If Shirky is now writing for ValleyWag, I’ll take it as a sign that the gossip-blog might be trying to do something other than sniping. In his “A Story Too Good To Check,” Shirky takes the press to task for the uncritical acceptance of the estimated number of users in Second Life.
Someone who tries a social service once and bails isn’t really a user any more than someone who gets a sample spoon of ice cream and walks out is a customer.
These numbers continue to be quoted in stories that tell us that yet another company is setting up shop in Second Life. PR is the whole point of these stories, which begin as press releases and end up with a single coat of varnish in major newspapers. The value to the company isn’t what’s going to happen in Second Life but what in fact does happen in the real-life press. How long will the press will keep taking the bait on these kind of Second Life story ideas?