Comments on: Why Twitter isn’t like Second Life

By: Twitter wasn’t the new Second Life..but Foursquare might well be

Twitter wasn’t the new Second Life..but Foursquare might well be — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:46:15 +0000

[...] to some predictions last year, Twitter was going to be the new Second Life. The churn rate of 83% matches that of Second Life and it hasn’t yet achieved Facebook [...]

By: Ryu

Ryu — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:10:00 +0000

I’d dispute Carls characterization of SL users as “furries”, and their being “wierd” has *nothing* on the grand panoply of non-furry wierdness in the world.

However, SL *does* have a huge contingent of folks who are not satisfied with how they appear in RL. And that translates into “sexy” avatars, if not a lot of 3D Cybersex.

By: dirkthecow

dirkthecow — Sat, 02 May 2009 05:59:00 +0000

Hi Carl, thanks for the comments. I agree, Twitter makes it very easy to come and go and you could also close one ID down and open another one no problem.

I also saw one reaction to the Nielsen stats which said that a lot of the 'churn' is also due to the thousands of spammer accounts that open and close with regularity.

On Second Life, I'd dispute that this is so in fact, but it is certainly the case in perception - and that perception has proven to be a big problem for the world's owners.

By: Carl

Carl — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:39:00 +0000

Also, another big difference-

Twitter=lots of somewhat professional grownups who are obsessed with social media

SL=lots of sexually deviant furries who are kind of weird

By: Carl

Carl — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:35:00 +0000

I wonder how many cases in that 60% drop off were like mine? I signed up, abandoned it for a few months until I was followed by a couple people I knew, and now use it every day. Am I one of the people in that 60% ???

By: dirkthecow

dirkthecow — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:08:00 +0000

Thanks Claire for the comment and I agree.

Wait for a month or so and we'll have 'Oprah hasn't hit a million followers, she's bored of it' or whatever and the whole thing will be pronounced a huge failure.

I'm not pretending that the Twitter model hasn't got flaws, but I would have thought Nielsen with its social media history would have known better than to play a straight numbers game.

Or maybe they just realised it would get picked up far and wide as it's what a lot of people had been waiting for

By: Claire Dalton

Claire Dalton — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:52:00 +0000

Frustrating that Oprah is considered the tell-tale account. Perhaps Oprah hasn’t found the necessary loyalty because she’s not sharing compelling content?? I’ve found O Magazine is a much more interesting follow.