Can Linden Lab stop the exodus?

I dropped in on my new friends over at the Openlife Grid this afternoon and learned that they've enjoyed 30,000 sign-ups and over 1,000 land orders, just this week.

Meanwhile, Hamlet Au (aka Wagner James Au) has just reported that in his phone conversation today with Mark Kingdon, Linden Lab's new CEO said that "in the next few days, the company will post an update to this policy which will incorporate feedback from Openspace owners."

Too little, too late?

* Second Lifers have banned together in the many thousands to protest... well over 5,000 in the SOS group alone, and that's just one of four groups that I'm aware of.
* The LeavingSecondLife email address has received dozens of fascinating emails already from people that, while not claiming that they are leaving Second Life® for keeps, have made it clear that they are upset and looking elsewhere, especially on the Opensim grids.

Is Kingdon just putting a finger in the dam?

Linden Lab giveth and taketh away - Developing an exit strategy

Dear fantastic content creators/members of the Not Possible IRL and Impossible IRL groups:

I know many of you are exhausted, angry and disheartened. As recent events have demonstrated again, and given that many of you feel that we have come to depend on Linden Lab to act unreasonably, I want to encourage you to begin developing an intelligent exit strategy, but please don't forget to stay in touch with the contacts you have carefully forged over the years. We want to stay in touch with you.

Based on many conversations I have had with leading content creators, it is no longer a matter of whether they are going to continue making virtual content, so the real questions they are asking themselves are 1) Do I liquidate my assets in Second Life® or just leave them on the lowest maintenance program possible? 2) Where will I go? and 3) What will I do when I get there? 4) Who will I collaborate with?

Wherever you go, we want to know. Let's be sure to leave our incredible community intact.

Leaving Second Life - Be sure to stay in touch

I would like to keep track of you if and when you leave Second Life®. To that end, I have created a dedicated email address and would appreciate it if you would write to it and let us know how best to reach you moving forward: LeavingSecondLife@gmail.com.

Even if we already have your email address, please do write in and give us an inkling of what you are up to.



Be sure to put your Second Life name in the subject of the email, and let us know where you are hanging out/what your name is in other virtual worlds. We will keep this email address open indefinitely.

What are our best options, moving forward?

I would like to hear your ideas on this. Please write to me at Bettinatizzy@gmail.com.

Contemplating virtual worlds: Dusan Writer nails it

Like Hamlet Au and his omnipresent and indispensable reviews and reporting on the metaverse via New World Notes, and his new book The Making of Second Life - which I am devouring, by the way - blogger and specialist in vertical integration of media content and experiences, Dusan Writer has become a touchstone and a muse for me... Someone who takes the time to rephrase raw data, reflect upon it, and then present his take on virtual worlds and those who people them so coherently, so eloquently, that after reading his analyses, the rest of my day is forever changed. Dusan was especially profound and silver-tongued in this post, called "Leaving Second Life." Here is but a paragraph of what I consider to be one of the best internal conversations I've come across on any topic:

"But for now, a few pathfinders will live in that space of tension. The tension between dreams and reality. Between on the one hand the hope of translating the impossible into new languages and ways of living, and on the other despair at its erosion in the face of bad policy, code or a cool indifferent world."