I have to agree with what Shockwave Yareach said above. We are on a slow sinking ship, and I hope that hole gets fixed soon. Second Life is not the only grid out there in the web universe any more like it used to be, granted it has the better user base (for now) but as many mentioned above, that is shrinking. I am a content creator and still enjoy heving an inworld store, but I will be honest that I am getting closer and closer to the why bother phase. People use marketplace for 80%+ of their purchases making it a waste of my time and money to have, pay and maintain an inworld location. As for the cost of owning land, in my honest opinion, the pricing of land is plain stupid. Yes I know it costs money to own and run the hardware that makes the SL world possible, but if more and more people come in, then leave and take a few of the long timers with them, there will be less and less and less things to do in SL. I have vast ideas to make interesting locations and places to visit in SL, but with the state of the econnomy in the states and in many instances world wide, the money to put into a game is not justified. To me, and I may be wrong, but would it not be better to have much lower prices to own(or lease) land/sims from LL and have a much larger and more diverse world to explore than to over charge the ones that are trying to make it and in most cases failing to do so? I know this is not a simple thing to do, but perhaps make an incentive that to get the low prices that the land/sim owner has to keep their properties interesting (not flat and barren to just divide to rent out and make a quick buck) and to maintain them as not to get stagnent. I don't know....I just hate the thought of no more SL.