Gigs Shrugged

The passage below is reminder of how far Linden Lab has gone from their original dream of being “bigger than the web”.  Self-limiting decisions such as this “adult ghetto”, banning people for “unacceptable fantasies”, and in general, moving further and further from the concept of a common carrier, and turning into something more and more like AOL in 1995…  a sandboxed playground for kids and people who can’t figure out how to use anything better.

Linden Lab wrote, in December 2006:

We could never write a set of rules that would work for all people all the time, nor could we enforce them across a population that is growing so rapidly. Instead, we believe that the best way to foster communication and expression is to put power into the hands of the people by giving you better tools for local control. And that’s what we’ve been doing for several months now. [...]
(more…)

For the first time ever, the Second Life Peak Monthly Cash Flow economic statistic has shrunk in seven out of nine income categories.  In the two other categories, it remained nearly flat.  Residents with significant L$ income of over $200 per month dropped from 4377 to 4277, a loss of 2.2%.  The November data indicates continuation of the slowdown that was first seen in October’s data.

Linden Lab has also censored the data regarding islands lost per month, claiming that it wasn’t an accurate reflection.   The massive loss of islands is a direct result of Linden Lab’s disasterous price increase on Openspaces.  December data will likely be worse, continuing the Second Life recession.