Now things get really hairy. Since my post about the frozen population figures earlier a few readers have come forward with some disturbing information. We don't have much data to go on, but there's a picture starting to form.

Four people have reported that they cannot create alt accounts (their first each). They try, and go on to some kind of 'waiting list'. One of these can no longer log in on her main account. Yesterday a forum-goer said that they could not create an alt account. Another was at Meta's office hours in Beaumont this-morning. A business running a third-party registration portal is discovering that registering new accounts is not working, possibly since the population figures froze yesterday morning. Orientation Islands are unusually quiet for this time of week, if you peek on the map. There are a few people, but not many.

Is account registration working at all? It's hard to say. If someone cannot register their first Second Life account, we are hardly likely to hear from them. It's tempting to suggest that the frozen population figures are because the registration process isn't working, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It appears that something is working -- there are some very few new people with today's date on their profiles -- so obviously some new people are making it in.

What is going on? We will keep chasing this one, and report on what we discover.