Detect Alternate Avatar

[Aubley Vaniva]

I suspect that a resident is using at least one alt. Is there any way to detect if an avatar is an alt? Thanks in advance!!

[Peewee Musytari]

I suspect that 90% of of residents have one or more alts. Using multiple accounts is very common, even all the Lindens have them lol

There are gadgets that claim to be able to detect multiple accounts but they are incredibly inaccurate. They will pick up alts that are not alts and miss ones that are.

My advice would be, assume everyone has alts & don`t fret over it, some people like to have a 3rd life and a 4th life etc

[Dark Larkspur]

As a business owner I have always had an alt. I login as her when I need to work or meet with someone without interruption.  Maybe it seems unfriendly, but I find it very hard to deal with multiple conversations at the same time. It also is hard to script or build with IM's popping up, even when I have busy set... And so I have an alt. I don't think there should be a way to tell if a person has an alt, people should be allowed some privacy when they want it.

 

I've always understood, though, that who I am chatting with in SL may not be who they say they are... including whether they have other alts that might talk to me at some other time without letting me know who they are. It's just the way it always has been on the Internet. OK, well some people may be geeky enough to know how to trace IP's and such, but most of us aren't and just have to realize we never know if we are talking to our RL neighbor, an ex-spouse, a president, a movie star, an axe murderer, or one of our own children. So it pays to be careful, and truthful. You are only responsible for your side of the street, after all.

 

I think if someone seems fishy to you should trust your instincts & try to avoid them.

[Theia Magic]

I suspect it's absolutely none of your business if they are using an alt. 

Get life already.  Who the hell cares if they have an alt?  Go make your own alt and leave them alone.

[Peewee Musytari]

I totally agree with Dark & Honey, I also use an alt for my business to crash test new products/perms etc. I think most creators do.

The bottomline is that its a slippery slope when you start to be more concerned about what other people are doing than about your own SL (unless they are trying to do you harm), it can become obsessive and at the end of the day did you join SL to become a detective or to have fun?

[LittleMe Jewell]

Aubley Vaniva wrote:

I suspect that a resident is using at least one alt. Is there any way to detect if an avatar is an alt? Thanks in advance!!

Why do you care?

[DogWomble Dollinger]

Hmmm, another one of these threads

If you really need to know whether a person is somebodies alt, the best (and easiest) way is to ask them and see what they say.  Although some people are more willing to answer than others.

If they're not causing you any problems, don't worry whether or not they have an alt.

If they are causing you problems, deal with them appropriately and move on.

[TC Rhiadra]

Oh goodie! I get to post. I am an alt! But hey, why do you care? (like someone else asked). It's really none of your business. If they're causing you problems, mute and move on.

/me logs out so the main can log back in

[TC Short]

Next time I need to pay more attention. I didn't realize this was posted in SLA otherwise the alt wouldn't have replied. I'd have replied with a simple "No, there's no way to detect. If you really want to know, ask the person".

[Unklebob Hotaling]

hiya Aubley  : )

"Is there any way to detect if an avatar is an alt?"

Claims that the means to detect an alt exist are make, but just using common sense proves otherwise if you think about it practically.

The criteria for detecting alts is made by two residents - with a matching computer IP address.  Yes, that could in indeed be one person on a computer with two accounts, positive detection of an alt.  Or; it could be two roomates or a brother and sister or boyfriend and girlfriend etc etc, both of whom play secondlife who have one computer at home.  That is not detecting alts, that's just matching up computers... and even then many computers have 'dynamic IPs'... computer addresses that change as opposed to being constant; so detecting 'real' alts is hit and miss already but you're not even detecting the resident alt with dynamic IPs... kinda crappy detecting.

Even using hightech, and knowing it's the same computer, even then you still cannot prove definatively, it is different people  : )   So no there is no way to detect if an avatar is an alternate account.  The only way there exists to determine what is on the other side of that avatar, is if they tell you.

And even then. you really never know, do you...

God i love secondlife LOL

[Itazura Radio]

The only way to know for sure is if you can go to their house and actually watch them log into both accounts. Anyone who tries to sell you something that claims it can detect alts with any reliability is full of crap and just wants your money. Let it go. Everyone has at least one alt and the search for 'secret alts' will consume you if you let it. Besides, it's really none of your business if someone has an alt or not.

[Peewee Musytari]

I think the voices in my head all have their own avvies, do these count as being alts if I don`t know who they are?

[TC Short]

/me wants some of your meds.

[Jo Yardley]

It would be nice to be able to automatically BAN someone AND all their alts.

Because that would be a good reason to know someone's alts, if he or she is a griefer.

[Itazura Radio]

It would also be nice if locking your car doors guaranteed no one could steal your car. Unfortunately that's not the case. Locks only work on honest people, just like alt detectors.

 

NO alt detection system can keep griefers out. Not even LL can keep them from being able to make a new account and logging in if they really want to. Any way you think you can identify an alt I guarantee you a griefer has a way around it... and most griefers already know them all.

[Starchild Magic]

An alt detection system is absolutely the WORST way to go about dealing with griefers. What it will do is ban the spouse/roommate/sibling/child of someone who the landowner decided they didn't like. What it won't do is keep out the griefer who will simply take their laptop to a coffee shop/library/bookstore and go about their griefing.

Best way to deal with griefers is to lock down rezzing, object entry, and scripts. Or set the land to Group Access Only. Or both.

[Aubley Vaniva]

Thanks for the helpful advice that many of you gave. I hope you have a wonderful day.

[AlvinLee Python]

Hey,you know me,and i`ll want you,back!!

[Mac Wei]

As a club owner ,,,hell yeah I want to know if someone is using an alt.....Alt Stacking is a crime in my eyes.....I have a 1k event and alts come in my club and steal the prize from my regular patrons....and that comment "if you want to know just ask them" is BS do you really think they are going to be honest?

[Freya Mokusei]

Fortunately for common sense and privacy, LL disagree with you. Alt detection is a crime in their eyes, your own bad business model is not their responsibility, or anyone elses.

[zodreves]

people you need to read the following as far as alts are concerned. first of all. linden labs has a policy on alts.

you can have alts but linden labs can see if your orig account has alts by its ip address keep in mind that alot of

people in sl have been wrongly accussed of having alts and band without evidence other than what a person though.

it's becoming more and more common for entire apartment
complexes, housing developments and Universities to
share a single IP gateway. This is because the ISP
will provide the fiber within the housing development,
and they normally will have a 20-30 year contract forcing
everyone that owns a home there to use them as an ISP,
as part of the homeowners assessment.
Universities often provide wireless to students,
which means the students are on a series of LANs,
with a single public IP address, so you could literally
have 30,000 students with one visible IP address.
Not to mention that a great many folks will use a
proxy service to prevent others from learning their
actual IP address. Add to that that ISPs know that
not all of their customers will be online concurrently,
which means they use a dynamic IP schema, meaning that
every time you log on, you have a good chance of having
a fresh IP address, or at least every time you reboot
your broadband modem.
The one thing in common that
all these methods have,
is that it can make one IP
address appear to be used by hundreds,
or even thousands of individuals...so
accusing you of having 38 alts,
is patently ridiculous...there is
no way they can say that with any result unless upnv6 is used upnv6 can tell you how many accounts

you got but usually if its more than 3 accounts chancess are there alts.

some vampires in sl use alts to get achivements and have blood dolls to feed on

[Marflutter]

On 1/6/2011 at 4:30 AM, Theia Magic said:

I suspect it's absolutely none of your business if they are using an alt. 

Get life already.  Who the hell cares if they have an alt?  Go make your own alt and leave them alone.

it is your business when the alt is stalking you and griefing 

[Ethan Paslong]

47 minutes ago, Marflutter said:

it is your business when the alt is stalking you and griefing 

at first look at the date where you respond to?

And no, it's not your business if somebody is a alt or not. IF it is a griefer with multiple accounts you still have to let LL decide what to do. False accusations about anything, also in griefing situations aren't taken lightly.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Ethan Paslong

[Rolig Loon]

41 minutes ago, Marflutter said:

it is your business when the alt is stalking you and griefing 

No, as others have said in this ancient necrothread, whether the account is an alt or not makes no difference.  A griefer is a griefer, regardless of whether he has another account identity.  There's no way to be sure who is behind any avatar in SL.  You may suspect (and even be right) that one av is an alt of another one, but only Linden Lab can know for sure, and they won't tell you. Deal with a griefer on his own terms: block, ignore, use standard (legal) self-protection measures, and submit Abuse Reports.  Let LL deal with his other identities.