Jack Linden has now posted an update to the announcement:
http://blog.secondlife.com/200...more-2742

Please feel free to join the conversation about this here and on the SL forums.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to find this news an almost heartstopping blow. Combined with the massively deteriorated exchange rate between my country (Australia) and the US, it will take my void sim Amagansette away from me. The fact that I won't be able even to sell it to recoup my initial purchase price is the least of my worries. Not only will I, as a largely bedridden invalid, have something which is more my real life than my real life is damaged irreparably (as will many invalids and disabled who do not experience SL as a 'luxury item' but as a way of getting outside their bedrooms or wheelchairs for a while), but all the people who use my intentionally undeveloped void sim (possibly the only undeveloped one) like a park where they can relax, unwind and feel free to share the space with me, lose this peaceful, private sim.

I would like to suggest a possible action to take for all SLNE landowners, whether of a parcel or void sim, and maybe even also users of the waterways and land of SLNE who, whilst not financially tied to it, nevertheless value it and will also lose a great deal if SLNE ceases to be.

I propose a petition, signed by as many people as possible, possibly even throughout the entire 125 sims of the USS. That's a lot of signatures if we all sign.

I hope the local 'powers that be' (i.e. the owners here, such as Sudane and others in the USS) can find a way to act together and put this idea into practice, as it is something which has worked to good effect many times in RL situations where people needed badly to be heard and counted. But it needs a lot of signatures to make a petition work, so unless we want to risk losing our little corner of paradise, we will all have to make our mark to really make our mark, so to speak.

SLNE is a big part of my life and I don't want to even think about losing it. I hope many, many people feel this way, and that maybe the concept of petitions could somehow be spread to sim owners in SL in general ... I can only mention the idea in the forum and hope.

Gairlochan,

Yes we are all fairly stunned by this, or should be. Certainly OS owners like us (I own 4) are really devastated, but also if this move goes through it will impact all who use or appreciate the Open Spaces.

I like your petition idea, in fact there is a kind of grass roots voting and discussion going on in the JIRA on issue http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-1776

While such an issue is not a software bug or enhancment, and thus not what the JIRA is intended for, an issue which has already collected 3900 votes should not be ignored.