Sign of the Virtual World Times: SL Universe, Second Life's Longest Running User Forum, Becomes Multi-World Discussion Site

VirtualVerse is a new online discussion forum that's also another sign of the Second Life community evolving: It's the new home of SL Universe, Second Life's longest running third-party discussion forum. (Founded in 2004/2005 era, I believe.) Its owner, longtime SL veteran Cristiano Midnight, has just announced SL Universe's closing and rebirth:

The SLU forums will be closing within the next few weeks, depending on how long the transition takes. These forums will be archived - they may be unavailable for little while but will come back as a read only forum... VirtualVerse, which expands the scope of SLU to all things related to virtual worlds, whether it is Second Life, Sansar, other VR worlds that are gaining in popularity, or game related worlds like MMOs and open world games. I've wanted to become less SL centric, but it has been hard to do that with SL as part of the name.

It's a smart move and probably a necessary one. Based on the latest Linden Lab data, Second Life's monthly active userbase has dropped over the last couple years from 600,000 to now, about 450,000-500,000. SLU has always been a tight knit, highly positive sub-community with much great conversation on many topics, but in recent years, seems to have been declining in usage. For example, compare its page views with SL Secrets, which as I said yesterday, now seems to be the largest blog devoted to Second Life:

As the larger community becomes dominated by drama, it may be time to expand the community, and its core organizing principles.

Hat tip: Ryan Schultz.

Comments

[YourThere Sometimes also known as BTE]

As much as I dislike SLU and it's past witch hunts in the grid I'd be a hypocrite to not mention I do not use secondlife much myself anymore.
even the ski school grad admits to not logging unless its project stupid(sansar)

Heard some land barons in group chat talk about how land has no resell value anymore even grandfathered regions.

I myself am moving on with my digital art, working on several indie games while preparing to open my own website to showcase upcoming work like the children's book series i currently am putting together..no time for walled gardens were my dreams revolve around others limitations.

So if SLU is going there own way it might be for the best if they have dreams being held back by the past! linden lab only has themselves to blaim when the name of it's biggest fan site changes because it nolonger attracts people.

"As the larger community becomes dominated by drama, it may be time to expand the community, and its core organizing principles."

Yeah i nolonger make content for SL when I get 10 bad reviews a day on my store for very little to no reason at all then having to try and fix the so called issues. my store makes around $1000 a month but not worth dealing with anymore the customers who are spoiled deluded brats who froth at the mouth with drama on their lips.

As much as I hate to admit it SLU is making the right choices.

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

The change is more because of technical issues behind the SLU forum software than anything else. SLU has always had discussions on other worlds.

[Issa Heckroth]

"highly positive sub-community"

....you did go there, right? :)