Are On-Line Population Figures Accurate?

My SL partner is constantly harping on about the population in SL and is convinced that the figures as we log-on are completely inaccurate. He scans the map trying to count the Sims that have green dots (okay maybe I exagerate - but he sometimes has a faraway look when I am telling him what to do in chat).
But it is a valid point that he raises. While he is away in real life at a meeting in Paris (and so wont see the threads for a day or so) and I can wow him with my astute comments/brilliant statistics when he returns, can I invite comments and debate on current on-line population. I dont refer to totals here - simply the people who are on when each of us logs on. Does the tally prove accurate once we are "on"?

It's absolutely accurate.

Sheesh Jig. Get him interested in something else!

Take him to Svarga!

LOL

And stop telling him what to do and how wrong he is about everything.

I'd have a far-off look too!

Lol, Cherry! I dont have to take him to Svarga for that - he gets "THAT" in our skyboxes!

I bet he doesn't ... lmao ... it would be a ruddy big skybox!

Svarga is a very very beautiful and fascinating Sim ... gets touted a lot here and with good reason, it is absolutely enchanting. Probably my favourite place in SL ...

Would stop him moaning about dots on the map tho!

Greenies is also highly recommended ... might go there tonight actually ...

LOL! He loves me for what I am. Besides, he likes being organized and I am good at it.

And to message from "Slack" above - IF figures are accurate, then where IS everybody??? Malls are empty and forlorn. Art galleries silent.

LOL where to start with this one.

/me assumes lecturing pose, wags my finger and takes a deep breath ...

(and before you complain some people LOVE being lectured )

They're all not at clubs, not having Pixel Sex........

Now why does every thread I start rise to level of sex?
Actually, he REALLY does have a thing about the population. And gets his pose balls tangled. Yes ... tangled. You wouldn't believe the number of times I have been upside down or had my legs waving about in the air ...

Just using some numbers that were mentioned in another thread, if the concurrency is about 50,000 online, and you have around 15,000 sims (according to the recent data it might be 16,000 now) that's about 3 1/3 avatars per sim, on average. So if you have a sim with 40 campers in it, that means 11 other sims will have to be empty. I've seen events on private sims where they upped the maximum avatar limit, have 60 to 80 avatars in attendance. Using those averages, that means one over-filled sim leaves another 23 empty.

I see the same thing when I look at the map - sim after sim with no green dots, or one or two green dots -- then now and then, a sim that's packed. 10, 20, 30, 40 people.

Personally I don't really doubt the numbers. The bottom line is there really is gobs of empty space compared to the number of avatars online at any given time.

For 15,000 regions, if every one of them were at half capacity (20 avatars) that would mean the concurrency would be at 300,000 online. The asset servers would melt a hole to the centre of the Earth and kill us all

-Atashi

Thanks Atashi - that makes sense. Now I can sound erudite when H. start on about "where is everybody?" By the way, he lives in one of biggest cities in Europe and I live in one of emptiest places on earth (by choice, when I am not working) so this is often topic of conversation.

what's the radius of that hole?

Well...it would mess up our second lives for sure. I must confess I'm not a scientist.. but it sounded good and dramatic, right? Plus I vaguely remember something from that movie The Core, that it was bad to mess with the planet's gooey centre.



-Atashi

you're right atashi it's a bit googly down there... I mean gooey.

((You editor, you ))

It doesn't matter. We'd all jump in after it, to get our stuff back.

ROTLOL

Just how gooey is that centre, Atashi?
Now I can wow H. (partner) with fistfuls of knowledge and "gooey centres" will certainly help.

I think it would depend on how hot it really is down there... At a mere 300 degrees F, sugar is about the consistency (and stickiness) of white glue. As it gets hotter it will get more and more runny.

My real concern is that, if there's enough heat and pressure, then melting a hole down to the middle will cause all that ooey gooey goodness to start squirting out. Then the Earth will go spinning off into space with a THPPPPPPPPPPPPpppppppp noise as it deflates. It is this very real concern, which has prevented scientists from attempting to drill all the way down through the outer crust and into the core.

-Atashi

* of course, if the centre of the Earth is not in fact made of candy, then my figures could be off a bit.

** can you tell I'm bored at work? It may not be Friday but it feels like it ought to be.

Given that the presence server often seems to forget whether or not an agent is logged on, I'd assume a 5% error from that alone. I think I've pretty conclusively demonstrated elsewhere that the "US$ spent in the last 24h" is a wholly fictitious, so haven't much reason to believe the on-line numbers to be scrupulously accurate, either.

Oh, and the center of the earth is made of candy, I saw it on TV once.

Is that why when I was a little kid my best friend always ate dirt? I thought he was crazy o.o

I now have a lovely mental image of millions of Ruths melting and burning, flaming shoes and hair up their bums as they are crushed to the size of a single pixel by the pressure.

All dressed up no where to go.


It's part of the ESS-- Empty Sim Syndrome--some beautiful sims out there empty and forlorn

We have to talk about it since everybody denies they are having it........

I definitely used to.