Prad Prathivi asks the question "Is Second Life too big?"
He goes on to explain that new people joining Second Life are having a difficult time meeting people due to everyone already being in their own social groups and the move away from a "small village" mentality of residents to "big city I don't know you" mentality. Back in 2003/2004 in Second Life, you could walk up to anyone or IM them and say hello, and the person on the receiving end would not think you are strange. That's all changed.
Now everyone is standing around privately IMing friends. If someone IMs a stranger, it is immediately seen as suspicious.
However, I don't care what year it is, I am still going to IM random people in Second Life and strike up a conversation. What's the point in creating a unique avatar if it doesn't help you meet others you might be interested in talking to?
I would say Second Life is not big enough, rather than being too big. There isn't even 1 million concurrent users online at any time yet! I would like to know the number of "bots" inside Second Life and how much they account for the "online now" numbers.
Anyway, to fix this problem of new people coming into Second Life and failing to meet people and create friends, we need to revamp the entire "first hour experience". Linden Lab is currently working with the company Big Space Ship to improve the experience for first time users in Second Life. I don't think anyone has seen the results of it yet, as Linden Lab has been very secret about the status of this project. However, one result of working with Big Space Ship is the new website at SecondLife.com. If you are not logged in, you will see a grid of pictures, attempting to show a variety of things possible in Second Life.
We need to make things easier for everyone. Not just newcomers, but veterans as well. There has to be a better way to meet people. And I don't meet going into random dance clubs where it becomes unbearably laggy. Perhaps Linden Lab should create designated areas for people to hang out and meet people. Yes I know, we already have plenty of Welcome Areas. But I don't think those are helping in convincing new people to come back to Second Life.
Perhaps there could be a designated Tab in the Search pane for meeting people. It could show categories like Entertainment, Art, etc. And users could teleport to those areas marked for meeting people relating to those topics. Similar to the early 90s when AOL used Chatroom categories as a way of helping users find a place to join and meet others.
