My short lived ban from Second Life.

Sorry but that's rubbish. However, I'm not going to type the sense as many times as you mentioned.

See, I'm not going to bother arguing the point any further, but to me, it is the person who feels the need to compartmentalize various aspects of their personailty into seperate alt avatars who have the real issue with understanding how to present one's self in a virtual environment of any kind.

If you can't be one whole person in a virtual world, able to take responsiblity for your actions, you might be the sort of person who has a hard time being a whole person in the real world, and quite possibly have a hard time handleing responsiblity of any kind.

I understand better the point you are trying to make Solar, I just don't agree with it. But thanks for taking time to explain your point more fully.

So, if you were in a group chat with say, ALL of your online residents/customers, discussing one of your policy changes, and one of them said "F U Sarah Nerd land management services thing", I take it you would have done nothing at all, or perhaps commended their behaviour with an understanding smile?

Just sayin'.

Well, um, actually, there is. Because different people's views AREN'T all equally valid. People have different attitudes, goals, expertise, and all this colors their arguments and provides useful information about their probable bias.

If I make a comment about scripting, for example, people are likely to treat that comment as having more weight than if some unknown named Elizabeth Bimmler says it. On the other hand if I start talking about the experience of a poor woman in Nairobi, you probably shouldn't grant me as much credibility as someone you have reason to believe is really female, or black, or poor. Because you know what I've written about in the past, you know something about the value of my views on other subjects.

Finally, if Elizabeth Bimmler was to run around posting articles talking about how cool one of my products was, and then you found out that Elizabeth Bimmler was an alt of mine, you should absolutely dismiss what poor old Elizabeth had to say on the subject.

(No, I don't have an alt named Elizabeth Bimmler. That was Rob Pike.)

I think you're jumping to conclusions there.

They may have other reasons for hiding their identity. Good reasons or bad ones. Assuming you know what that reason is isn't reasonable. That's not to say you should treat what they have to say the same whether you have a reason to believe they're an alt of some other participant in the discussion or not, but you don't know if they're cowards, astroturfers, pranksters, or simply trying to take a devil's advocate position.

So while I agree with much of the thrust of your post, I think you're being unreasonable in the language you're using.

Your subtle trolling attempts are not impressive. To assume I have no morals because I suggest you don't for an immoral act you actually perform is hypocritical at the least.

Save your reply for someone that listens to you.

Now see, there you go again, making an assumption.

It has been my observation that those who cannot hold much back when interacting online (and there are some situations where this can happen anyway, I will not get into them here as they tend to bring metaphysical elements into them) are more often the ones who not only get hurt the most, they are the ones hurting others.

The closest analogy would be: Joe Dirt goes and seeks out a D&D club to play with. Joe Dirt, over time, begins to believe he is is character. One day Joe Dirt goes out and buys what his character would wear and carry as a weapon, he then seeks out Live Action Role Play. At this stage, Joe Dirt is well on his way to being totally lost. Time passes and, because Joe Dirt was unable to separate himself from the unreal ... Podunk Police have just had to gun him down because he was about to kill someone, in Joe's mind he is a Paladin and the poor old woman is a Demon in disguise.

A bit of an extreme example? Hardly. Not after some of the news stories I've seen regarding Second Life.

In this thread, we're not talking about the multitude of legitimate reasons people might have for making/using an alt.

We're not talking about posting jokes or teasing.


We're talking about posting INSULTS under the cover of an alt.

You can use any words you like: 'prank', 'devil's advocate', etc.

But the bottom line is that if you choose to post insults, but won't own up to being the one posting the insults, then you are behaving in a cowardly and dishonorable fashion.

You may sincerely believe that taking personal responsibility for one's actions is rubbish, and you may post that belief many times.

That won't make it true.

Ok then, tell us, who are you really?

Or haven't you figured out yet that, by the logic many here seem to like to use, the end run extreme end is this: NO ONE posting under anything but their real life name, with all of their real life information can be considered to be anything but a coward.

Your opinion will be valid in a world where no one ever gets stalked, kidnapped, killed or whatever because of one person deciding to track another down.

It will also be valid the day we are actually able to upload our very souls to the internet.

There's a name next to the post? How about that, I never noticed.

Seriously, the only time I ever look at the name is when it's absolutely necessary to follow the thread - usually because I want to find the complete original post when someone has quoted something out of context. Most of the time it's irrelevant, and would slow down my reading.

/me finds it interesting that Vampiric Lemon slacked off posting around the same time Solar Legion ramped up. And that Solar's main interest seems to be in arguing for the validity of being an alt-ing frenemy.

Things that make you go...hmmmm.

I find it interesting that you could be so paranoid and stupid.

Want my Alt's name - before I delete the account?

Arkanus Andel

Oh, and by the by: I stand up on this topic when I see nitwits who actually believe that the account name means anything when making a post.

Let me get this straight..... its your opinion that an acct name means nothing. I would ask then why do you use a title (Darkness From Light) or a sig (Obscurum est Eternus ) arent you trying to make your acct name mean something when you post? Or is it that you just enjoy contrtadicting yourself and try to disagree no matter what?

I will answer that with a question of my own:

Do you enjoy being enough of a twit to attempt to find a contradiction that does not exist? If you knew anything at all about me or have actually taken the time to read my posts and actually, you know, THINK before you responded you might have figured out by now that my tag line and sig are windows into my personality.

They are a warning, that warning being: One moment, I will be the kindest and sweetest person you may converse with. The next? well .... I'd say the way I have addressed you and currently see you as someone without the mental capacity to try and look beyond your own rather narrow precept, someone who has just tried - and FAILED - to find a contradiction.

Feel free to respond to me when you are capable of having a conversation that does not involve such petty BS.

ty for removing any doubt I had that your simply a troll who must resort to name calling.

Thank you for removing any doubt from MY mind that you are brainless and must place a person into a box when they respond in kind.

arn't posts by Trolls with God complex's are fun to read!

no doubt

Just as posts by twits with a need to categorize and look for a reason to dismiss a person, simply because they do not agree with their views and who cannot simply agree to disagree.

You know whats funny, I didn't have to look to the left at all to see who posted this to know who is was... your right the content of the post told me everything I need to know about you.

see if you can guess who this is without looking at a name:

An "Internet troll" or "Forum Troll" is a person who posts outrageous message to bait people to answer. Trolls delight in sowing discord on the forums. A troll is someone who inspires flaming rhetoric, someone who is purposely provoking and pulling people into flaming discussion. Flaming discussions usually end with name calling and a flame war.

A classic troll tries to make us believe that he is a skeptic. He is divisive and argumentative with need-to-be-right attitude, "searching for the truth", flaming discussion, and sometimes insulting people or provoking people to insult him. A troll is usually an expert in reusing the same words of its opponents and in turning it against them.

While he tries to present himself as a skeptic looking for truth ... his messages usually sound as if it is the responsibility of other forum members to provide evidence that what forum is all about is legitimate.

He (and in at least 90% of cases it is he) tries to start arguments and upset people.

Sometimes, he is skeptical, trying to scare people, trying to plant fear in their hearts. Sometimes, Internet troll is trying to spin conflicting information, is questioning in an insincere manner, flaming discussion, insulting people, turning people against each other, harassing forum members, ignoring warnings from forum moderators.

Trolling is a form of harassment that can take over a discussion. Well meaning defenders can create chaos by responding to trolls. The best response is to ignore it, or to report a message to a forum moderator. Ubuntuforums moderators usually move troll messages to the jail and may even ban trolls after a few unheeded warnings. Negative emotions stirred up by trolls leak over into other discussions. Normally affable people can become bitter after reading an angry interchange between a troll and his victims, and this can poison previously friendly interactions between long-time users.

Finally, trolls create a paranoid environment, such that a casual criticism by a new arrival can elicit a ferocious and inappropriate backlash.

When trolls are completely ignored they sometimes step up their attacks, desperately seeking the attention they crave. Their messages become more and more foul, and they post ever more of them. Alternatively, they may protest that their right to free speech is being curtailed. Perhaps the most difficult challenge for a moderator is deciding whether to take steps against a troll that a few people find entertaining. Some trolls do have a creative spark and have chosen to squander it on being disruptive. There is a certain perverse pleasure in watching some of them. Ultimately, though, we have to decide if the troll actually cares about putting on a good show for the regular participants, or is simply playing to an audience of one -- himself. For this reason the staff here often intervene, either with a warning in a thread, jailing one or more posts, sending private messages to offenders, and even banning people--temporarily or permanently--from these forums.

Dear, my posts have told you nothing.

In fact, I'd have to say that you could not be more wrong in your view concerning me.

when you have grown up enough to cease jumping to use the usual BS boxes twits like you love to put people in, you MIGHT have a chance of actually knowing me.

Until then however, you're just looking for an excuse and quite frankly pissing me off.

Mmhm.

Unless you all post your real life name, your place of work, and your home address, all for verification purposes, you are all all hiding behind an alt. And therefore your opinion is meaningless. Because you're all cowards hiding your real world identities.

Well, that's the argument, right?