you killed (City of Lost Angels is a full damage sim, by the way. You can die there.)

So, these tips are for the general lands and people and places, not the specialty sims or game lands. Keep an open mind, be curious and casual, and remember that old axiom "when in Rome...", and you should be fine.