How Many Islands have gone so far ?

The statistics page got a few new footnotes, especialy the (sad looking) number 'Islands Added'3:

3 Please be aware that the Islands Added figures are not currently an accurate reflection of short term change and are therefore misleading. This is because of the way in which they are calculated and will tend to cause the figures to look significantly worse than they actually are (either by overcounting in some cases or under counting in others). In addition, the many Openspace conversions will significantly drop the total island count exaggerating the change in numbers. We are looking at changing this page to provide more accurate data soon.

Sounds like the 'more accurate data' is going to look much more encouraging for Linden Labs and their decission.

Maybe they should have changed the footnote1 as well?

1 A Resident is a uniquely named avatar with the right to log into the Second Life world, trade Linden™ dollars and visit the Community pages.
Please be aware that the Residents figures are not currently an accurate reflection and are therefore misleading. This is because of the way in which they are calculated and will tend to cause the figures to look significantly better than they actually are (mainly by overcounting in cases of bots and alt accounts). In addition, the Openspace issue will significantly drop the total resident count. We are looking at changing this page to provide more accurate data soon.

Yep. 41 fewer.