I'm keeping an eye on what I'm going to refer to as The Nothing (effect) that's starting to take its toll on residents and businesses operating within the virtual world of Second Life® due to general stability and predictability issues (economic and/or technical, temporary and/or long term).

It's my humble opinion that Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, should be aware in general that the community evolves and organizes itself, just as it does in the real world, so that larger projects can be made possible. These are organic growths of communities, and, if disturbed by external and unforeseen factors, can totally disrupt these delicate ecosystems. The result is disimpassioned content creators who will take far fewer risks, resulting in fewer attractions and this is where The Nothing starts to creep back into the virtual world.

The Nothing (as seen in the Neverending Story movie) was devastating but could be conquered simply by making wishes - or more appropriately in this case by dreaming up new dreams and believing in them and the virtual world platform enough to take steps to make them come true. Bringing friends into your envisaged dreams allows them to take part and once again achieve growth. But it's a long, slow haul of repeated organic growth! Consider also that some of the success factor prior to any ecosystem disruption was based on critical timing, chance meetings and sheer luck. It may not be possible to repeat the success based on new rules. Sometimes it's easier to fold entirely. At best it's a very broken landscape, littered with debris of failure in between pillars of success, except that in the virtual world failure becomes invisible when the sims are dropped and the content de-rezzed - The Nothing. A great loss.