Second Life Peak Concurrency Now 76,000 (Up 2K In 2 Wks)

Given Second Life's peak concurrency growth rates over the last few months (it was 74K on November  3rd) the world was due to hit 75,000 today, but instead, kept right on growing, and only began receding after hitting around 76,000.  Late last week there was a round of salacious (if not very original) international news articles about virtual-to-RL adultery in Second Life.

(Mitch Wagner of Info Week has a smart round-up here.) This likely contributed to the extra spurt of activity, so to speak.  Which is a mystery of several layers:

How many of these new users are interested in committing virtual adultery... and how many of them are real life partners of now-suspicious SL users, looking to catch them in the act?

Comments

[Ann Otoole]

Who cares what form of entertainment they seek. They can find it here in the world's largest stage and entertainment platform.

LL needs to understand this is entertainment and that is the business they need to be embracing.

And, given the system meltdown that transpired, it is time to make traffic falsification punishable by account deletion without warning. Time to clear the slots for real people.

[Tateru Nino]

76,057. The grid melted down somewhat as was expected.

[joni]

i agree to an extent about the "false presence" of mass users on SL. but if all those bots and idling avs weren't online, i wonder how many "real live" people would really log on. and if the seemingly low and then public actual numbers would prove disheartening and a turnoff. therefore pushing newbies away, because it seems like a dead virtual world. hmmm

[Miki Gymnast]

$uuuuhmm_growthrate_per_hour = 12;
$start_time = 1211580000; //entry time of M
$growthrate_per_second = $uuuuhmm_growthrate_per_hour/60/60;
$our_dream = (time() - $start_time) * $growthrate_per_second;
$special_online_usercount = $real_online_usercount + $our_dream;
echo "online now: ".$special_online_usercount;

i know, a very geeky answer ;-)

[dandellion Kimban]

According to what we saw on Help Islands during the weekend, many of them are seeking cybersex and, probably, RL hook-up. Problem is not what they are seeking, but that they have no idea how the things are done here (and in FL as well). It's kind of interesting watching people asking for something they have no idea what it is nor how it's done just because it is related to sex.

[YP]

Second Life has hit the headlines over the past few days in the UK, with a online sex/divorce story. Indeed there was a two page spread in one of this mornings tabloids. They always bring to the forefront the sex aspect.But I fear the influx of people having a quick look will be disappointed in this aspect of SL and leave as quickly as they entered. Second Life is so much more than the sex.

[Gahum Riptide]

I got shunted over to the Isabel info center after trying to log in to my home location. I decided to stay a while to see if newbies needed help. It was interesting because three of them had logged in specifically because they had heard about that sex/divorce story. It feels a bit like the hype back around the end of 2006 all over again.

[BJ Tabor]

There is the SL "Obama Moment"; a huge sex scandal. What we need is something like Paris Hilton's Avatar machina sex tap.

[Ann Otoole]

Welcome areas are bustling with new residents all needing help and *wanting* to learn fast.

No mentors in sight.

[Gahum Riptide]

Funny Anne because every help area I went to (I went to about 4) yesterday all had mentors and people willing to help. In fact I myself was sitting at the Governor's mansion with a resident the same age as I and we were helping people left and right.

[Ann Otoole]

When I went back a mentor had showed up. I go to one of those not well known welcome areas. But earlier no mentors were in site.

So don't bother trying to call me a liar. You said yesterday. I said today.

There is a problem with the mentoring thing that perhaps a series of embarrassing youtubes can help influence LL to end the project and begin deleting the accounts of people that lurk welcome areas for personal gain.

[Two Worlds]

Okay I was wrong you covered the fat bald guy after all GEEZ.

"Salacious", hmm? Oh ho ho *strokes neckbeard thoughtfully* *dons steampunk goggles* *types on steampunk retro-writer blog*

[Caliburn Susanto]

I spent over an hour at Dore last weekend to see if any newbies needed help, but (as usual) all I saw was loafers, griefers, and foul-mouths. I'm sure there were one or two newbies in there wondering what the hell was going on, but they were too intimidated by the confusion, abuse, and vulgarity to speak up.

Every time I visit a "welcome" area I am reminded of Mos Eisley Spaceport ... "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany."