Once of the quirky things about End Times movements (those people who prophesy the End of the World) is that when the appointed date comes and goes, they find perfectly warped reasons to explain why they were simultaneously right and wrong. The commonest one is, "Hallelujah, our prayers have saved us and God has given us another chance"
There are similar groups in Second Life. Not a day goes by without someone, somewhere, predicting with certainty that all is lost and Second Life losers are about to be forced to get real lives. Some of these folks seem to also take perverse pleasure in wanting this to happen, not caring one whit about the thousands of people who genuinely would be hurt. Don't believe me? Well, check out this link to an article on how Lively residents have been fighting to keep their virtual world online. These are not whackos, weirdos, losers, or sad people, just regular folks who enjoy the camaraderie of an online existence - no stranger than folks who enjoy long chats with AIM, long hours with World of Warcraft, or cold nights outside watching supposed adult males running around with a squashed leather ball, running from one side of a field to another just to put it down.
However, it seems I am not the only one who isn't preaching the mantra of "Second Life is Dead." Chris Gaylord of the Christian Science Monitor takes a more even-handed perspective in the article, When is an online fad over? One of the more positive quotes is "But at least Linden Lab has a clear and functioning business model – something Google couldn't lasso with its free Lively world (on which it will pull the plug at the end of the year) and something the new online darling, Twitter, is struggling to capture."
Kudos to Chris for reading more than just "it's all over" into that one article on Reuters departure.
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