Account Merge Option

How many of you think it would be a useful feature to have an 'Account Merge' option - a paid service where you can request that all assets belonging to one account be transferred to a new account, provided both are verified accounts belonging to the same person?

For example you joined SL some time ago, and have accumulated the usual large inventory of 'stuff' - clothes, vehicles, pose balls, etc... Now you see that a really cool surname is available, so you make a new account that gets you the old first name with the new surname. But now that new account has to start off from scratch. You can transfer your L$ balance easily enough, as well as all your transferable goods. But what about the non-transferrable items? That could be thousands of Lindens that you would have to spend, and some of those items may be completely impossible to purchase new copies of.

If we could change our surnames, this wouldn't be an issue. But we can't.

So here is the proposal:

If you have two accounts that are verified as belonging to the SAME REAL PERSON, IE the mailing address, name and the like match in the Linden records - then for a fixed processing fee, allow a one-time transfer of otherwise non-transferrable assets from one account to the other, and in the process allow the person to choose which of the two registered names they will use for the account that the goods go to.

So "jo3 Noob" who has a bunch of stuff, could transfer his 'worldly goods' to his more recent alt, "Joseph Resplendant", and either deactivate or set aside the "jo3 Noob" account. Or if the "Joseph Resplendant" account only had a few worthwhile items so far, or perhaps "jo3 Noob" was already a Premium member, he could request that the "jo3 Noob" account recieve the assets and the name of his alt, "Joseph Resplendant".

One good reason for doing the 'name and assets from the new account to the old one' would be if the "jo3 Noob" account was already a Premium account and owned lots of land. They could then get the name and the assets from the new account, without having to support TWO Premium accounts while the asset and property transfers when through.

This would be a reasonable way to implement name changes. It's somewhat more complex than just paying a fee to change a name, but what the heck, I'd go for it.

I'm for this hehe.

I would rather pay a *SMALL* fee very small fee to change my last name than transfer all my items to a new avater. Actually I would rather not pay anything because if I have to pay it's just not important enough to me and I will be more than happy to keep my current last name.

It would be far less work for LL as well and really if you could change your last name what would be the point of transfering your stuff to another avatar other than to get around the no transfer thing. This is assuming of course they actually implement the last name changes they have talked about.

Account merges would be a good idea.
That said, people should not be allowed to use them to get around bans by 'renaming' their account. Same goes for name changes.

Lastly, the group limit needs to be raised again, if we're going to encourage account merges. I have exactly 2 accounts in SL, one main and one alt I use for holding my place in various groups that I cannot fit on my main account due to the group membership limit. I'd much prefer to delete the alt and keep everything under my main, but I can't do that unless LL raise the group limit to something more like 50.