Alt Question

I vaguely understand what an alt is. I don't understand what an alt is used for.

An alt is just a person's second (third, fourth ...) avatar. A single person can have multiple avatars, each with a separate login, a separate account.

There are many uses for alts. Some people use them as testers, to test objects they are selling or test to make sure scripts run properly when operated by someone other than the owner. Some people use them when they want to explore SL without having to interact with customers or friends who would send them lots of IMs if they were on line in their main avatar. Some people use them to hold group memberships beyond the normal 25. Some people use them if they want to play a character or personality very different from that of their main without having to constantly change shapes, clothes, visible groups, &c. Another use is to create a land ownership group - group-deeded mainland gets a 10% tier bonus and so some individual owners may create an alt just to have a second avatar to put in the ownership group.

I have used my alt just to try out a different look and persona from my main avatar; my alt is a part-time Neko, for example, which wouldn't quite be right for my main. I have also used my alt, more mundanely, to test positions of two-person slow-dance pose balls - I open two instances of SL at once, log in to each as a different character, and hop on the pose balls. I've also used my alt to hold extra groups.

The reasons are many for those that do. I suggest using search to find some threads on the topic, there have been a few recently.

If you have a group, it is good to have an alt as a member so that you aren't the only member and the group is disbanded. Especially important if you have group owned land as it would be possible to lose the land.

Sometimes people use alts for their banking transactions, or to build with out distractions from friends.

I am sure others will give you more good reasons.

Some use alts because they are being stalked or harrassed on their mains. Also, I have an anti-griefer alt, so I can choose whether to "entertain" griefers or not as I please.

When I came to SL, I also found some terms confusing. These 3 in particular - av, alt, and bot.

We are avatars (avs) but are sometimes called residents.
If we open alternate accounts, we sometimes refer to those avatars as alts, for alternate. Bots are just avatars with no soul. Stay away from them.

As for reasons, Madhu and others gave some good ones, but you don't really need a reason.

Musicians, artists, and so forth can ply their trade in world so that real life and the second one cross over somewhat. They will need an alt to enjoy the anonymity everyone else has in world. That's just one more reason.

I have a few alts most of which are abortive. I've narrowed it down to two I identify with. We have fairly different personalities, my alt and I. Haven't you ever wondered what it's like to be someone else?

You also can get a little stagnated and sometimes it's nice to start fresh with a new name and a new perspective.

A lot of people have one account for business and then another account for their normal Second Life

Many have one account for Role-play and another account for their normal Second Life

Others have committed Drama suicide and get new accounts

Some people love drama and one account isnt enough for all the drama they want.

Others love promiscuous cybors but stink at expressing their needs and so want lots of Alts to engage in many "exclusive relationships" at once.


Generally the usage is the account you use most often is the "Main account" and the rest are "Alternate accounts"

And thus ALT.

I think it comes from MMO games like Everquest where people had a main high level character and several lower level characters.

Another point is - if you find no need for an alt so far, don't worry, it's not obligatory!

--
Aes

I just don't get it. Why bother. It is not good practice to allow such....alting. It is a haven for chaos and mischief. I guess I understand if you want it for building or business but for the other stuff I think it is bad. Isn't there a way to limit it and shouldn't there be. There should be a fee or something. A way to track it. I mean if your alt can't be tracked to your main personality then what separated you from you alt except maybe frequency of use.

There IS SUPPOSED to be a fee. But LL doesn't charge it. Multiple alts gives them real nice resident numbers they can show to the big corporations to get them to ruin, ..Invest in SL.

Alts can be fun. They don't have to be about deceit or cheating. It's the keyboard operators who do that and it happens in RL too.

What they said. I have a total of 4 accounts.

This particular one is #2 and is my business Alt.

My original av is my "social" av - the one with a bunch of friends that hang out together and is also the 2nd member of my business group.

I have another Alt that I use for testing products and packaging and is not a member of my business group to avoid group effects when rezzing stuff. She *cough* also serves as a model, when needed, for product promo pics or to generally test fit stuff designed for women.

The other account I use for general exploring purposes to just get away from it all.

Some of my best friends appear to be Alts.

Freebird!

I have a couple alts - the first one was started so I could have someone other than me test the products I make. There are lots of gotchas where stuff works just dandy for the creator but breaks or doesn't work the same when someone else buys or gets it. The easiest way to get the information and do the testing is to use a second account - as far as SL is concerned the alt is a whole different entity and therefore I can find any hidden problems in my products.

Another thing I use the alt for, is debit permissions - I will never grant debit permissions to anything. If I want to put up a raffle ball or a vendor box, my alt was the one who owned it and granted debit permissions. My alt has very, very limited funds, therefore the risk of getting cleaned out by a malfunctioning or malicious script were equally limited.

Finally, for my estate, there are things that I can't test, such as ban-lines. They're verbotten but if someone put them up, I have no way of seeing it -- EMs don't see or get blocked by them. So an alt with no priveledges on the estate, can wander around and find these things out.

And finally, and most controversially, "bots" are just normal SL accounts that connect with some alternative software. So if you want to run a bot but also be able to log on yourself, you'd have an alt who logs in as a bot.

-Atashi

Some people create alts just because a really cool last name became available, and they have an idea for the perfect first name to go with it.

Alts are great for testing sales items and group permissions to see what happens to non group or non owners, when they try and enter or buy something.
Also alts alow you to have a business , working identity who isn't disturbed by 24 group s IMing etc.
Because we can't change names alts are a great way of getting a decent name for roleplay that suits the roleplay genre

Thank you all for the informative answers.

Most of my best friends appear to be Brenda ... that is, a *huge* wink and runs away fast!

Tried to put this in my profile last night .. ah Friday night .. what a disaster!

Deception. Who are we really deceiving? We get younger, taller, slimmer, sexier? And then someone else takes it in.
SL turns our worldly wants on their heads; Pacific Island beaches, snow covered ski-runs, pyramids, coral reefs. Does it make our worldly wants insignificant? Does it teach us to revel in what we truly have? Do we take our little pixel people too seriously? Do we take them too frivolously? Escape? Distraction? Desperation? Which one are you? Which one is me?
What a soup!

I create extra alt at first for land group, testing for content purposes,etc then it was to explore or just build or work on something without being disturbed by lot of friend announcements,etc but most of my closest friends know of all my alts...I guess I just don't hide well. So for me its not about deception at all. People do use them for good purposes

Well, goodness me -- that's deep. I like it!

I always wanted a world where everyone has the same physical opportunies, both in ability and in appearance. In the US we have the idealistic credo "all men are created equal." Really? Well, ask the overweight nervous dweeb who cannot even appoach a woman because he was repeatedly rejected before even asking for dance, let alone a date. (I am not speaking entirely from experience. I was actually the other extreme, toothpick thin. Marginally overweight now, I do okay with the ladies. But I'm sure most of us have felt like the person in my example at one time or another.)

I thought this virtual world is the great equalizer for physical attributes. But what I've found is -- and this is actually a blessing -- it cannot equalize talent. Or taste.

So to steer my post back toward alts, this could be another reason for alts. Maybe we'll accidentally make one that has more talent or taste.

Probably the most legit uses for an alt include:

Testing your products, I.E. does your vendor work correctly? does it distribute products with the proper permissions, etc?

Using an alt as a mannequin to create armor, jewelry, etc.