Claiming Avatars Are Alts Is OK, says Robin Linden

*Covers head and runs for the hills*

This is a weird discussion. Some seem to think that the only reason to have alts it to grief others either in the forums or in world. Often people create alts to get away from someone who is griefing them or simply causes them pain (like after a breakup). There are dozens of legitimate reasons to have an alt, and to expose an alt on the board feels almost as much a violation to me as exposing RL info.

You're describing normal roleplaying behaviour in the world, in the game. The purposes of these forums are to offer answers to people's questions, offer feedback to Linden Lab, and engage in SL related discussions. Call me close minded but I can't envision a reasonable explanation for posting here with alternate accounts. To me it translates into playing mind games with people. That said, anyone is free to act as they please. But, at the very least, I don't trust a people, or consider their opinions valid, when I know that they're willingly deceptive enough to play multiple roles here.

Yeah, no kidding.

Just wait until I reveal what Robin Linden's alt has been up to in certain BDSM sims.

Another reason to create an alt:

You have cancelled your main account and decide you want to keep your money, inventory, or land.

You get so many Im's and ppl asking questions that you need an alt so you can have some personal time to do what you like in SL.

You need to a body to try on your products or use that alt as crash dummy hehe.

You want to be someone/something else play a different role.

You bought it for a family member.

You bought it so your friends could try out SL (before free accounts)

There are any number of reasons why a person would create an alt, these are just some

Mar

PS: exposing Alts is wrong. I was in a position once where I felt I had to expose myself before I was exposed. blackmail? well it felt like it at the time. Yes I think its wrong too. Just let ppl do or be what ever they want as long as they are not harming anyone what does it really matter.

What Robin doesn't appreciate is that it's not particularly hard to figure who is ALT of who.

But the fact is, nobody bothers, because we all thought it was against the rules to tell people.


Now, apparently, it's not.

Who knows, maybe their tired of me and my ALTs. Maybe this is Blaze's rule.

Or maybe someone else is ALTing it up even worse than I am.

Of course it isn't hard, Blaze.

It wasn't hard at all for dozens of people to conclude definitely that I didn't exist.

coco

Yeah, I know.

Really, this just seems like more ammunition for the trolls.

Yet another way to personalize a discussion and make it about individuals rather than the issues at hand.

Yeah, because calling people trolls is all about the issues at hand.

I didn't call anyone a troll.

I simply said that trolls would use this as ammunition.

You forgot to include a very valid reason for creating an alt: because your drag queen avatar has become famous enough to need their own account.

Your dodge skill is definately not decaying.

I guess you didn't mean that some people are trolls. My apologies. You must have been talking about these:

ROFLMAO! pwned

a rl woman playing a man, who sometimes plays a women, cus she can LOL

PS: yeah i created an alt many many moons ago who never posts and never goes to events, never is social, and is well a... "creative worker bee " I likes it lol.

I don't need any of my (one) alts to be secret, and probably never will, but there are plenty who do, for all the reasons Martin and others have listed.

coco

LOL I was referring to mine actually, not yours

Who are the Linden's alts? I would assume that it is ok to discuss that now, and to offer inworld anecdotes and such to bolster one's claims, being careful to avoid any forbidden RL info.

What about the people who go to SL users meetings in RL, and reveal their ownership of multiple accounts and their identities. In the forums we can report who is whose alts, but can't mention the person's RL name, even though the multiple account owner revealed it to others. Weird.

I dated her

Here's a new surname suggestion! "Alt"
I got dibs on "Ctrl Alt"

or Fdisk i got dibs on ctrlaltdel Fdisk

Yes. We could get started on the Lindens right now.

It says in some documentation the employee behavioral guidelines - I bookmarked mention of that on these forums and now cannot find it for some reason! Remember, those somebody found posted on a Sim that disappeared the next day, and they reproduced it here? If anyone knows where that post went, or what thread it was in, please let me know!

Anyway, it said in those guidelines that Lindens were STRONGLY urged not to reveal who their alts were, whether on comped or paid accounts.

But . . . we could start sharing stories and speculating, couldn't we? Or maybe even just make up stuff. If there was a Linden we didn't like for whatever reason (which, if there even would be one, I can't imagine who), we could make a months-long campaign of it. Maybe even make that person miserable enough to quit SL!

Just another reason why "outing" alts in forums should be forbidden.

Need I go on, in this thread, on this topic? I don't think so.

coco

That's even better than "Altman".

Alt Control - new Prince song.

Well I heard ...

Hamet is Torley
Path is Anshe
And Philip is Kermit

But you know these rumors 2/3 of the time its BS.

1/3 of those is true, I can say that personally.

And Nolan is Cristiano, don't forget that one.

Hyperbole.