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Build it and they will come, but you need a reason for them to stay

Before any issues can really be tackled we need to know what it is....if it is to become more than just a niche market. If not it needs to attract a lot of active users and I don’t mean thousands, I mean millions. It’s not likely to attract the big advertisers or even RL businesses until we see hundreds of thousands online maybe even millions (yeah I know!) at any given time. I think the way is of the most popular of all social networks, Facebook. The 2 main attractions of Facebook are that it’s extremely easy to use and that people are using their RL names to connect to others.

Because there is that learning curve it may never be as popular as Facebook, but if it gets even a quarter of their numbers and advertisers start seeing large online numbers, it could make all the difference. Unlike Facebook, it has to be downloaded to use, which is not something many working people are going to be doing at work for example. Also there is the catch 22 problem of the more technology develops (which it does, as well as needs too), the more people are going to be left behind. Even older PC’s are pretty much adequate for most people’s online needs. I can’t see many people buying top of the line PC’s or upgrading (if they can).

It just seems to me that it would be a lot more interesting seeing and searching for people from RL and not just basically strangers for the most part. With millions of people in facebook using their RL names as well as the big time advertisers heading over there, well...it’s worth a look.

Advantages of being like facebook.
-Well the obvious...millions of daily active users.
-People have the choice of using their RL names and they can only do this once, so they are more apt to use it seriously
-Who wants to get a bad name if it’s your real one?
-Does one really want to put money into a bank owned by avatars with fake names? (Ok banks etc. are whole different issue)
-Real identities that match payment info on file (name on credit card is that of avatar and profile locks that in when signing up)
-Wouldn’t you feel better buying an island from someone whose name matches their payment info on file for an example? Its more than IDV offers.
-RL name running your business shows more credibility
-Real lives connecting virtually
-Real names to find real people
-Everyone in Facebook looks up people from their past, high school, old flames, relatives etc, they would be doing the same here in SL too.
-Wouldn’t you be curious to visit the SL land, owned by that person you lost touch with so long ago?
-Build your old High School and create a reunion
-many many more possibilities

Yes there are some drawbacks with the use of RL names, but for now I’m just exploring the possibilities

I do hope for the best and hope it evolves into something, but it does need vision ... a purpose...a direction and what attracts people to Facebook is one option worth looking at.