Is there a limit to the number of accounts per person?

Does each person have a limit to the number of free or premium accounts he has?
If so, how do they determine each different person? By email address?

There is no limit on accounts.

The limit is at least 10

The limit is 5 per email address, unless that changed recently.

You'll get about 10 different answers to this, because no one really knows at this point. Not even the Lindens themselves.

Used to be it was 5 per a household. Now? *shrugs*

So you can have 5 x (how many free email accounts you wish to sigh up for). I do long for the days of the $9.95 alt.

The answer to this question is defined in the TOS this way:



Of course, open registration makes this policy completely pointless and impossible for our beloved Lab to enforce, but that's the actual answer to the question. Tell the truth and you can only have one account. Lie, and the sky's the limit.

The is (or used to be) a limit in the registration process that limit by IP address.

Where does that say only one account per human?
"Account registrations are limited per unique person" doesn't say they are limited to one, just that they are limited.

"Linden Lab may require... "doesn't say that they do require, only that they may.

"When an account is created, the information given for the account must match the address, phone number, and/or other unique identifier information associated with the identification method." I can't really tell what that is supposed to mean. It seems a bit like gibberish to me.

"You may register multiple accounts per identification method only at Linden Lab's sole discretion. " That clearly says we can register more accounts, but doesn't say how Linden Lab applies discretion. Are you supposed to ask, and if so, who? If you create an additional account without supplying any false information, and the Linden provided account creation process succeeds, have they exercised their discretion and approved the additional account?

"Additional accounts beyond the first account per unique user may be subject to fees upon account creation" say there may be a fee for additional accounts but doesn't say there is.


If they really wanted to say "One account per human" they could do it in a much clearer manner. "One account is allowed per human. There are never any exceptions to this, so don't ask. If we find that you have created more than one account, all your accounts will be closed, all inventory, land holdings, inventory, etc. associated with the account will be forfeited, a hardware ban will be placed on any computers used to access any of these accounts, and bans on the use of accounts sharing credit cards, bank accounts, telephone numbers, etc. will be applied regardless of whether this results in the closing of accounts belonging to others. We will also send your email address to fake Viagra companies. If your picture is in the forum header image, we will actually get off our butts and change that darned thing so that your picture is not there anymore."

"Ok, we were just joking about that forum header thing, it stays."

Thanks Pie for the policy.
EDIT: It answers the first question. There is a limit to account registration per unique user. But it doesn't so much answer the second question.

Q2. While it tells us methods LL might use to identify unique users, it doesn't really answer the process LL uses in identifying a unique user.

I guess we can deduce the following:
-Each cell phone verification definitely determines a unique user. All accounts under a particular verified cell# belong to that unique user.
-Each payment method used definitely determines a unique user. All accounts under a particular verified method of payment belong to that unique user.
-I would go as far as to assume that an email address definitely belongs to a unique user.
-Any 1 of these 3 pieces of information will identify you the next time you register even if you input different information for any of the other 2 remaining pieces of information.
-While I might eliminate other pieces of information as possible methods of unique identification, I would still keep IP address a possibility until somebody has tested it out to find out for sure.

Are there any detectives in here that might give some good feedback regarding these deductions?

https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417

"Alt Account FAQ" (keyword search: alt account)

Thanks Cristalle. Does this mean, a unique user identified by LL (through something such as a payment method) can still use multiple email addresses to register more accounts?

I believe so.

Yes - I have 4 premium accounts, all with their own email address, but all using the same Paypal account. In addition to that, I have registered another 5 names just cuz I liked the names, though 2 or 3 of those have never even logged in, or maybe only logged in once. Each of these additional accounts also have unique email addresses.

btw - I know someone with close to 50 alts - no clue how they are registered.

It is in my opinion that these account limit policies are only in place to prevent exploitation of LLs referal incentive marketing strategy. Strategically, it might be more effective for LL to remove the limit to paid account registrations, and lower the incentive amount from the referal program. It would also likely ease the burden of regulating the referal program. In fact, turning the blind eye to users refering themselves to a paid accoint might even be profitable for LL. Any marketing strategists around?
(1. An individual reffering himself will have to pay for at least 4 months worth of registration fees in order to get the full incentive amount. Even keeping the incentive amount at 2,000L might still be profitable considering LL would be getting at least 4 months worh of paid membership fees. No to mention potential for this alt to continue membership after the 4 months. 2. Allowing individuals to refer themselves to a paid account will no doubt increase the likelyhood that individuals will register a paid alt account. Each paid alt account registration, while definitely not as profitable as the first account registration, is still profit for LL either way.)

I think it would be safe to say that because you used the same payment method for your 4 premium accounts, nobody was paid any referal incentive.

In regards to unlimited free accounts. According to the information provided by Cristalle, even if you are identified as a unique user, you can register unlimited amount of free accounts as long as you give a unique email address for each 5 alts you register.

Sadly,

No.

Unfortunately for actual residents, you can create infinate numbers by using any alternative email addresses.
Otherwise I have 5 on one email address, and can't create a 6th.

No limits, BUT... Linden Lab reserves the right to limit individuals who they feel need to be limited.

Right...

Unlimited alts for bot runners, campers, griefers...

But I suppose in some circumstances where they decided to ban someone, having a technical limit somewhere on the books gives them a legal excuse to close a bunch of accounts.

What it boils down to is that they have technical limits in place, but they don't enforce those limits at all. And with anonymous registration, they really CAN'T limit anything based on any reasonable factor. I can create an infinite number of unique e-mail addresses. All valid, and none through Hotmail or any other readily-known free mail service. So I am sure many others can do that too. And nothing else on the account application form is validated in any way. IP addresses are easy to spoof, with a household router or with software. Most of the other "identifying information" that might be detected about a user's system can likewise be shielded, spoofed, or changed by the user, though some of that may require changes to their hardware. And there's nothing preventing someone from using computers that don't belong to themselves to create new accounts. Libraries, cyber cafes, workplaces... Plenty of places exist.

They DO seem to place a limit on how many new accounts can be created from a single IP address or for a single e-mail address in a limited number of hours. And they do at times seem to limit how many accounts can be on a single payment method. But those limits are erratic and not enforced in a predictable manner. More often than not, they appear to be technical glitches rather than a policy lockout.

Your mileage may vary...

I know someone who made 50 alts this past month just to prove a point. If I remember right, they even all have the same surname because a mirror registration page was used. (^_^)y

Some weeks ago, I had created an alt and, thinking I had to pay that $9.95 fee or whatever and couldn't, got into live chat with support.

Their answer? "No, we are not charging anyone for creating alts at this time."

I asked if any alts I created now may be charged for down the road. She said that there were no plans to do so currently, but if LL decided to do such a thing it would be with plenty of notice ahead of time.

Works for me.

/now owns 3 alts

So mostly this all means there are really only like 6,000 actual live human beings and their 100 bots each utilizing this grid at any one time.

It's funny really coz for LL to deny me a 6th alt on my regular email account but allow me unlimited alts as long as I create another anonymous email account that I can still associate with my real life information seems... ridiculous.

But then, SL and LL have indeed broadened my sense of the absurd.

Well, without opening a WHOLE can of worms ... I think we could do without the bots. A whole bunch of alts can't be nearly as bothersome.

How many bits are there in the universe?

The number of bits in the universe, divided by the number of bits required for an account to exist, might be a theoretical upper limit to the number of accounts per user, assuming one user hogged them all. Divide by 6 billion to get a maximum number of accounts possible with everyone in the world being a member of SL and distributing accounts equally.

Another way to figure it would to assume someone spent every possible moment creating accounts. Assume they start creating accounts at age 18 and live till 80. Eight hours a day of sleep, lets' say two hours to eat and so on, so 14 hours a day, * 365, x 62 , times an totally arbitrary figure of 12 accounts per hour, that makes 3,801,840 accounts in a lifetime.

I could spend two or three weeks just picking out a first name for an account, so my maximum number of creatable accounts would be a bit less than that.

They're also limited by database capabilities. How much money does LL have to continually upgrade the storage capacity of the asset servers?

1.8 billion, I think I saw?