Question about alts

I had some random musings on alts recently. For those that don't know it used to be that alts were all tied to your main account via the email address and so it was possible for LL at least to know who were your alts. You also had to pay for alts.
Now that has changed and when I recently went to create an "alt" the web site would not let me associate my existing email address with the account - insisting on a new one. I found later I could change this but at the point of registration, it would not have been possible for LL to know that this account was not a main. Also "alt" accounts are now free to register.

So my questions are:-

1) Are alts really still alts - or are new accounts now mains?
I realise that in practical sense it does not make a difference but alt and main are used in language a lot and it seems to matter to more than a few people to who has them and if they are an alt or a main.

2) Will the existing alts rise up and demand main status now?

3) Is it now OK to say you don't have any alts knowing you now have a traffic bot army of mains?

4) Is any of this relevant at all?

I am interested in opinions, drama, thread derailment and pie.

an alt is a secondary account to the one you consider your main. they are all main, or they are all alts, depending on your definition. i see no relevence.

bots are scripted programs, not really avatars with one person per window type alts. but yes, they are still alts... or mains, depending on your definition.

pie.

Does alt now mean the ones you use less though, rather than the second one you created? Does your alt in effect change over time as you prefer to use one avatar over another?

Is alt a LL definition or a user base lingo term?

In a sense, alt means other, so I guess it could depend on which one is talking. The alt has a main, which is an alt. uhhhh--- yeah, that's it!

most definitely, yes!

I wouldn't consider Bots to be Alts.

They are just accounts used to do something. LL really should allow accounts for bots only.

I have seen you say this a few times and have a question. How would you enforce bots to use said registration rather than register in the ordinary fashion?

Sometimes alts become mains.

Just the honor system.

The bot owners who were on the up and up would use the bot accounts. Those who weren't wouldn't.

Then you could AR people who used bots on Resident accounts to do nefarious things.

Like Resident accounts used for trafficbots,

or a Resident accounts used as a scanbot, or landbot, etc.

my mind is swirling with the confusing possibilities. alt = alternate ?

I have two alts/one main but keep saying to people "I have three alts" as in 3 alternate me's.

As for the email address, I was forced to use different ones each time. I know this will sound really, really, really dumb but I never thought about going back in to change and make them all use the same one...

All of our accounts (for those who have multiples) are alternatives though Are mains dead? Did the alts win?

I think new residents should be encouraged to start out with an account they are going to later consider an alt - so for your very first account, you shouldn't pick a name you really identify with. Save that for later. Run around with a penis stuck to your forehead for a couple of months or whatever, don't spend much cash, and then after learning the ropes, create a better account that will be the main you.

OK, I didn't do it that way. Weston is my first and still my main account. But he / I sure did some dumb things for a while. I never stuck a penis to my forehead, but I did things like not understanding what an IM is, and the first time someone was being friendly to me via IM, I couldn't see her, thought she was playing a trick on me, got angry and logged out. (Deeply sorry to whoever that lady was).

Anyway, it would be nice to do all these stupid things with a trial account first.

To answer the original question from cousin Gabriele, I think we all probably have one main avatar we identify with more than the other, and that is our primary, whatever order they were born in.

*waves* Hello cousin Weston

I am organizing an alt rebellion atm.

Yes.

I did, anyway. I have to say, though, life was much simpler back when I was an alt.

I think main vs. alt is subject to individual interpretation.

i have an alt who is the land owner/business owner. i like keeping things seperate, but notice i am inworld with that one much more often (to build, etc). but i still consider this my main.

Business is the reason I just created an alt too. I just started a club (I know - groans all round) and wanted the financials easily seperated from my main.

You have used a third party registration service, they often insist on not registering to an email already chosen, you can still have up to five on the same email address if you click Skip This Step or Take Me to Linden Lab's Orientation Island. Note that if you have yahoo you can use their Disposable Addresses (Address Guard in Yahoo Classic Mail) and the addresses look different but are actually the same address.


Gabriele Graves wrote Now that has changed and when I recently went to create an "alt" the web site would not let me associate my existing email address with the account - insisting on a new one. I found later I could change this but at the point of registration, it would not have been possible for LL to know that this account was not a main. Also "alt" accounts are now free to register.

How does one delete an Alt? I have a couple which I now don't use and I'd like to grab some of the names currently on offer...

Can't you just cancel the account?

That's what I do. My alt holds all the money. If I have easy access to it,I would just spend it all on male strippers,clothes and hair.

I made one alt named Shamalamadingdong, and he has an army of 10 other alts that follow him around to sims and spam the gesture.

I have a few alts, registered with different e-mail addresses, I find it easier to separate offline IM's and stuff that way. When the new round of last names came out earlier this month I couldn't resist making some more, LL still recognized them as alts because when attempting to make one I got a "Linden Labs can limit the number of accounts you may have, you are unable to complete registration at this time" message.

Since I was using a different e-mail address on each one I figured they must associate the account with the real life information, maybe Name & Birthdate matching. Then I remembered that when attempting to change a password on one of my accounts awhile back I had a message come up that asked which account I wanted to change my password on. It didn't list them all, just 4...but it also included the avatar name of a friend of mine who lives with me but rarely ever goes on her account. So maybe they track by IP.

So what is the actual limit to an IP address?
(unless you don't want to say how many alts you have...)