I voted "concerned and hardened: here, but not about to invest much." That is to say, I wouldn't invest money in Second Life at this juncture. The stability and clear customer communication to justify such an investment are simply NOT there.
This poll is interesting, though. The results seem to follow a bell curve, with the majority of voters being in the dead middle categories of either "concerned and hardened" or "concerned but optimistic." A very large number of voters -- 70 out of a total of 163, as of this post, or 42.9% (nearly half of all voters concentrated in just one-third of the possible options) -- describe themselves as some variety of "concerned."
The split between overall positive and overall negative responses is extremely close, with 82 (50.3%) negative and 81 (49.7%) positive responses. Of course, there are always the intangible factors this poll can't cover, such as the following:
Is there an overall negative tone in the forums that might cause a greater negative skew?
What about people who've become so disgusted that they simply quit, or are on the verge of quitting, and wouldn't even bother to vote at this point, resulting in a greater positive skew?
What about all of the people who will never even be aware of this poll (although admittedly, studies show that polling a segment of a population normally produces a fairly accurate picture of the larger population)?
All in all, I think it's fairly safe to say that people who still have at least some personal investment in SL are starkly divided about it at this point, and a majority of them are AT LEAST concerned (even if it's an overall optimistic level of concern).
From a customer service perspective, all of this really ought to raise a red flag, because as anyone with a good deal of customer service experience will tell you, when the customer is seriously complaining, that's just about your last chance to make good. Once a customer walks out truly unhappy, odds are very good you will never see that customer again.
Now it's a little different with platforms like SL because, to be perfectly honest, people get addicted, and social attachments and the large amounts of time they've already invested keep them there long after they might otherwise have left. I've seen it in MMOs (which share a lot in common with SL in this respect) like, for example, EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot. People do eventually quit those out of disgust, but it takes a lot longer and a lot more to finally get to that point.
But if a "next big thing" comes along, that combined with long-building discontent can lead to an "exodus" of sorts. It has happened before with MMOs, and I think people have commented on it here before. In the end, in platforms like this, the results of poor customer relations may be largely invisible for a very long time, but if the right catalyst comes along, the price can suddenly become very high when it's time to pay the piper.
Just my two cents' worth of musings, for whatever they're worth.
