I've recently (in October) made the move away from Second Life. Why?

Well primarily because I got fed up with the diminution of services provided by Linden Lab.

I've been an SL resident since September 2006 and have owned at least one business inworld for almost all of that time.

I put up with horrendous lag created by people with whom I shared sims. I put up with grid instability. I put up with losing parts of my inventory. I put up with problems with groups, friends lists and search (all of which deeply effected by businesses). And I put up with failed teleports causing viewer crashes (amongst other issues). I just kept on coming back, because I had a strong group of friends and I enjoyed providing a beautiful, safe and enjoyable hangout for people to have fun in.

Then we got a new viewer 1.18.4 and suddenly I could not function at all inworld. I had no access to group tools, friends, my land tools. I couldn't cross any sim at all either walk, fly or tp. I couldn't tp at all. I couldn't save notecards or scripts. I couldn't access media to manage my live performers. Why?

Because LL failed to test their viewer for Mac with a common modem and regardless of the fact that they were told about it for months - nothing got done.

But - I gritted my teeth, bought the latest Mac OS and used bootcamp to access Windows and use that viewer - instant access to LL - but not to my main software etc. I persevered however, because I still enjoyed SL.

Then LL dropped the price of full sims (3 months after I'd purchased a full sim to get away from the problems associated with sharing a sim) and I instantly lost $650USD (more with the exchange rate). At the same time they announced the release of upgraded opensims for an affordable price. I saw an opportunity to start to create the beautiful spaces I wanted - lots of open water for playing on, and a mythical story. So I bought one. Then 10 days later they dropped the purchase price of them by $200USD - so I instantly lost yet another whack of money.

A little later we decided that our mythical story could do with some more space to spread into - so I purchased another openspace sim. At this point I must point out that at no time did either sim exceed 2000prims and scripts ran at 0.05 (the average for a sim is 5). The most people we ever had on one of them was 25 for an event we had to move from the main sim due to issues I won't go into.

We hadn't even finished the development of the second openspace sim when LL gutted their viability and increased their retention cost by an inordinate amount.

Once I stopped crying - I made the decision that I didn't need the hassle, the worry, the financial burden or in fact - the whole damned thing, so I notified my build partners I would abandon the two open spaces - a very sad day all round.

I become so disillusioned with Linden Lab that I found I didn't want to fire up the application - and then a friend told me about OpenLife which I'd seen mentioned on the forum discussions about the openspace sim decision. So I created an account and logged in.

It was like being a nooby all over again - felt awkward, unfamiliar and decidedly weird. Didn't like it much at first go, but I went back again a week later and got talking to someone who told me to get into the chatroom - so I did.

The sense of community, sharing, caring and fun that I've experienced with Openlife Grid is something I never got with Secondlife other than from the people in my group who came to the beach.

3 months later and I have my own region which is still being developed, I put up with the occasional region down, problems with tp, groups and friends lists that don't work, no money system and a load of other things - but the fact that we all know that we're at a beginning - Sakai cares and does all he can to help out (Sakai owns and created Openlife Grid). He's often there with us in the chatroom to solve issues and answer questions, and the residents support him and each other to a high extent.

Once again, I enjoy my virtual life - and now I'm ending my SecondLife term - well selling up completely and downgrading to a basic account. I lost more money to LL than I want to admit to, but far less than a lot of people I know - and what have I been given in return? I'm treated like an inconvenience who has minimal intelligence and doesn't need know anything at all.

The fact that LL refuse to COMMUNICATE with their residence has been a major contributing factor to my decision to leave and my disillusionment. They talk AT people these days, not WITH them - something that I feel will eventually be the cause of a downturn in the fortunes of SL as it has been.

So if you're over being treated like an idiot by Linden Lab, but you want to still be able to create, build, chat with friends and generally be part of something new - I'd suggest you log in to www.openlifegrid.com.

Create an account and then come chat in the chatroom - you'll find yourself laughing within a short period of time, and welcomed by the people who are creating the place.

Adieu SL
G'day OLG

Shai