Botgirl: "What Went Wrong" With Second Life from 2008-2010

Botgirl Questi did a noteworthy article about Second Life during a turning point in it's history. In 2008, it looked like it was part of the future of mainstream computer use. By 2010, the amount of land owned by people was dropping, and Linden Lab had laid off a third of their staff. Botgirl felt this was the result of a number of decisions by the Lab with the goal to "transform Second Life from an anarchic virtual frontier settlement into a business-friendly company."

This wouldn't the first time a business decided to alter it's focus in an attempt to gain a wider audience. Unfortunately like many such businesses, it ended up alienating it's existing market while failing to gain a new one, "with incomprehensibly poor communication with the Second Life community along the way, Linden Lab managed to throw out the virtual baby with the bathwater." 

Botgirl's "From Thriving Anarchy to Failed Corporate State" can be read here: (link). The following few articles in her blog expands on the subject.