It's all in the ALT

OK...I thought I would never go the alt route (and so far I haven't) But now that I am set up with all the programs I need initially to start my SL business I think I am about ready...but I have been pondering a few alt related questions before I make the plunge.

*I understand from the SL website that a secondary account will cost extra, yet I hear about others who have gotten around that issue...so how do they obtain a free secondary account (alt) step by step?

*Many alts are set up to be able to work without being bothered by constant interruptions...what are some things to avoid to insure that there are no interruptions?

*Several people have confided in me as to whom their alts are, and I believe it is because they trust me not to badger them in their alt state. I am considering just letting Claire know who my alt will be (as I am considering neutering him anyway, and not set him up as a plaything) is it wise to severely limit who knows who he is? (Related to question two)

*If you can think of anything else to consider that I have not mentioned feel free to post


Thanks for your honest opinions... I will value and respect EACH opinion...

If you want privacy, it's not about being badgered, it's about them not telling other people who your alt is..

keep it a secret... from everyone. just realize, your alt will get all the credit for the textures you upload and builds you create, since everything will be in his/her name.

I have an alt that is so secretive that even I don't know his name.

Seriously, I created it and forgot the name a few weeks later.

Was it boobies?

you need to write that sh*t down.

haha

I'll go try it!!

Alts are great!
I hide in my alt but do not hide who she is.

To work in your alt uninterrupted, do not add friends! My alt has just a few friends and a boy toy or two. My closest girl pals know when I am in my alt, I am usually working on something or want to be alone and they do not IM me, only if they need me to relog on my main for some reason.

I don't think you have to disclose who your alt is to anyone. And I am sure that most people will understand if you don't want to be bothered.

Isnt an alt better than getting a "Busy Mode" message all the time? I think so.

SL says they charge for an alt, but so far they haven't. Just set up your alt normally and you won't be charged.

If you want to work uninterrupted, just don't tell people other than those you trust implicitly who your alt is. I assume you wouldn't mind if Claire said hi while you were working, and there may be a few others. Just tell them what the deal is. One thing to keep in mind is that SL has money laundering warning systems in place. Depending on what you do with your alt, he may trigger that. I ran into it with Mumfuzz, who I set up to funnel funding and do accounting with the Project That Must Not Be Named. He was a brand new alt, totally unchanged from OI with no payment info on file. Tons of cash started flowing through him from various people and all of a sudden, LL shut him down. I put in a ticket and then spent a while on the phone with them hammering it out, but it was a hassle. Just be aware of that if you start funding him heavily.

Not unless I first transfer my creations to my main account, then set the mod/copy/transfer options, then put them up for sale...Or will my alt still wind up with the title of author?

Thanks Trout, I plan on doing the money thing only through Graph, as well as the business marketing, ect. but strictly building (the tedious, time consuming work) through the 'other guy'

I didn't have to pay. I saw no option to create an alt, I searched for ages, I looked through all the info on the site I could find and still no sign. So I just created an alt as if i was a complete newb. Though this does need another e-mail address, it doesn't need another payment method.

If you truly want P+Q I think your best bet is to tell only those you trust and who you feel comfortable telling them you are busy. Or none at all.


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Alt will be set as creator i think. You could however, set a root prim created by your main. he will then be the creator, even if the other bits are your alt's creations.

That will show up in the inspect feature though and might give a - granted very small - minority of people pause since it looks a little bit suspicious/odd to have the true creator's name obscured that way.

Depending on how you build you can give your alt a full permission prim your main created, and as long as you simply build by drag-copying new prims instead of rezzing them yourself, you'll be set (the same applies to notecards, scripts, animations).

If you give your alt full mod rights (I hope you trust yoruself ^.~), then you can just do the old drag and copy to make a copy of prims that you will be the creator of. You may have to transfer scripts by copy/paste and place them in the needed prims (if the items are scripted), and add content also dragged/copied.

As long as you keep up with it, and not get behind, it shouldn't add more than a few mintues to each project.

NOTE: Due to LL's constant changing coding, and the fact that I haven't done this in over a year or so, you may want to test on a simple prim first between you and your alt.

~Jessy

...not even a "piece of a profile"? ..for shame, for shame.

Yeah when you have been around on SL long enough to have a stream of people to constantly PM you while you work, sometimes an Alt is a cool idea. I did make sure to put in a Profile & tweak his look some though so it wasn't 100% certain he was an Alt , and so far no problems...it's been about...a year since I made him I think.

If you are planning on setting up a retail business, you may want to just leave your alt as the creator and do ALL the business transactions thru him/her. Whatever avatar is actually the owner of the business will get all the support calls, buy transaction notifications, etc.. ... do you want IMs from unhappy customers while you're dancing with Claire?

Depending on how you run things, the business owner may also end up with a very large business-related inventory and friends list ... perhaps inconveniently large for an avatar who wants to just be able to socially TP around the grid.

No need for another email adress either. I made an alt a month ago, to see if a small inventory wasn't logged off so much. I used the same email, and I have heard that you can have 5 accounts on one email.
The new avatar has no friends, exept 3 of my closest. And she crashes often too....so i keep her inactive most of the time. I had to make her cuter than totally newbie, so she has a few outfits

I suggust you (GG) use an alt like suggested in thread and for reasons noted in quote. For one reason or another I started my "business" using my main account. Mistake for several reasons but note: that main account is not Lexxi - for various reasons I had to leave my original account for non-business related reasons and I have this "odd" feeling that you (GG) yourself have had at least one prior account. Just something to keep in mind.

Oh, and I do not mean to be implying that I've hidden that account or anything - I've just accidently set it up to look like I stole my own work (well, not really, the objects have main account as creator and owner and money goes to them though it is on Lexxi land in a building owned by a third account I do not use any longer - I keep thinking of putting up a graveyard at my art gallery land - "Here Lies . . . 7/7/07-12/7/07", there would be at least 4 bodies to bury and 1 or 2 bodies with one foot in the ground, so to speak).

I actually have 2 alts.

The Female was created in the days when I still did "THAT" kind of animation and needed a female and a male for animation "fitting".

The male was created about the same time purely for peace and queit. Only immediate family know who he is and he is not a content creator so no privacy issues there.

I think the peace and quiet aspect of it really depend on your style of SL and what your business is. Some people are more social than others and aquire HUGE friends lists that result in alot of interruptions. Some people don't. My friends list is huge but actually 2/3 of it is family (who wont bother me when I am working) and the rest are friends old and new (some have left SL and I keep the Card as a memorial). FOr me the big issue was the business. Given the business I was in at the time the IM stream was CONSTANT. People wanting custom work or this or that tweaked or trying to get me to sell them full perms versions(yeah like I am dumb enough to do that) or the asset server burped and they didnt get what they bought. Now I dont mind doing customer service and I always got to every IM and addressed it BUT sometimes you just want 1 hour of peace to do your own thing.

One bit of advice though that REALLY helped out. Make sure your AV that is the business owner has its OWN email addy. seperate from any other AVs and from your personal addy. That way if you set your IMs to go to email you can sort of presort customer service issues and deal with them in batches. Saved me a fortune in time doing that.

As I get busier and busier between the club and the stores, and now working on the new sim, I find myself wanting to bury deeper into my alt for some quiet time. I have no less than 6 IMs, and sometimes more, going at ALL times, even when trying to host. I can't sign on anymore without getting bombarded.

My alt has a grand total of 8 friends, and two of them are also me. Three of the eight are my husband, one is my daughter, and two special friends. And that's plenty.

As was mentioned, just remember that anything your alt builds or creates...belongs to the alt, and they tend to get touchy when you try to take their money from them!

Graph I have two alts,

One I use while building. He has all the rights and privileges of my primary av. Only a select few know him and I use him when I need to get work done.

The second alt I have shared with no one. This one is for those days when I really just need to be on SL alone. Yesterday was a prime example. I just TP'd from place to place sightseeing, checking things out but wan't in the mood to chat except for here in the forums. I also use this one to test the items I build since no permissions are given.

One of my alts is male, the other is female and I use both of them for testing pose positions and such on my furniture as well as modeling for pictures.

I do all of my business (store, transactions) with my main, but majority of my creations are made and credited to my alt. To prevent people from inspecting the objects and thinking they were stolen since the creator/seller are different, I made an alt with the same first name as my main and put a little note in the profile of my alt that says "This is an alt". Only once have I had someone IM me asking if a creation was actually mine or was it stolen cause it was made by a different "Ange".

My alt. is a dumb stupid testbot that took the form of a steel ball, and still is as far as I know. Nobody wants to add a steel ball as a friend, whereas everyone wants meeee as a friend !!!!

Well the other way is to have your partner make an alt as well, have a private play alt each and a work alt each and a social alt each.
I was originally a work alt but I escaped and sociallised and now my main is an alt

my alt just went premium, bought land and now runs a store. so "I" can just chill when in SL.