No Alts in the Forums

Yes, but I think you missed the original comment that I made that was responded to. Thats basically what I said in my original post.

I said: "As long at the forum managers can tell who people are (so affording them a better if imperfect means to keep banned people from sneaking back in) I don't lose much sleep over people posting under their alts for I vote NO on the ban."

So just like you said...because you are both using the same card, if one of you gets band for being an asshat, both of you are at risk of being banned or at least suffer lots of inconvenience because of that. Its not perfect, but as I said for the reasons I gave in the second post, I think its a resonably fair thing.

Holy cow! I thought Daisy Mechanique was just a legend.

No more so than Gnolan Gnash!

Not sure that would be an apples to apples comparison with the keys analogy. More like if your dad does something and gets the car impounded (e.g. smuggles illegal girl scout cookies in from South America ), if you don't have another car (i.e. another CC) then yes the whole household will lose the ability to drive the car while its impounded.

Or if you let your friend drive your car and he drives it off into a river and destroy the car. Its not fair that you're now without a car, but you are.





It would be like they were living in your home and using a telephone in your name. If the punk kid runs up a phone bill, as the authorized "owner" of the phone you get stuck with the bill. If you don't pay the bill the phone company could disconnect you.


Yeah, that sucks. But that is actually an acceptable and common security practice. For example we blacklist incoming email from several common internet email domains because they are also a common source of junkmail. And with 70,000 mailboxes junkmail is a BIG deal.

Unenforceable. New credit card with work address instead of home, new ID, instant alt.

Anonymity should be protected. Period. A few asshats that exploit alts on the forums does not mean all alts should be banned - it's a function of free speech.

Still, use of alts on this forum is a privilege. If abused (easy to guage with posting IP/host), alts should be regulated in line with their main accounts. Abuse in context being defined as violating the standard TOS with any account.

Personally, I only picked up an alt recently (Codebase Nerd) for distribution issues in-world. That said, and as much as I personally hate alts being used to "game the forums," in the long run that very anonymity protects posters in issues like whistleblowing (which should also be protected on these forums, by the way).

All compelling reasons to have an open "Roundtable" on the subject.

I voted 'no', though I do not use alts to post in the forums.

I think people aught to be able to do whatever they like with their alts, even try to sway a poll by a whopping 5 alt votes or whatever.

-Ghoti

Well LL doesn't come take my PC and impound it, and they are after all, the "police" in this issue. They take the "keys" away needed to enter SL. The little bastard didn't throw my PC in a river either.

A phone is a service intended for the whole household to use - that is understood when you sign up. Besides, I would still have my mobile... I agree on the spam thing, but then I might have to trot out apples and oranges too... I just don't think it's fair to punish the whole household because one member of it can't behave, and I am glad that LL seems to agree.

Yup. Why I called it an "imperfect means to keep banned people from sneaking back in". At that point it simply becomes a practical matter of how many credit cards someone can get issued to them, how much time they are really willing to spend on getting more cards to use to create alts. Which takes alot more time and energy than it takes for LL to ban them again on the new card when they act up again.




Exactly. Let people do their alts. If they act up, there is a means to ban them.

Although I don't use my alt to do so myself, and although I don't particularly respect the practice, I can most certainly understand why people might want to use one to express an opinion now and again.

Then, too, if alts were banned, then we wouldn't have that guy - I forget his name - that Ulrika likes, who was posting under two names, remember, as a joke? And I didn't know they were joking?

On the TSO boards I sometimes enjoyed by using my alt - Strawbeary, who was a bear who only ever said "Rowr" and variations thereof (no emoticons, either - imagine how difficult it was to play her in the game). That was a VERY separate character from Cocoanut. (And it's why I have been looking for a bear suit.) Like with that guy I mentioned above, that sort of fun would no longer be possible.

And finally, what about people who actually do have several alts selling different things? And maybe people don't know they do? Or even if people do know, that person might want to advertise and discuss things dealing with - say - house building, with the house-building alt, and clothing design, with the clothing designer alt.

This in addition to parsing out who is actually the same person, and who are different members of the same household, particularly in the cases where one or more characters is shared by two players in the household.

coco

Thats the thing with analogies (like your keys example or my car example), they're imperfect representations of those things they are meant to represent in argument.

Hopefully though, the "little bastard" in question got a case of the redass...or some punishment at least...for being a little bastard.



Perfectly fair? No. But fair enough IMO. Until everyone gets a chip installed in their brain for unique Universal Online ID that is. Then LL just jolts the Trolls remotely.

The forums are not a contest to win the affections of idiots.

Grow up.

Of course not. That's the job of Presidents, after all.

no vote --

Alt should be treated as individuals, until it's clear that they are mouthpieces of the main, which then they should be treated as the main is - if the main is banned, they should be.

This, coincidentally, is how the rules are now, since a bunch of us Lobbied LL to change the rules following the Prok alt-a-thon a few months ago.

Are you sure? I really want you to like me so I can win.

~Ulrika~

Oh, I already like you! You have entertainment value. Plus you have a stylish swosshie sig line, that ought to be worth three points at least.

As for me, I use my alts to say really stupid things in the forums so that I can look smart by comparison. A lot of people must be doing that, what else could account for so many idiotic posts?

Buster

This is probably beating a dead horse, but...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php?date=2004-03-19

Oh, and keep it civil.

This is the best argument against alts I've seen yet.

~Ulrika~

I voted No. I can't judge another person's motivation for posting as an alt simply on that fact. Their words will have to speak for themselves.

One thing occurred to me while reading these similar threads - it is possible that a person with multiple personalities in RL would require the use of alts in-world and in the forum. They will probably be using one credit card in the name of the dominant personality. Are we to deny those other people an existence any more than we would people using a joint account?

2+3=cats?

You saying your an alt?

*reminds self to get out alts to vote*

Now that's a nice and balanced poll - Yes Yes Yes No

Sunbelt just posted this a few hours ago:

http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/anonymity-on-net-is-it-good-thing.html

Seriously though. Prok mistook me for her on what was almost my very first post here, which allowed me to "win" a debate with him. Seems like a million years ago now.

I've been accused of being an alt on a few different occassions.

People thinking I'm Siggy's alt is the most understandable, I suppose. We have used each others computers before, and SL website log-out is about as affective as asking it kindly to change users for you, so we've accidentally posted under the wrong accounts.

I was also asked quite a few times whose alt I was when I first started posting, because I was "too good at the forums." I had to explain that while I was new to SL forums, I was not new to forums in general, the internet, typing, or, ya know, communicating with other human beings. I don't see any reason that being able to communicate and not spazzing out at the drop of a hat should be an 'alt-alert.'

The funniest I ever heard, though, was someone claiming that I was actually Alby Yellowknife. I don't know if they had me mixed up with someone else, or they were perhaps dellusional from a high fever, or maybe their reading comprehension was broken, but I can't think of one thing I ever could have said to leave that impression. The only interaction I ever had with him was calling him Alex P. Keaton.

Oh, and then there's Ulrika asking if Surreal was my alt, or vice versa. No idea where that came from, either, but I'm flattered.

I think often people use the Alt excuse to try and marginalize someone's opinions when they can't counter them any other way.