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Thank you for an interesting perspective!

Why did I create the group? The first reason was that I find the geographical regional focus of Facebook a bit annoying. Why must the only network you can be a part of be based on your region? It is a flat world, after all. Our local network is also rather boring - I would much rather stay in touch with the Second Life community. I suspect that the top 5 books of the SL Network crowd wouldn't be the Harry Potter/Da Vinci code stuff our local network proudly proclaims as the best.

The second reason was that events are much easier to plan and set up via Facebook, and the "X will be attending Y" notices are a big help. The usual SL way with the note cards and group messages is much less elegant. If you put up an event, you can only select a real geographical location as the event space - which, for example, forces Sophrosyne to schedule Salons in Aachen in Germany (why Aachen, I have no idea - I suspect a leather coat fascination ;-) ).

The third reason was to test the power of community. Grass roots causes via groups have been reasonably successful on FB - the last such example being the dreaded "X is.." user status. Can the SL FB users make their voice heard? (provided they agree with the cause, of course)

And as for the "shift" from SL to FB - I really don't think there is a danger of that. The power of Second Life to connect us is unique (for now) and much greater than the friendship-make-easy Facebook way. But can we not have the best of both worlds?

IYan Writer