Has the SL population declined?

Sales are down, rentals are down (and other Estate Owners tell me the same), places that used to be popular are deserted. Lots of friends have stopped coming online, and colleagues at work who used to come into SL now say they don't bother due to all the outages, bugs, etc.

I have invested a lot in SL, and have a couple of really good friends here, otherwise I am struggling to find a good reason to stay in myself (I sold all of my sims but one recently, due to the 19% VAT problem).

Is it me, or has anyone else noticed a sharp decline in people out and about in SL?

Rock

I don't sell anything, but I haven't noticed any drop off in avatars in the places I hang out. Also, the figure you see on the log in screen seems to be over 50,000 more times than not these days. But I guess that could easily enough be spoofed if anyone really wanted to.

But 1 year ago we were approaching 30,000 online, so it has gone up 60% since then, but what about the size of the SL metaverse? What has been the corresponding increase in land mass? I wonder what the avatar/sim ratio is now compared to 12 months ago.

While LL may not admit, it is true that although there are more campers and escorts, there are less "active" players today. The popular places that once had casinos and sold high quality products are now camper based hippie surveys.

I heard that everytime someone says the word Metaverse, a Camper dies.

When I was there yesterday the number of avs in my sim was three times what I'm used to seeing! Yes, there were two more people there.

Does anyone have scripted tumbleweeds?

Just the other night I looked at the "Popular Places" in Search. I brought up the map for each to see how many people were there. Most had no people, some had 1-3, and only one had 19 in it. This was at 7 in the evening SL time. I then searched for nightclubs. I must have looked at 30 nightclubs on the map, most had nobody in them. The one I found that had 8 people...when I tp'd there the 8 people were the hostesses and the dancers. Not one guest was there (unless you count me).

I can remember going to clubs, malls and other places when I was first on 10 months ago. I almost always met someone new, danced with several guys, chatted with someone in a store. Now I feel like the last woman in SL when I leave my home.

I do think there are far too many nightclubs and shopping centers now. You go to them and it's just like RL, the same stores you saw at the last one. You have to search fairly hard to find unique shopping centers or nightclubs.

Are these people in themed sims like Gor, Furries, Gothic etc. BTW I love all those types of AVs, I'm just wondering where the 40,000+ people that Linden say are on at the sign in screen.

I'm worried that newbies are coming on, finding nobody and never logging on again. I came onto SL to meet people, something it is getting harder to do these days.

Rock has raised an interesting question that I happened to have given some research and thought to recently. This could prove to be an enlightening and interesting thread.

Noriko

Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,
Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,
Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,
Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse,Metaverse...


Oh man, someone needs to take this over... De-campifying SL is hard work.

Try live music events Just the last week I've been to events where I saw 92, and 82 people present. I've also been to clubs where the only people there are workers. Somewhat disappointing when I notice that all but me are workers.

Perhaps it's just that things change? People move on, and new people arrive?

I wonder how many of the ppl online are part of businesses in RL and are working on their private sims, which we will not see because they probably have no public admittance

then add in the bots, and the campers, and those who stay hiding in sky rooms or whatnot

yes I have noticed that out and about, not as many ppl seem to be around

could be as someone mentioned, due to the increase in land

would be like expanding a city, and adding a few more ppl. but overall it would feel like the city had less ppl because it would be bigger with more places to go

LOL @ Bodhi


Guess everyone is going to live music these day, because most good venues are generally packed during gigs

Most of the places I go usually have plenty of people in them.

But I do agree there are far too many malls and clubs for all of them to have a decent visitor count to be honest.

In terms of sales and such going down..... maybe people are simply spending less? I know I hardly buy anything anymore since I've started making things myself. I now go broke on musician tips.

Ohh You just nuked someone's traffic numbers.

I think part of the problem is that there was an explosion of people setting up businesses in the past year, buying into all the hype and thinkin SL was going to make them rich. plus I'm sure the Gambling Ban and VAT situations added to it all as well. It will take time to level out, as long as technical and customer service issues don't drive too many people away.

Oh, right, spending less. I know that I spend a lot less in SL, now, since SL ate more than half my inventory.

OUCH

That made me think...... (ouch) .... are people spending less because of all the inventory and item transfer problems?

I see two things.


One - if you are an oldbie, you tend to get to know certain people from about your 'time'. And if you stay, most of them seem to fall away.

If you don't have new folks coming into your social circle, the circle fades. Also, places popular 'yesterday' tend to fade too.


Two - biz is doing great, at least for me, and trends are pretty strong.

I've been lucky enough to have been 'blogged and counted' for visitors over about the last five months by an independent third party (Tateru's DwellOnIt blog, with native sites sometimes seen in New World Notes), and what I felt mirrored their findings - a gentle surge overall.

* * * * *

It might be that we are at the 'next stage' and you need to have a nice, themed, known area to get by these days.

Maybe in a year or so it will be even tougher - you'll have to be 'the best' in whatever you do, or something. A maturation of the market overall.

Honestly, I see the golden age of the grid still ahead. I remember how I felt in 2004 - it seemed like the world had totally passed my by in SL, and this was the long slowdown.

The towering edifices of the successful content creators and the vast power of the land barons of the time made me feel... insignificant.

I'd tried a small business; I'd not gotten anywhere... I felt like I was nothing at all.

If anyone would have told me that in 2007 I'd have two million square meters of land and a higher income from SL than my first engineering job... I would have thought they were crazy.

I've lost more than $100, and only remaining because of changed circumstances (points vaguely at title).

/me heads in-world quick to script some shouters. Damn, if it was only that easy.

SL is always changing, give it awhile. Look at your neighborhoods. How different is it today from six months ago.

Whether or not the Casio ban is the cause or was just the timing, inventory losses and bank failures can't help, either. The technical problems we have, make it fustrating, but my experiences have been improving on a regular basis. I am in love with WindLight inspite of some of the quirks, and Philip Lindens' "Long Road" blog, makes you think that maybe they are listening.

/me wonders if it is once again, "Feel good Friday?

Yeah an SLer's lifespan is pretty short on average. I'd say its about a year if they can make it over the month hump. Its very true what another person on this thread said about keeping your social circle up to date.

I think the other issue is "economical"...i.e. inventory loss and the whole Ginko fiasco being some major contributors to the issue. I rarely spend money on anything other than rent and tier for my military group and have saved a lot of the money I've earned off of my shops. I know of a lot of people that don't consume like they used to.

Back before Ginko flopped I knew of a ton of people (all consumers) that had money in some sort of "bank"...mostly Ginko...so it's possible that people who were duped by that joke got such a bad taste in their mouth that they either quit buying things so much or quit alltogether.

There's also the fact that with the rise in unverified accounts that receive no stipend the cost of items sold has technically become much more expensive to the average SLer. I know my sales doubled once I lowered my prices well below the average price of my competitors (robot and mech avs as well as combat equipment). Things will technically cost more when the population is making considerably less.

As far as my own posessions, I either build all my own stuff or trade with other builder friends of mine.

In fact, I've seen a boom in people wanting to build and taking that route instead of being a consumer. It's possible that this is because of the type of people I hang out with these days but I think it also has to do with what I mentioned above.

Either way the population is much higher than before and I don't subscribe to the notion that there are 15,000 to 20,000 bots running at any given time. Either way I hope they ruin the "economy" so SL can reach it's potential as a creative platform and stop having so many fools pretend it's a viable business platform. It will never be in the shape it is now!

Metaverse, metaverse, metaverse, metaverse, metaverse, metaverse, metaverse, metaverse, metaverse, metaverse.

I've done my good deed for the day.

/me thinks you did another one in another thread

There's definitely a lot of turn over in SL.

I'm seeing more people than ever in my little old-mainland area though and in my neighbors areas as well (Cave Rua and the Zen Center)

A lot of the growth in the past year has been in the non-English-speaking areas of Second Life. There are some busy areas of SL where German, French, or Portuguese are the primary languages, and mostly they're off the radar screen of the English-speaking residents. I was in a German-language mall recently that had a lot of clothing and scripted items that I had never seen before; looks like people might be missing some market opportunities by not selling their wares more internationally.

This is very true. There are but a scant few that I knew a year ago that I even see log in anymore. It's saddening not to see some I knew so well anymore. But at the same time, Its often astonishing to see how some have grown in SL. You can remember when they were but babes in the wilderness, and to see them business owners, community leaders, mentors, etc. It's fascinating, to me at least, to see where some people's path ends up leading.