Are There Fewer New Residents, or Is It Just Me?

[Jennifer Boyle]

Over the past several weeks or few months, it seems to me that the average age of residents that I encounter for the first time has increased dramatically.  It used to seem like most of them were several weeks old or less.  Now it seems that most are over a year old, and many are a few years old.  

When I first noticed it, I thought of it as a positive change because my interactions with older residents tend to be more positive.  After thinking about it, if there really is a much lower proporftion of younger residents, it must mean that many fewer new people are entering SL, which is probably an ominous development and may portend the demise of SL.

What do others think?  Is your experience like mine, or is it different?  What do you think the future holds for SL?  Will it survive?  If not, what will fill its niche?  

[Perrie Juran]

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Jennifer Boyle wrote:

Over the past several weeks or few months, it seems to me that the average age of residents that I encounter for the first time has increased dramatically.  It used to seem like most of them were several weeks old or less.  Now it seems that most are over a year old, and many are a few years old.  

When I first noticed it, I thought of it as a positive change because my interactions with older residents tend to be more positive.  After thinking about it, if there really is a much lower proporftion of younger residents, it must mean that many fewer new people are entering SL, which is probably an ominous development and may portend the demise of SL.

What do others think?  Is your experience like mine, or is it different?  What do you think the future holds for SL?  Will it survive?  If not, what will fill its niche?  

---

It may be a matter of where you hang out.

At one location I frequent we see a steady stream of one day old Avatars.  They do seem to have a huge affinity for bumping into people.

[Chelsea Malibu]

Same as with Perrie, I see a ton of new residents just days old.  I was actually noticing how few here now have the old names and the Resident Family is growing fast.  I was looking around a club the other day and figured that about 80% had new names which goes back the old statistic I had heard that 85% will be gone at the 1 year mark. 

I have very, very friends now from my early days and think I only have about 4 or 5 over the 2,000 day mark that are still active.

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

I see a LOT of less than a month old avatars and a LOT of more than a year or 2 old avatars.  What seems to be missing are the 2 months to a year old ones.  I wonder if they just give up - SL is not what they thought?  The learning curve is too high?  Maybe they landed in a toxic infohub and never returned?  They couldn't find a group or friends to hang out with?  I have no idea why this group seems so small to me, but I do wonder where they are...

 

[PeterCanessa Oh]

As far as LL tell us there are as many new signups every day as there ever were (more or less).  The more important question is how many of them ever come back?

In the rush of twit-face fans and little kiddies I've hardly seen anyone I would like to meet again next week, let alone anyone I expected to have found their niche in SL within a couple of months.  Morons with hour-long attention-spans (at best) aren't going to stay here, nor are those that need defined goals in "the game" they play.

But yes, since there doesn't seem to be any way to get quality of new accounts all we have to go on is quantity ... and actually, we don't even have that so the answer to your question is "don't know"

[Perrie Juran]

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Chelsea Malibu wrote:

Same as with Perrie, I see a ton of new residents just days old. 

I was actually noticing how few here now have the old names and the Resident Family is growing fast.

  I was looking around a club the other day and figured that about 80% had new names which goes back the old statistic I had heard that 85% will be gone at the 1 year mark. 

I have very, very friends now from my early days and think I only have about 4 or 5 over the 2,000 day mark that are still active.

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I have been finding it curious how many necroposts I've been seeing with the comment being those Avatar's first post.  And never a second comment from them afterward.

But I did have this thought also, that maybe here we have the real reason behind abandoning the last name issue by Rodvik.  They realize that soon residents with last names will be a rarity so why change things.

[Dillon Levenque]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

 

I have been finding it curious how many necroposts I've been seeing with the comment being those Avatar's first post.  And never a second comment from them afterward.

---

 

I believe it's been pretty well established that the "first time poster with a necropost" business was a way of creating a 'history' of approved posts so that said poster can return later with exciting offers regarding watching entire seasons of "How I Met Oprah" or something.

[JeanneAnne]

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Jennifer Boyle wrote:

Over the past several weeks or few months, it seems to me that the average age of residents that I encounter for the first time has increased dramatically.  It used to seem like most of them were several weeks old or less.  Now it seems that most are over a year old, and many are a few years old.  

When I first noticed it, I thought of it as a positive change because my interactions with older residents tend to be more positive.  After thinking about it, if there really is a much lower proporftion of younger residents, it must mean that many fewer new people are entering SL, which is probably an ominous development and may portend the demise of SL.

What do others think?  Is your experience like mine, or is it different?  What do you think the future holds for SL?  Will it survive?  If not, what will fill its niche?  

---

The perception seems to be ~& i dont know how true it is~ that many new people open accounts & enter SL but very few of these newbies stick. The question isnt how to get more people to join SL but how to keep them interested. It seems like i see a lot of newbies ~& a lot of oldbies~ but not all that many my age which is close to 8 months now.

One thing thats surprised me is how old ~in RL years~ many SL players are. I guess that id supposed that most SLers were kids or young adults. Many ppl dont want how old they are in RL known, but then they slip & mention a grandchild or something. One of the coolest, most fun loving young-@-heart women i know in SL is 68 in RL. Many of my best SL friends are in their 50s. I was dating a guy i assumed was about my age ~until he was gone for awhile & said when he got back that he'd been away for the birth of a grandchild. I tried not to let the age difference creep me ~after all, what does it matter in SL right? Fact is tho, that finding out he was old enuf to be my father kinduv put a damper on romance for me & i wished id never found out how old he was. So where are all the kids? I bet that a lotuv kids try SL but dont like it, find it too confusing, or soon leave for whatever reason .. & that many of the old timers are middle aged or elderly in RL.

Jeanne

[PeterCanessa Oh]

Yeah, like I said, the twit-face, instant gratification, "how do I win" crowd don't have the attention-span to even find out what's possible in LL most of the time, let alone the willingness and ability to learn how to do things.  There is simply no point in trying to appeal to them - they'll try SL and imeediately leave in bafflement or frustration.  The only people even likely to make it to repeat-login are the late-20s plus "what can I do apart from play games?" crowd.

Of course this is a generalisation, they are some teenagers who have real creative gifts or are a great benefit to SL for other reasons.  It goes without saying, of course, that there are also many older people who should know better but that behave like complete arses.

[Perrie Juran]

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Dillon Levenque wrote:

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Perrie Juran wrote:

 

I have been finding it curious how many necroposts I've been seeing with the comment being those Avatar's first post.  And never a second comment from them afterward.

---

 

I believe it's been pretty well established that the "first time poster with a necropost" business was a way of creating a 'history' of approved posts so that said poster can return later with exciting offers regarding watching entire seasons of "How I Met Oprah" or something.

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I am aware of the situation (which has appeared to have stopped) of someone copy and pasting old OP's to start new threads. 

But for example see here:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Why-Can-t-I-Purchase-Lindens/td-p/939259

Also compare:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Second-Life-Server/Age-verification-isn-t-working/td-p/830277

to

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Avatar/i-am-age-verified-yet-i-still-cannot-access-adult-places-i-have/qaq-p/1036511/comment-id/5658#M5658

I've noticed quite a few others lately but I'm not up to searching them out right now.

[Dillon Levenque]

Oh, I see what you mean. Not starting a new thread by copying but necroposting to an existing. I didn't read your post carefully enough.

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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Jennifer Boyle wrote:

Over the past several weeks or few months, it seems to me that the average age of residents that I encounter for the first time has increased dramatically.  It used to seem like most of them were several weeks old or less.  Now it seems that most are over a year old, and many are a few years old.  

---

It may be a matter of where you hang out.

At one location I frequent we see a steady stream of one day old Avatars.  They do seem to have a huge affinity for bumping into people.

---

This.

New folks congregate in different types of places than older residents, for a lot of reasons.

And even if you've always been hanging out at the same spot - its probably not in the same destination guide as it was way back when you made your account.

 

[161488303349]

you pretty much got it right

if you not into building and making stuff then SL is pretty boring for young people so they not stay. if you into hanging out then if you young like a teen then you usual want to do that as yourself and not as some fantasy character. and if you do want a fantasy character then you also want to do stuff. so you play on games like WoW and Skyrim etc

so SL end up being for older people really. like attract like and all that

+

the older demographic is why i think SL is static growth at the moment. RL financials affect older people more than young people. teenagers/young people at college/uni still get their allowances and money from their part-time jobs. all (most) the money they get is discretionary spend regardless of RL conditions as Mum and Dad pays for the basics

this not true for older people. have to pay for everything themselves. so things like SL gets the cutback before the mortgage and feed/clothe the kids does

[Lynna Yorcliffe]

I have ran into a LOT of "just turned 18 " and new avatars recently at certain role play / game sims. Some only a few days old. So, if you hang out in highly advertized areas or areas that appeal you 'kids' you wind up running into a lot younger age avatars as a rule. Some of the more established places that are harder to find, or are known by word of mouth - you find older avatars generally.

[Ayrea]

I think a lot has to do with SL being far too expensive for most, yes I know it's loaded with freebies and hunts but that's not attractive to most.

The majority of people are going to look into owning land, see the cost and say ARE YOU BLEEPING CRAZY and log off with shaking their head.

If they could bring land/sim cost down CONSIDERABLY I think SL would do leaps better.

[RoderickVaughn]

I hang out at The Shelter a lot and there's a steady stream of day-old avatars coming in all the time. Then there's a bunch of old-timers who've been there years. What I see far less of, is avatars in my own sort of age-range - just a few months old. I find this very curious.

[Conifer Dada]

I've seen quite a lot of newish residents whose profiles say something like:  "I decided to make a new start in SL" or "I've been around a lot longer than this profile says".  I wonder if re-invented oldbies are statistically significant.

[Dana Hickman]

It used to be that one could roughly tell the age of someones account by how far along they are in the "progression of avatar improvements" department. I've been noticing lately that the last real bumper crop of noobies, the ones who would now be in that missing ~1-2 year range, do not look like us antiques did at that age. They're fast and have jumped straight into modding and mesh and all the good stuff, and really look more like the veterans of this place do then the noobs that are only a year younger then them. I'm not talking about the better content or better stuff to start with effect, I mean the learned ability to fit and adapt purchased things, the ease with which they use these skills. Maybe i'm the only one who also looks for evidence of the skill required to mod & fit things to their AV, I don't know, but in that group I've noticed a particularly faster grasping of those skills on average. It may mean nothing, or that I pay too much attention to details I pick up on, or it also may mean this group isn't really missing... they're standing in the oldbie crowd that's pointing to where everyone thought they should be and having a laugh at the goofy old seniors :smileytongue:

[JeanneAnne]

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Dana Hickman wrote:

It used to be that one could roughly tell the age of someones account by how far along they are in the "progression of avatar improvements" department. I've been noticing lately that the last real bumper crop of noobies, the ones who would now be in that missing ~1-2 year range, do not look like us antiques did at that age. They're fast and have jumped straight into modding and mesh and all the good stuff, and really look more like the veterans of this place do then the noobs that are only a year younger then them. I'm not talking about the better content or better stuff to start with effect, I mean the learned ability to fit and adapt purchased things, the ease with which they use these skills. Maybe i'm the only one who also looks for evidence of the skill required to mod & fit things to their AV, I don't know, but in that group I've noticed a particularly faster grasping of those skills on average. It may mean nothing, or that I pay too much attention to details I pick up on, or it also may mean this group isn't really missing... they're standing in the oldbie crowd that's pointing to where everyone thought they should be and having a laugh at the goofy old seniors :smileytongue:

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sometimes .. tho .. you cant judge how long some1 has been in sl by how they look ... cuz they dont care how they look .. i know how 2 edit shoes to fit but dont like to so i usually go barefoot .. for example .. also .. i dont spend real money in sl so i wear lotsuv freebie stuff or stuff outuv the library .. not always .. sometimes ill dress nice for a party or date but often i just go for a cheap noobish look cuz its quicker & easier ..& cuz if you look noobish ppl tend to give you stuff ..

Jeanne

[Ceka Cianci]

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Ayrea wrote:

I think a lot has to do with SL being far too expensive for most, yes I know it's loaded with freebies and hunts but that's not attractive to most.

The majority of people are going to look into owning land, see the cost and say ARE YOU BLEEPING CRAZY and log off with shaking their head.

If they could bring land/sim cost down CONSIDERABLY I think SL would do leaps better.

---

usually if they can't buy land at the moment they will rent.. that or some go into something together ..that or just hang out and not own land..

the ones that usually leave because of land costs are the ones that have had enough and found the straw that finally broke the camels back..older residents..

the main reason people leave is because of computer performance or the controls or basically every step to doing something takes an act of congress to get it done at first..

then there are the asshats  just hanging around giving new users crap as soon as they get here...

usually once a new user gets rolling they find something..

it's just getting passed the first few hurdles on the way to becoming more interested..

 

we see a lot of the bigger reasons because we have been here for awhile..but we forget a lot of those little reasons which are  big reasons to a new person that will turn someone away that  hasn't had a chance to get that far..like boxes on the head  or the controls or teleporting or not knowing what to do because they haven't found out there is a search engine...

once they get in and are  on their way..most don't leave...at least for a good while or longer..

LL loses  80%  at the gate..but they always have..

[Dana Hickman]

Correct, but a reply like yours was exactly why i edited my original response to include the part about "not the content, but how it's used". One can wear freebies all day long and it really doesn't mean anything other than they choose to wear a freebie. However, an older resident will almost always have that giant, rounded, oversized freebie belt that they're wearing scaled, stretched, etcc.. to actually fit the best that it's design can, or at least to a point where it looks good and they're happy with it. A noob almost always won't have gotten to that point yet and will have this big giant ring around them, and probably not even touching the AV. You actually can infer a whole lot of truth about someone by the evidence of the skill and effort they have on display. Even an item that's a nightmare to modify and most experienced users wouldn't put that much effort into it will still cough up clues based on how it's used.

[JeanneAnne]

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Dana Hickman wrote:

Correct, but a reply like yours was exactly

why

i edited my original response to include the part about "not the content, but how it's used". One can wear freebies all day long and it really doesn't mean anything other than they choose to wear a freebie. However, an older resident will almost always have that giant, rounded, oversized freebie belt that they're wearing scaled, stretched, etcc.. to

actually fit

the best that it's design can, or at least to a point where it looks good and they're happy with it. A noob almost always won't have gotten to that point yet and will have this big giant ring around them, and probably not even touching the AV. You actually can infer a whole lot of truth about someone by the evidence of the skill and effort they have on display. Even an item that's a nightmare to modify and most experienced users wouldn't put that much effort into it will still cough up clues based on how it's used.

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LoL my sister had a pose stand on her roof & thats where i use2 change / put outfits together .. once i was trying to edit a belt to fit & somehow made it so big it completely encircled her house !!

hopefully im a bit more proficient @ editing stuff nowadays .. maybe not tho cuz the other day .. i was wearing a hair that came w/ a color adjustable headband & somehow .. rather than turning the headband green i turned my hair green !! not sure how that happened but i couldnt get the color back to normal so i just deleted it

currently im 5 months pregnant & my tummy is growing so nothing fits .. rather than constantly editing tops i usually just wear a halter .. goin2 hav2 speed things up tho since the daddy is goin2 europe in May .. want him there for the delivery

its possible that an experienced SL player could intentionally want to disguise him or herself as a newb & purposefully wear belts & stuff that didnt fit right .. not sure why any1 would go to the trouble tho

Jeanne

[161488303349]

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JeanneAnne wrote:

its possible that an experienced SL player could intentionally want to disguise him or herself as a newb & purposefully wear belts & stuff that didnt fit right .. not sure why any1 would go to the trouble tho

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when they go to the trouble then they sometimes playing the distressed damsel game. at the end of that game they usual end up naked going omg !!!

+

or is someone who made their account way back. didnt play back then and only just came back now on a better computer. meet some of them people sometimes