Why is SL so empty?

[Tasish]

Most places are either completely empty, filled with a few bots or 1-3 people.

 

Now when i think back there was a time when the search results spitted out 5¨pages of crowded places with flooding chat and people everywhere.

 

So what happened? How did SL die?

Is there a new similar chat program? With activities maybe?

Or other reasons?

Because of some of the major changes maybe?

 

[Ted McGregor]

Not too long ago I asked kinda the same question(s) in here.

 

I got good answers.

 

ETA : SL is not dead.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Maybe all those spys hiding in SL from North Korea dropped offline.....

https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/North+Korea+Internet+Down/19103/

Quoting Diary:

Jordan and others have written in about North Korea being offline.  Arbor has a great post with some analysis (http://www.arbornetworks.com/asert/2014/12/north-korea-goes-offline/). According to the article, the netblock that is being targted is 175.45.176.0 – 175.45.179.255.  For more detail follow the link above. 

--

Tom Webb

[Amethyst Jetaime]

It's because there is a lot of land out there.  SL has over 60k sims now.  So even on busy days and times, that works out to be one or two people per sim on average.  There are also a lot more clubs and entertainment venues too.  People are spread out more than they used to be years ago.

 

[Bobbie Faulds]

Exactly...the number of people online at the dead time of overnight is what the high point was. I remember SL crashing when 35K people logged on. But with more land, people are spread out more. Try one of the active hunt groups that have active group chats even when a hunt isn't going on, like the Twisted Hunt group. A lot of groups have closed chat now too because of all the spammer/beggars/trolls and they just don't want to deal with it.

[Amadeu Callow]

 

 

i guess that number of lands was a factor for people think that there are less people online, however i guess that there are more people.

A sugestion is go to the seach and use a keyword like "people" , "party" and use search sorted by hight traffic 

if you join a comunity like magic fishing you can see a lot of people fishing and show you that sl is not empty

[Conifer Dada]

Several of my favourite clubs have closed in the last couple of years and it's not easy to find replacents.  Searching events and places has found one or two but I've always felt with SL that there's a whole lot one never gets to find out about - a bit like real life really !

[Marigold Devin]

I don't think SL did die, or is even dying, and I don't think its full of bots (not compared to how many there were in 2008), but of the 52,000 who might be logged in currently, a lot are possibly in educational sims, quite a few are feeling disorientated as newbies in the initial orientation sims, and the remainder are in their sekret (!) places, or all crammed in to the few remaining busy places, that have remained busy (Franks, Sweethearts, to name just two).

One of my favourite venues, which was so busy sometimes, it was difficult to be able to enter it as it was full, closed down three years ago, but has just re-opened this week.

But there are new sims and venues opening every day/week - which you might want to go a-exploring (NB: some on these lists might be private-use only, but none will have yet got onto the Destination Guide).

http://gridsurvey.com/index.php?r=a

Certainly shows SL isn't dead just yet though if people are willing to start up new sims as much as they ever did.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

I am not dead yet!!!

[Ted McGregor]

:robotlol:

 

"I don't wanna go on the cart !"

 

"Oh don't be such a baby ! "

 

Classic.

[Parrish Ashbourne]

this is the slowest time of the year for SL, should pick up after the Holidays.

[Lexia Moonstone]

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Tasish wrote:

Most places are either completely empty, filled with a few bots or 1-3 people.

 

Now when i think back there was a time when the search results spitted out 5¨pages of crowded places with flooding chat and people everywhere.

 

So what happened? How did SL die?

Is there a new similar chat program? With activities maybe?

Or other reasons?

Because of some of the major changes maybe?

 

---

If you think of SL as a chat program, your missing the other 99% of what SL can be used for. 

Looking at the world map I see green dots all over the place, SL is far from dead.

[jwenting]

SL has >25000 regions.

SL has roughly 35-65000 people logged in at any one time.

About half those will not leave their private residences while logged in, which make up something like 10% of regions.

Ergo there's about 25000 people at any time in public regions. So that's just over 1 on average per public region.

 

Problem isn't so much too few people as too much land. But remember that land sales are what pays the bills

[Pussycat Catnap]

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KarenMichelle Lane wrote:

Maybe all those spys hiding in SL from North Korea dropped offline.....

---

Lol...

But on a serious note. SL is huge - and yes there are often only slightly more people online than the total number of sims.

I think there is somewhere between 20-30,000 sims? 23,000 or so keeps popping in to my mind. Concurrency is often in the 40,000's, and in what is the middle of the night for the Americas can dip under 10,000. Most of SLs users are in the US, Brazil, and Canada... Probably in that order though the Brazil one is merely anecdote on my part.

Add to this then that if 10 people go visit a place together, a lot of other places will not have them in it at that moment... so they will be empty.

If a place is full of 40+ people... a lot of other places are empty.

Its not that SL is empty - but that the places you are going to are not full of those people at that time (or ever - some places just lack popularity). What places are popular also changes... Fads and preferences change.

The top 20-40 sims might be fairly stable, but after that its always in flux. And even in the top list there is often shifting around of who is ranked where.

 

[LlazarusLlong]

It's the normal market reaction when a newer, incompatible version of a product is pre-announced. Only fools would invest time or money in a product whose planned obsolescence horizon was imminent.

[Bobbie Faulds]

LLazurus, you really are a half-empty kind of person, aren't you.

A lot depends on what's going on...If you really want to see people and sims you can't get into because they're full, try hitting the first few days of some of the fashion fairs or if a sim has a big one-day sale....grins.

That being said, as far as SL goes and the new announced grid, I'll be lieve it when I see it open. LL is notorius for announceing things then nothing happens. The current SL will be here as long as there is enough interest to pay the bills. As for incompatibility, don't assume anything. LL isn't even sure how much will be compatible so don't put the cart before the horse.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

As of 12/21/2014 there were 77,944 regions in SL per the Second Life Grid Survey.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

It's the normal market reaction when a newer, incompatible version of a product is pre-announced. Only fools would invest time or money in a product whose planned obsolescence horizon was imminent.

---

I guess that is why no one is buying new cars,computers, or clothing, huh?  Absurd to make such a statement.  People do it all the time. 

[Perrie Juran]

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

As of 12/21/2014 there were 77,944 regions in SL per the Second Life Grid Survey.

---

That number is not the total number of ACTIVE regions.  That's the total of all the regions that have ever been.

The total number of Active regions is at the top of the page, 25671.

Which means there have been around 52,000 regions that have come and gone, almost a scary number.

http://gridsurvey.com/

[Lahnius Zaks]

One very important factor to take into consideration in Second Life is that the grid is a social network on steroids ... if you drop into a sim or a parcel in a sim and there are only 2 or 3 people there at that time, maybe talk to them ... most people will gladly let you know when something is going on at that location. Like my place, we usually only hold tribute concerts on saturday nights SLT, and between sunday and friday its usually just a couple people hangin out talkin or playin around ... when people drop in we ALWAYS greet them and chat a little about whats coming up or what the place is all about ... typically we end up making friends with just about everyone that drops in ...

Create landmarks and return ...

Join groups ...

Use search (ctrl-f) to check events ...

CHAT with people.

disclaimer: sometimes you will run intonegative people ... blocking is great for those folks and just move on ... lol ...

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

As of 12/21/2014 there were 77,944 regions in SL per the Second Life Grid Survey.

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Oh thanks. That's a LOT more than I thought there were. It helps make the point too... of course SL looks empty when it has that much space.

If you were an alien probe landing at a random place on Earth - you would think the planet empty. Most of it is empty, of humanity at least. Because we like to gather in bunches. So everywhere we are not - is most of this place...

EDIT: I see the correction. That's the total ever, its now 25,000 or so. I actually find this also good. Less churn than I would expect in a 10+ year old social media platform.

 

 

And sure, SL 2 is coming.

If we're lucky... so is SL 3.

Might as well just stop using SL 2 as well now... before it even gets here... since someday there will be an SL 3... except... that won't quite work out so well if all took that advice.

Lets all just abandon the now because the future is coming to get us... Or... lets not.

 

[LlazarusLlong]

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

It's the normal market reaction when a newer, incompatible version of a product is pre-announced. Only fools would invest time or money in a product whose planned obsolescence horizon was imminent.

---

I guess that is why no one is buying new cars,computers, or clothing, huh?  Absurd to make such a statement.  People with more money than sense do it all the time. 

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FIFY!

Your first two examples of consumer goods categories exemplify my argument. As regards the third, I choose not to be a fashion victim, which is made easier by my not being female.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

It's the normal market reaction when a newer, incompatible version of a product is pre-announced. Only fools would invest time or money in a product whose planned obsolescence horizon was imminent.

---

I guess that is why no one is buying new cars,computers, or clothing, huh?  Absurd to make such a statement.  People with more money than sense do it all the time. 

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FIFY!

Your first two examples of consumer goods categories negate my argument.  As regards the third, I choose not to be a fashion victim, which is made easier by my not being female.

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I don't follow your logic at all.  Only idiots think if they buy a new car or computer that there won't be a replacement product that comes out.  Yet people buy these items all the time.

Besides, you assume that SL is going to die eminently.  It will be at least two year, before the new grid is ready and will be a few more years after that before there is the wide variety and number of products for sale there.  So it will be several years more before most people will migrate permanently, leaving SL behind, if it ever happens. A lot of people may not migrate at all and those that do probably will keep their SL account to visit friends who remain.  Lastly there may not ever be a new grid or it may not be that much better to entice SL people there.

People do not have to migrate.  They can choose to remain in SL, migrate, or use both grids.  SL will only be shut down if enough people leave SL permanently so that SL becomes unprofitable.   That has always been the case from the day the grid went live. 

People buy things in SL all the time that never use them again after a couple of years because they lose interest or a better product comes out. 

Your whole argument is groundless and foolish.  If you don't want to buy anything, that is your choice.  I suspect you wouldn't buy anything any way even if a new grid weren't in the works and you only live SL on freebies.  You only created this account four weeks ago way after the announcement of the new grid.  Why did you do that if you believed SL was dead?

[LlazarusLlong]

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote

Besides, you assume that SL is going to die eminently.

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Not with a bang, but a whimper, actually.

You remind me of my brother; he pretentiously uses long words incorrectly when there are shorter, simpler words - in this case "soon" - which would do the job just as well and not expose ignorance.

[LadyBeverley Howlett]

What I am noticing that at loggin time a message lets you know how many are online.

I can remember when it showed over a million...now the most I see when logging in is 50,000.

So yes, maybe SL is dying and Inzworld is taking over. 

SL is still the best, in my opinion, but those numbers are like the canary going into the mines for me.....something is wrong!