Phatland (aka Phat Cat's Jazz club) was originally founded by Dilbert Dilweg and Charity Colville, two people who met in Second Life, worked together, fell in love, and forged a successful and lasting relationship in the physical world -- not an uncommon story. Indeed, it seemed like Phatland and its club grew with their romance, up until mid 2007 or so Phatland was one of the single most popular places in Second Life by any reasonable reckoning.
When the couple moved to be with each-other in the physical world, they needed to make some changes in their lives, as one might expect. And that included the sale of Phatland. The sale went through, but not everything went smoothly with Phatland after that, and Dilbert and Charity were banned from the site. Phatland's traffic started to fall significantly. Where there had once been 90 or more users at all hours of the day, soon the site seemed to be a mere shadow of its former success.
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We're not really sure what happened subsequently, or how many hands the island has been through since then, but the present owners are preparing to sell the island on eBay, starting the auction on 1 October.
To be fair, Phatland and its Jazz Club are still well-known brands, second only perhaps to sim Amsterdam founded by Kevin Alderman/Stroker Serpentine (which sold for a large, but undisclosed sum in June 2007). Unfortunately the number of users at the Phatland site at any given time is a mere echo of the heyday of this well-known venue as should be obvious to anyone who takes the time to do a few periodic headcounts.
Perhaps a change in management will bring a new lease of life to this once-teeming venue. The auction details and conditions of sale will be found on the venue's website in the coming days.
