Interesting post on New World Note (Link) discussing the spike in new accounts after the recent Second Life security breach (reLink). While I don’t track statistics, I did find myself watching the SL front page stats, and also noticed that active logins were relatively high following the breach; usually over 8000. And by virtue of my new Google custom page (which I’m still not sure I like), I was seeing a whole slew of articles on the breach – from MSM to never-heard-of-’em press (reLink). That story did have some legs.

I’m not, however, sure that the implied conclusion is accurate, so I’ll be curious to see how the statistical charts fair in the coming days and weeks. I suspect a large number of those “new” sign-ups were – as stated in NWN’s entry – people who had lost access to old accounts. In addition, while I appreciate Tateru Nino questioning the newbies to get a possible sense of whether they were new or re-rezzed from the dead, I’m also aware that people will take the opportunity to act as if they are new so they can start fresh. Right now I still have my doubts that the press coverage enticed large numbers of people with no previous SL experience to suddenly join. I suppose we’ll get a sense of whether that’s the case in the weeks and months that follow. Maybe.

{edit: I was just wondering if anyone knows if there’s a word for people who kill off their avatars so that they can shed a bad reputation and be “rezincarnated”? Or maybe they don’t kill them off deliberately, but take advantage of a situation such as the Second Life security breach which allows them to justifiably create an entirely new avatar/person. Seems like there should be a term defining that practice, especially since I think we might see an increase in that kind of behavior. Anyone?}