Someone told me this when I first started and it really is important. New players often don't realize all the things that happen when you die and how it starts to tip the balance away from your team. Almost no enemy champion death is worth the trade. Play conservatively, don't over-reach. Don't get ahead of your minions and DON'T get into a field of enemy minions next to a tower to chase an enemy.

Things that happen when you die:

• They get a big boost of gold for your death.
• You aren't farming gold or xp so you fall behind
• Your enemy IS farming gold and xp so they get ahead
• Your partner in lane now has to handle it on his own so it limits his ability to farm
• Your enemy in lane isn't getting poked so farming is easier for them
• Your enemy in lane doesn't require 2 people to cover the lane anymore so they can wander over and gank another team mate.
• Now that they're ahead of you in levels and gear, they can farm faster and easier so they'll get farther ahead.
• They are ahead in levels and gear so they can push the lane faster.

^

I came to LoL after Runescape, in which I did alot of Dungeoneering, and the most efficient way to do that was to not care about death at all. So when I got here, I had the same mindset, and ended up feeding alot.

Luckily, it was fairly easy to unlearn.

Yeah, this is actually good advice. I mean, if new players spend time thinking about how to not feed then they will start to learn a bunch of things such as:
What champion abilities cause them to die
What behaviors they display in game that cause them to die (such as getting out of position)

Then from that information you can learn a whole new set of things to get better at the game. such as:
What abilities champions have and how to counter those champions in lane to kill them
What behaviors enemy champions display so I can catch them out of position.

Thank you, Oddible, for taking the time to explain WHY someone should avoid dying, instead of just yelling at people "stop feeding newb". While I know all these things now, I had to find them out on my own, and spent my first week in the game getting yelled at. A lot of people joining this game have been steeped in the current generation of games where dying is that inconvenient thing that looses you 30 seconds of progress. Don't get me wrong, now that I understand it, I appreciate a mechanic that adds weight to character death. I just feel that if more players would take the time to explain all this, like you did, newbs would be much, much more receptive. So, enjoy your +1. You earned it.

That's actually very well-phrased advice. It's easy to forget that not everyone comes into this game understanding that dying is a big deal. When someone says (almost incoherently) "omg bg fk this noob kaylr stop fedding", they may interpret it as "You are dying a lot, which means you are bad, which means we probably won't win" when in fact the real message they mean to send is "You are dying a lot, and that is what's making us lose the game." Unless you understand the mechanics of the game, that's not obvious.

Mental toughness is required to maintain the mindset of not dying. There are players, which you should mute, that berate you for not dying because "not dying means not trying." Your lanemate will dive two or even three people, die, and then spam you with insults because you didn't go in to help him. Hey I didn't go in because there's no way we could win that trade... "You f-ing suck at this game noob if you don't want to fight play Hello Kitty etc.."

People who are not skilled will constantly nag you if you don't fight recklessly but then they get mad if you feed. You really can't win with the community. Not dying and being smart with knowing if you could win the fight before you engage is definitely a better skill-set to have, rather than always diving in and cross your fingers that you will be the winner.

Probably true, I've certainly been yelled at for not following my lane partner into a sea of enemy minions next to a tower and two health enemies to chase down a third that had 1 hp bar left. Of course 1 death (my lane partner with the poor judgement) is still better than 2 deaths.

I usually start my game saying something like: Don't play recklessly, don't trade evenly, and watch the Green and Red numbers in the top left and if Red is winning, start being extra cautious and look for only good opportunities.

Any other things to say or ways to start a match of low levels and set things off with the right mindset?

Agreed.
Too many players seem to think that 1 for 1 is always a good trade for them, and don't understand that when they are 17/10 and their opponent is 10/17, their opponent is more than fed enough to stomp the more careful players.

My buddies and I played a game called Darkspore which is pretty fun but I'm not plugging the game I referencing it because we played this game and it has bonus objectives on each level and one of the objectives it (deeeeep breath) that it can give is 'don't lose a character' and when we played we'd be voice chatting and each level I would state the bonus objectives and instead of 'don't lose a character' I would make myself sound upset and declare in a strained and scared voice "DON'T DIE!" and that's my story the end. :]

Also you are totally right.

The other side of this coin:

Don't be a sissy girl and run away from every threat. This will take time to judge, but it's important. If you're playing a squishy champion and run away from every teamfight or don't see when you have an advantage, you've forced your team into a losing situation.