Sorry for adding to the load in this forum section, but I can't keep quiet on this topic. This is meant as a user feedback and doesn't require an answer, but please read it.
The situation as it is: griefers can create as many new accounts as they want and there's no effective way of connecting any of those free accounts to an RL identity, which makes banning of SL terrorists practically impossible. Please, please go back to requiring some sort of ID when a new user signs up. There are many MMORPGs on the market, and every single one of them requires either credit card or bank account information right away, even to use a free trial period.
I'd suggest to require a $1 payment before any new account is allowed to log in, have a trustworthy payment company like CCBill handle credit card verification / billing and let people without credit cards only sign up using bank collection - every adult should have at least a bank account, so no one can possibly complain. It's that easy. I'd happily pay with credit card instead of paypal again if it helps to make the grid safer.
Second Life is like a virtual country, a world even. It must have control of its borders - you can't let everyone just wander in and allow criminals to come right back after being banished. SL shouldn't let terrorists damage the property (and in some cases the livelihood) of responsible players without any real risk of reprisal. To allow that to happen through the lack of proper front end screening of new players is absolutely irresponsible, considering the amounts of money invested by the verified, paying player base.
I had a look at the "Total Residents" statistics on the SL homepage two days ago. The total number was around 849,000. Now, only 2 days later, it's up to 863,600. You don't really believe that 7000 individual persons, real new residents, sign up every single day, do you? Not even World of Warcraft with their 3 million customers has such a growth rate. Any benefits arising from the inflated user totals we see under the current system can't possibly be greater than the damage caused by terrorist attacks on the grid. New residents who are really interested in joining the game, adults able to pay at some point, in some form (why should you be interested in other customers, like minors camping moneychairs?) will surely not hesitate to make a $1 payment for account verification.