People think I am an alt?

"I don't see"? Apparently not.

Pep (Try looking again at what I said, in the context of your comment.)

I guess that's what this thread is all about.

You have to differentiate between intelligence and instinct, Jig.

Pep (OK, maybe *you* don't. )

It was on the Beeb. "Crows Outwit Men" or something to that effect.
Instinct is scratching your balls before you play.
Intelligence is finding them afterwards.

(Chalk up another one, Jigsy)

Well I was thinking about it beforehand actually. I started realizing that I felt a little lonely when on my alts - none of my friends were bugging me.

And hey, if you're going to have weird issues, I'd like to know about it ahead of time.

That's a good reason.....you can also spot a multitude of issues surfacing from people when you use a blank profile, as well.....even beyond the paranoia.

Thanks for all the input, folks.

Having only explored a handfull of places, I was worried that the alt paranoia was the sort of reaction I would get all over the grid.

I suppose it all needs to be taken in stride.

This.

I have an alt I rarely use (none of you have met it.) The alt was accused of being an alt, every time the same person ran into it. What they did not know was that I had never met them before and had only just joined SL, for real.

I had heard one way to find good groups to join was to nose around profiles, so I did that, and joined some of the groups that were in profiles of people who hung out in this one place the alt frequented. The alt was basically just a fun experiment, fairly quiet, something slightly different from the usual for me. But harmless. This person had no reason to shy away from or fear at all.

But, still. "Are you SURE I don't know you?" "yes./Yes. YES!" I wanted to say. It got to the point it was bizarre. I didn't freaking know the person, I was not in the group she was also in under any other name. (She KEPT asking that - as if, if I had been lying until then I'd suddenly break? Did it occur to her I wasn't lying and she was acting like a nut?) I was polite every time but how many ways can you say "I don't know you, I never met you before here, I only joined groups that looked interesting from profiles. I am not hanging out around you under another name!"

I explained how and why I joined the group. And then finally stopped going to the place I liked and stopped using the alt pretty much at all. What's even worse is that I had never even gone to the group events and had not seen this person aside from this one place, so why should they be paranoid? In fact because they were so weird about it I never GOT to go to any of the events, for fear of setting them off on a new rant.

I mean, proving innocence once accused is pretty much impossible.

Until Fate spanks your ass and laughs maniacally.

I wonder why alts concern us so much. To varying levels of course, but they do pop up as points of discussion quite frequently. What makes us uneasy about alts? Is it that someone wasn't honest, and is playing 'mind games'? But isn't SL a giant mind game? People are free to RP all manner of things, anything they can imagine, really. Why are alts different from mains? I am trying to figure out the paranoia, and somewhat sense of betrayal that surfaces often in discussion about alts. (aside from griefing) In a society that prides itself on 'I accept the avatar for whatever it portrays', why do we care if the avatar is an alt? If it's not rl, and one is free to indulge one's fantasies, why are alts a concern at all, someone is indulging a fantasy. It seems like a big double standard, to profess to be accepting of avatars as they choose to portray, and then feel betrayed to find out that an avatar is someone you already knew, in another form. I find this struggle in myself also, and am trying to explore it.

Alts Are People Too!!!

Don't I know you under another name? I know you, I know I know you. You can tell me.

*eyes dart from side to side*

Heya Treasure. To answer seriously, the thing is that I am not roleplaying my personality. I have no problem with anyone roleplaying whatever physical form they wanna be, a dragon or ferret or person of the opposite gender or whatever, but it's when they are clearly changing their basic personality just to mess with people that I have an issue with it. I see this all the time so I guess I should accept this as normal. Except I just can't. I expect people to be honest and to be good. That's why I am so often disappointed ;P

I honestly do not care if I know someone under more than one avatar name - it is the behavior that counts in each one. Whether the person behind the avatars is one person or ten people in real life.

Exceptions would be behavior based also - if the one real life person is running some sort of game, whether it was emotional manipulation, prying for information for whatever sordid purpose, and so on. If they were playing a childish game with the private chats we had had.

It's one reason I can't help but keep most cards close to my vest, as much as it would feel freeing and relaxing in other ways to just spill, when I chatted with people. I just can't.

If I happen to meet someone while they are in their alt, why should I care, if they are just going about their business and I am just going about mine? It isn't my business, unless they are purposely messing with me somehow.

Ok; to take that a step further, why do people feel 'messed with'? Since we profess to be so open and accepting whatever people want to do, isn't it contradictory to feel 'messed with' because you found out someone is an alt? Why isn't it more of a 'so what' kind of feeling? Something else you said up there, people ARE often rp'ing their personality. I think you might have hit the answer though, with that. The problem seems to come in, when people who are not rp'ing come into contact with people who are? Then, all our so called acceptance goes out the window. And we feel betrayed and hurt that someone was not 'honest' with us. IN SL???? Perhaps we should assume FIRST that they are not 'honest' about who they are. Many people have been in SL for years and never revealed any rl details. It is possible to do that, so why are our rl selves hurt to find out otherwise?

I don't. I don't even feel the need to know, necessarily. If someone wants to tell me they are an alt of someone else I've met, fine. But I don't require knowing.

I'd only feel messed with for the same reason I would if it were not an 'alt.' If the person had purposely messed with me in some way. I probably don't have to give examples - just silly mind games that were done on purpose. Or taking 'me' out of this, for instance, someone plays a male and a female avatar, the male courts someone and the female messes with the same person feigning 'jealousy' and 'stay away from my man.' In other words, some fairly twisted and premeditated B.S. would be necessary.

I approach Second Life as a creative outlet as well as a roleplay from time to time and a bit of social interaction. I take people at face value - I can suspend disbelief. I don't really want that fourth wall broken. It would take some fairly twisted or childish games played on purpose to make me disgusted with someone and whether it was an alt being used to do their dirty work would not be the important thing.

In other words I don't understand it either, Treasure.

"Honest" about an avatar seems relative in a place where men can be female porn stars and anyone can be a koala or kangaroo.

People do this all the time, without using an alt.

Exactly what I am saying.

Caught that in your post that overlapped. I hope people remember this.

I meant I was saying it in the post you replied to, Mickey.

Sorry - I'm ESL.

I definitely feel messed with when someone talks to me with more than one avatar and tries to pretend that they have separate "typists" (these people also invariably refer to the alt as a friend). I take that as a sign of possible serious mental issues. I may not tell the person that I know but they get put on my "crazy list" and we will never have anything but superficial interactions.



I guess... because they think I'm that dumb? And because I think that is a possibly sociopathic behavior.



I assume everyone I meet, in real life, on the internet, in SL, is honest until I observe otherwise. However, I do believe in the old adage: Trust everyone but don't give them a chance to screw you over. Alternately: Trust everyone but carry a big stick.

That's not really a fair assessment. I know many people who do this, myself included....and it's because they have many dimensions and facets to their personalities that they are forced to mesh together in RL. Here, you can take each dimension, and expand, and concentrate solely on that dimension. Experiment with what it would be like if that were the main dimension of your personality as opposed to being a smaller aspect. My friends have no problem addressing an alt as a separate person....they have their own alts who are separate. That does not make any of us crazy, with mental issues....in fact, I prefer to think the opposite.....very healthy.

Here is my weird alt story. When I was new and completely clueless I dated someone in SL, it got rather intense emotionally. Well after a few weeks of dating a new person comes into a club I was hanging out in and really starts hitting on me hard. I give the "sorry I'm dating someone" speal, for about 15 minutes, trying to be nice and just have a fun time. Finally I have enough and tell the person off. That's when the person admitted they were an alt of the person I was dating, that they wanted to 'test' me. I should have been super pissed, but I found it kind of funny and blew it off. Later I find out that the person has a string of dozens of alts, many of them dating or trying to date people in the same group of friends. That's when I got skeeved. Also found out the person was telling some way serious lies about their RL. Not that anyone ever asked for information from them, I really didn't care, it's all cartoons to me, but once you start dumping on people about your RL, for heaven's sake, don't force lies on them. Needless to say, it got old fast, we broke up and I thought I was done with this person. But... about once every 6 months or so I get an out of the blue IM from someone. "Hey, I saw you online and thought I would say hi and see if you wanted to chat sometime." Okay, One, I'm not online that much. Two, I go to very few places and have the same group of friends I pretty much have had for 3 years now. Three, if there is somone new in those places it's noticable I'll remember them. ... But just to make sure I check, and every single time, I look at the profile, there is a dead givaway that it's one of the orginal person's alts. Things like "I just want to thank my Mom, so-in-so", or "So-in-so is my super cool sister, mess with her and I'll go gangsta on you." Just utter, 'OMG how does someone this stupid remember to breathe' kind of things.

So, the point being, for the OP, don't get too bunged up about being kicked for being a suspected alt. Chances are they actually did you a favor. That club is most likely infested with drama queen alts like the one from my tale. Completely oblivious to how transparent and pathetic they are to everyone around them. If you went there regularly, no telling what kind of emotional demolition derby you would be dragged into. Just count your blessings and move on to the next club.

And seriously, I would recommend you do not invest any more emotionally into SL that you would an episode of Scooby Doo.

Your friends *know* you are the alts, yes? That's different than just showing up one day and being like, "Hi, I'm a totally new person you don't know!"