Getting a dormant account's name?

Hi I have a friend who found that though his real life last name is available now, his real first name was taken, and yet, the account that created it appears to have been unused . There is no information posted there, no groups belonged to its just empty and they joined in late January... if an account goes unused for long enough does sl get rid of it? Can you buy that name? Also can you im the person who has the name and offer to buy it ? Just wondering ...

Elinah

I don't think they clear the names if they're unused but I might be wrong. Think of how far down the resident count would go lol. I've thought of that before, that people can buy names off other AVs. I'm sure you can IM him and ask. If they have expensive things that are trans and they use they could trasnfer that over to another account, along with any L or other stuff.

But first just ask and see if you can get the account for free...if they don't use it, maybe they'll just give it to you. Hopefully they have in preferences that they get offline IMs through email, otherwise if they quit SL they'll never see your message. Good luck!

Thanks Shadow ... I will try. I suspect this person may be from a foreign country though and hope they speak english well enough to understand... I dont want sl to take anyones name away but it does seem like they should let a good name be used by someone if the account is not being used.

Elinah

Transferring an av to another person without LL's consent violates the TOS:

Thanks Ava, but what is written consent and how do you get it ? I mean its hard to get them to respond to much of anything these days...


Elinah

There's really no "but" about it. If they don't respond, then you don't have their written consent. And they clearly state that transfers are not generally permitted.

And I'm not sure about this part, but I don't think they recycle names even when accounts are cancelled.

Maybe it is the other person's RL name too and that's why they claimed it.


If there is no information, how do you determine that the person may be from a foreign country?

Just askin'....

Couldn't your friend try spelling his first name in a slightly different way, eg: Fred = Phred or Fredd, or Bill = B1ll?

AFAIK Av names are like Group names - once they're gone, they're gone.

While I like my real life name, and I have, way back in the day in IRC chats, used my RL first name as a chathandle, I'd never want it as my avatar name, lol. I much prefer the one I've got for running around in SL with >.>

Killing old accounts would hurt the inflated population numbers that are used to draw in big business and media attention.

Well its just my friend's name is very french sounding and is a common last name in France even though he is American so I just assumed the person who took the name may be French...

Elinah

Well if he does respond and is willing to give away his name then what? How do I get linden lab to agree to it? That is my question?

Elinah

Yes that is one option ... his real name would be nicer but that is the other choice too .

Elinah

I guess they are never deleted?


Elinah

My second life first name is a combination of my real life names. I kinda like it .

Elinah

Because your friend doesn't have an account yet, I would guess that the original name owner would have to contact LL and ask them to transfer it. It would be a lot of work for them, because yes, contacting LL is difficult, and there is still the issue that LL states they DON'T usually do transfers.

ETA: As for how to get LL to agree to it... if any of us knew how to get LL to agree to something, LL support would be easy to contact, they would do a much better job at punishing/banning griefers, and they would be fixing the major bugs and exploits that cost people lots of real money.

I forgot to mention my friend does have an account... its just when he found out his real last name had become available he tried to get his real first name too but it was taken... I was just helping to see if there was a way to get it since the account that took it looks completely unused since late January... I was hoping the person would agree to give the name away or sell it but I also wondered what the rules were about it .I wondered if anyone else had a little more experience with it. I think there should be a way to give away your name .

Elinah

How do you know the other account has been "unused since January"? I don't see how you can know that is true, especially since you already stated this person is not in any groups. Even if this person hasn't logged in since then, it would be very bad precedent if LL started recycling names. A name is the unique identifier of an account, and all the things that account possesses. What if someone takes a break from SL? What if this person is, for instance, a US soldier now off in Iraq? What if a thousand other reasons? What would it be like to come back to your account and discover it had been recycled for lack of use? That would be a very bad move for many reasons having nothing to do with maintaining inflated population numbers.

Very very good point. One of my closest friends just took a month long break, and one of my first sl bf's just now started using second life again and I would say he was gone for a good year. He just started going to school for graphic design or something of that effect and thought he would start to build in secondlife again. So very good point.

But what if you, as the owner of an AV, deliberately want to 'sell' your AV to somebody else? I know of somebody who said he'd done that (although I'm not sure he told me the truth). Apart from wondering why somebody would want to "buy" somebody's AV, if it's so simple to create and build one for your own, I also wonder how that would go, if I were to sell Feline Falta to, say, my best friend.

Can I then link that AV to another e-mail address? Because otherwise, I would keep receiving the e-mails Feline Falta used to receive, instead of my friend, who now owns the av.

This could be an idea...

My real first name is Joke (not as the English word joke, but said as jo-key. It is a very common Dutch womens-name).

Because of the "funny" meaning of the English word "joke", most English speaking friends call me Jo or Johanna (the last is my Christian name).

May look in this direction? Nicknames or special names people have for your friend I mean.

Morwen.