Why isn't there a limit on the number of Alts created ..

[Rolig Loon]

There used to be, and if you look on certain web sites, you'll read that there still is a limit.  In practice, though, it takes way too much staff time to go chasing after all of the alts to match up which ones are whose. I think that if you poll residents who have been in SL for more than a few years, you'll find that almost all of us have a handful of alts.  Some handle our finances, some act as test dummies for our scripts and other creations, some are there to manage rental properties, and some are simply there to give us a way to be anonymous at times when we want a little privacy in a social world.  Schools, businesses and other RL agencies also have perfectly good reasons for having dozens of accounts with the same owner.  In the end, most people who have multiple alts have good reasons for them, and their alts spend a lot of money in world.  In theory, it sounds simple enough to keep track of who has more than 5 accounts, but it's a lot of work for relatively little return. 

A person with a small army of alts can indeed cause a lot of grief.  If you think about it, though, it can be easier to catch one person using similar methods and logging in from the same IP address than it would be to catch a gang of a dozen or more separate people.  Alts who end up as griefers are not "allowed" to harrass other SL residents.  They are caught and dealt with regularly.  If ones that you know personally haven't been caught yet, be patient.  And if you have documented reasons for believing that they have violated specific parts of the TOS, submit careful Abuse Reports. Linden Lab can't act without having credible evidence.

[Rolig Loon]

There used to be, and if you look on certain web sites, you'll read that there still is a limit.  In practice, though, it takes way too much staff time to go chasing after all of the alts to match up which ones are whose. I think that if you poll residents who have been in SL for more than a few years, you'll find that almost all of us have a handful of alts.  Some handle our finances, some act as test dummies for our scripts and other creations, some are there to manage rental properties, and some are simply there to give us a way to be anonymous at times when we want a little privacy in a social world.  Schools, businesses and other RL agencies also have perfectly good reasons for having dozens of accounts with the same owner.  In the end, most people who have multiple alts have good reasons for them, and their alts spend a lot of money in world.  In theory, it sounds simple enough to keep track of who has more than 5 accounts, but it's a lot of work for relatively little return. 

A person with a small army of alts can indeed cause a lot of grief.  If you think about it, though, it can be easier to catch one person using similar methods and logging in from the same IP address than it would be to catch a gang of a dozen or more separate people.  Alts who end up as griefers are not "allowed" to harrass other SL residents.  They are caught and dealt with regularly.  If ones that you know personally haven't been caught yet, be patient.  And if you have documented reasons for believing that they have violated specific parts of the TOS, submit careful Abuse Reports. Linden Lab can't act without having credible evidence.

[Alwin Alcott]

very short: the alts aren't a problem but people are, so there's no reason to change that policy.

Griefing and harassment aren't allowed from anyone.

 

 

[Monti Messmer]

and .. simply it´s technically impossible to track alts.

There where systems in SL that promised to track alts but never really worked.

Only in closed source viewers, maybe there would be a chance; but then even the hardware ID of PCs, the IP, the UUID of objects, everything can be faked.

Monti