Can a couple use a single account with two avatars?

[lovee Foehammer]

On another discussion site, a SL resident posted the following (names deleted):

Hello ! I'm French! We are two to play with that account, my wife and me. She use girls avatars with her name of Xxxxx, and me i use boys avatars and i play only in RPs , my name is XXXXX !

I am just wondering if this is a problem, and if others have encountered one account with multiple avatars.

(It is a problem for them, since the wife says one thing and the husband will not validate it... but of course the name tag remains the same, confusing residents who know them, and they get "Like WTF?" from people that they meet.)

Like I say, just wondering about it.

[Cinnamon Lohner]

Since it is so easy to have 2 accounts in the same household, I'm not sure what advantage there would be to only having one avatar shared by two people.  If the concern is being premium for owning land or getting support, just make one account a paid account and the other a basic account.  Wouldn't cost you anymore than just having one premium account. And if you set them up at the same time you might have a good chance of sharing the same last name.

--Cinn

[Unklebob Hotaling]

Never encountered it but it is possible, albeit very confusing.  I got my Unlebob that's obviously a guy av, that said i've been to crossdressing events so i got female stuff in my inventory... i suppose if my RL roommate and I wanted to share the Unklebob account we could.  It's feasable; confusing as hell to everyone else, but feasable.

[Ellla McMahon]

Hello Lovee, if these different avatars have different names then they also have different Accounts, although they could use the same computer, see Linden Lab Official:Alt Account FAQ

Alternate accounts... multiple identities... We all have them in
some way or another. Perhaps in real life you're an entrepreneur in the
morning, soccer mom in the afternoon, and vegetarian chef in the
evening. In Second Life, you get to externalize these roles in
customized, uniquely identifiable personas — otherwise known as alt
accounts. How cool is that?

There are great reasons for having more than one account in Second Life, and we like to facilitate these uses.

How many alts may I have?

Currently, you can create as many additional Basic or Premium accounts as you want to pay for, with the following limitations:

• You can create up to five accounts per household.
  
• You can create no more than two accounts in a single 24-hour period.
  

We do require that alt accounts adhere to all of our policies. For example, by agreeing to our Terms of Service
(TOS) you agree to provide truthful and accurate information about
yourself when you register for accounts — that includes not only your
contact information and real name but also whether this is your first
free Basic account or a new alt (see TOS section 2.1). People who do
not provide truthful information risk losing their accounts.

NOTE: Linden Lab Official:Sharing Second Life Accounts

Your password and its confidentiality are what protects your whole account, as well as your inworld content and all of the personal and billing information in the Your account section at the website. Use common sense when creating a password. Do not choose a password based on personal information that could easily be guessed by others, and never save your password on a computer that is shared with others.

Per our Terms of Service:

2.3 You need to use an account name in Second Life which is not misleading, offensive or infringing. You must select and keep secure your account password. You must choose an account name to identify yourself to Linden Lab staff (your "Account Name"), which will also serve as the name for the graphical representation of your body in the Service (such representation, an "Avatar"). You may not select as your Account Name the name of another person to the extent that could cause deception or confusion; a name which violates any trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right; a name which may mislead other users to believe you to be an employee of Linden Lab; or a name which Linden Lab deems in its discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. Linden Lab reserves the right to delete or change any Account Name for any reason or no reason. You are fully responsible for all activities conducted through your Account or under your Account Name. At the time your Account is opened, you must select a password. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and are responsible for any harm resulting from your disclosure, or authorizing the disclosure of, your password or from use by any person of your password to gain access to your Account or Account Name. At no time should you respond to an online request for a password other than in connection with the log-on process to the Service. Your disclosure of your password to any other person is entirely at your own risk.

[lovee Foehammer]

Hi Ella, I thought of that too, but the person in the post claims to have one account.  Now being a Francophone, perhaps s/he didn't use the correct English term...and there are two accounts.

But it has me thinking, can two people use the same account?  I think Unk has it right: they can.  But is it "legal" by ToS and community standards?

The ToS seem to be silent on this specific situation.  Thus it is prolly legal, but a dumb idea....

[Ellla McMahon]

If the Avatars have one single name then yes, they are sharing one Account and one password, which looking at ToS doesn't seem to be against the rules, but it's quite clearly entirely at their own risk. Personally, I think that if this sharing was mentioned, then any request for LL Support would be rejected.

[Riaelle Zsun]

I think this would be confusing, inventory wise, unless there are some organization.  Also, the buddy list would be an issue.  Another thing ot think about is that what if one of the couple get so deep into the game and the other person wants to play?  How will that resolve things?  There will need to be a compromise.  In a way I thik of as the identity lost in second life.