I think the vitriol directed at SL is somewhat justified - its creators have cast it as some kind of world-changing social experiment, but in reality it's a glorified 3D chat room. We in the tech community generally dislike this sort of unsubstantiated hype.

What a testament to the exponential growth of things like Facebook and Twitter that an app that has garnered millions upon millions of users in just a few years can be described as "extremely niche" with a straight face.

And though I used to agree with you, I think SL will be remembered as a somewhat paradigm-shifting social experiment, in that it first introduced many people to the idea of virtual worlds, especially in terms of virtual economies where people make real money.

There's a lot of possibility in SL, it's a shame that interacting with it is so clunky and awkward.

OTOH there's WOW, which is better looking and easier to get started in. They're heading for 12-million users, which at $15/month makes SL look like Woolworth's.

But the ability to design objects, do shows et al means that for Maker-types the equal of SL exists nowhere else (that I know of).