Alts in the forums

[Luna Bliss]

5 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

2 hours ago, Gabriele Graves said:

If the misuse of alts here on the forum ends up in any way contributing to an atmosphere of mistrust, suspicion and possibly even paranoia then the whole forum is unnecessarily more toxic than it needs to be and we are all poorer for it.

The other side of that coin are those seeming to promote the idea that there are unscrupulous Alts lurking in every controversial thread. Though it isn't something I watch for, I feel it is overblown and dramatized in its frequency and importance but can lead to that same sort of mistrust and suspicion regardless whether it is valid or not.

lol too true

 

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

The other side of that coin are those seeming to promote the idea that there are unscrupulous Alts lurking in every controversial thread. Though it isn't something I watch for, I feel it is overblown and dramatized in its frequency and importance but can lead to that same sort of mistrust and suspicion regardless whether it is valid or not.

Ok, not EVERY controversial said. Point taken. * ouch, pointy *

[Kathlen Onyx]

2 minutes ago, BillFletcher said:

Someone asked a question and I thought it best that I answer it, there is no "and"

So what is the point of using an alt and then revealing that you are the alt? Why not just us taligurl? 

[Luna Bliss]

22 minutes ago, Rat Luv said:

 Gabriele=Scylla,  Arielle=Dakota Linden,

Those are true?

[Gabriele Graves]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

I completely agree with what you've said with one caveat.

A couple of years ago, there was a forum member who used to start pretty contentious threads that usually got locked or deleted.  I butted heads with them a time or three.  I wasn't the only one.  However, they became fixated on me in particular.  I can't say for certain it was this same person but soon after, quite a few racist rants were.posted later in the evenings.  Multiple posts in multiple threads. There were also multiple IMs left for me inworld.  If I had been posting as an alt, I could have simply deleted that account and started fresh without the nonsense following me.  They've returned, I've ignored.  Yep, they're on an alt.  People aren't as smart as they think they are.

I can see why someone, especially someone well known in SL, might choose to shelter behind an alt.  People can be vindictive and unbalanced.  Having a throwaway account isn't always a bad idea.  

With that said, if it were to happen again, I'd react the same as before...by not reacting.  I'll only be here as Rowan.

Rowan, I'm sorry, I did want to respond to you and not just emoji your post but my original reply to you was held in the pink state for approval probably because I used a forbidden word.  So I've deleted that and reposted it here without the bad word.

I'm so sorry that happened to you.  It's disgusting that people think that's OK to do to someone.  I wasn't aware of it happening, perhaps I was on one of my time outs at the time.  I absolutely agree that extremely awful things like this are difficult to avoid when they get started.

I've never admitted to this to anyone on the forum before but on the vBulletin (circa 2007) system I had IMs turned on back then and received a threat of a certain type of violence from one well known poster (no I'm not going to out them).  Obviously I know that they couldn't really hurt me but I have to say that it still left me shaken and disturbed nonetheless and that has stayed with me.  I will never turn on IMs on the forums again due to that.  I cannot do much about inworld but luckily I've had minimal problems with that.

So I can understand how you felt and I can see your point and agree with it about the disposable alt for protection in these kinds of circumstances.  I was hoping with my previous posts on this that a certain degree of nothing is 100% absolute about alts was still coming through though.  There should be exceptions when they are for good reasons. My main issue is with the people who misuse their alts on the forums.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Gabriele Graves

[Luna Bliss]

11 minutes ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

14 minutes ago, BillFletcher said:

Someone asked a question and I thought it best that I answer it, there is no "and"

So what is the point of using an alt and then revealing that you are the alt? Why not just us taligurl? 

I can't speak for Bill, but I remember you didn't understand why myself and Perseph would need to have a new alt to visit the Welcome center.  Some people just like to play a bit with identities and names -- it's just for fun, and usually not nefarious.  At the welcome center we wanted to replicate, as much as possible, being an actual new resident....it was a fantasy...and fantasies can give insights...which is part of the fun.

*I believe she revealed her original avatar because pressure is being levied against her...accusations of deception.  Also, she mentioned she became aware that not everyone knew who she was.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Luna Bliss

[Kathlen Onyx]

2 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I can't speak for Bill, but I remember you didn't understand why myself and Perseph would need to have a new alt to visit the Welcome center.  Some people just like to play a bit with identities and names -- it's just for fun, and usually not nefarious.  At the welcome center we wanted to replicate, as much as possible, being an actual new resident....it was a fantasy...and fantasies can give insights...which is part of the fun.

I can understand that except for the part where you both told them you wee alts right away so they didn't waste their time. Seems to me that's more like spying than RPing. 

[Luna Bliss]

Just now, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

3 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I can't speak for Bill, but I remember you didn't understand why myself and Perseph would need to have a new alt to visit the Welcome center.  Some people just like to play a bit with identities and names -- it's just for fun, and usually not nefarious.  At the welcome center we wanted to replicate, as much as possible, being an actual new resident....it was a fantasy...and fantasies can give insights...which is part of the fun.

I can understand that except for the part where you both told them you wee alts right away so they didn't waste their time. Seems to me that's more like spying than RPing. 

Perseph eventually revealed she was not new. But I never did...I just ran away as quickly as possible so as not to take up too much time that should go to new residents (this was after someone there, not a mentor, kept talking to me and tried to friend me).

[Luna Bliss]

FullPermBliss is my alt, and the name of my other store -- the store that sells things.....full perm.

[Luna Bliss]

6 minutes ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

Seems to me that's more like spying than RPing. 

What if we were roleplaying being super duper spies?  lol

[Persephone Emerald]

30 minutes ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

I can understand that except for the part where you both told them you wee alts right away so they didn't waste their time. Seems to me that's more like spying than RPing. 

For a little while in RL I was what is called a "mystery shopper". This entails going to various preselected businesses as a customer and stealthily reviewing them, usually for the owners of the chains. The mystery shopper does not announce that they're there to review the food, service, and cleanliness of a restaurant. Doing so might skew the results for customer service and would likely make the employees uncomfortable.

In much the same way, going to the Welcome Hub as an obvious long-time resident will create a different experience than going there as a new user or a user who has returned after an absence. I had already experienced going to the Welcome Hub as an obvious long-time resident. After doing so, I wanted to see what my experience would be as a possible newbie. I didn't want to waste too much of the mentors' time with pretending to be completely clueless, so I told them I was a returning resident. The 2 mentors who talked with me in text were both friendly. I didn't see any problems, and after some walking and flying around, I left.

Call it spying if you like, but I prefer to just call it observation. 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Persephone Emerald

[Love Zhaoying]

People standing around watching new users Rez into the WelcomeHub, reminds me of towards the end of Loki, where Lokis would hang about watching other, more clueless Lokis appear in the Void...

Bonus: All the Lokis are Alts..of Loki!

Edited July 23, 2023 by Love Zhaoying

[BillFletcher]

54 minutes ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

So what is the point of using an alt and then revealing that you are the alt? Why not just us taligurl? 

Oh there are just so many reasons, ask Rowan, she might enjoy telling that story.

[MoiraKathleen]

I feel that there is more emphasis being put on the 'alts are bad', 'alts are deceptive', 'alts are sockpuppets or only used to increase reputation counts' than is warranted.  I don't think this type of bad behaviour from alts is something that we see all the time in the Forums.  I think it is pretty isolated.  I don't think that it happens enough for all the caveats or 'if you're going to use an alt then you must do...' requirements.  I also, for awhile, thought from what people were posting, that the only way for other accounts to be 'ok' would be if they outed themselves as an alt.  

There's a lot of negative baggage I think, that goes along with the word 'alt'.  I tend to not think in terms of 'alts' but in terms of 'other accounts' which sometimes take the primary logging in time for awhile and have their own SL life and acquaintances.  I do disclose the other account to a few really good friends inworld, where we chat more as our RL self than our avis, so there is not any deception going on.  I wouldn't feel like I would need to do that necessarily in the Forums, though, because I generally don't participate in the big heavy discussion threads anymore.  Most of my sense of community feeling from the forums was during the first few years of this iteration of the forums, and it was mainly centered around avi picture and home threads, which have changed over the years with different people participating now, and a slightly changed focus,  these days.   I feel there is a lot more criticism, cynicism and judgementalism overall in the forums. 

Sometimes people create a new account and a new SL life for it, and 'retire' their previous account.   In that case, I don't see any reason why the person behind the keyboard shouldn't stop using the retired account name in the forums, and instead start using their new account name, if that new account has become their defacto primary account, and what they want to share in the forums is their new account experiences, photos, and so forth. 

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

So what I'm getting from this thread is that each forum regular has at least 3 alts. I used to think there were 13 people posting here. Now I think there might be 6.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Ingrid Ingersoll

[Kathlen Onyx]

24 minutes ago, BillFletcher said:

Oh there are just so many reasons, ask Rowan, she might enjoy telling that story.

I'd rather not. From what I remember you like drama. lol

[BillFletcher]

1 minute ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

I'd rather not. From what I remember you like drama. lol

If I liked drama as much as everyone thinks talligurl wouldn't be dead.

[Rowan Amore]

18 minutes ago, BillFletcher said:

Oh there are just so many reasons, ask Rowan, she might enjoy telling that story.

It's your story to tell.  Although, It's all out there in post history for all to see.

16 minutes ago, MoiraKathleen said:

Sometimes people create a new account and a new SL life for it, and 'retire' their previous account.   In that case, I don't see any reason why the person behind the keyboard shouldn't stop using the retired account name in the forums, and instead start using their new account name, if that new account has become their defacto primary account, and what they want to share in the forums is their new account experiences, photos, and so forth. 

This is a perfectly valid reason for posting from an alt account.  However, when that alt account specifically pretends to be brand new to SL and the forums, that's deceitful and unnecessary.  No need to say anything about it but if you do, why not be truthful?  "I used to post here quite a lot but decided to start fresh.". Instead of, 

"Hey I am new and dont have many friends yet. Still trying to work out just what to make of SL right now."

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

[cirleen]

1 hour ago, BillFletcher said:

Here I thought everyone knew I was talligurl

Well since today is confession day, I have to confess that I was Lintel. When I married Bill, his name was Ayeleeon. Bill's alt, Talligurl, was forced into a life of pole dancing to make ends meet. Fishing didn't pay well. We deleted our Lintel, Ayeleeon, Talligurl and 5 other accounts so no one would interrupt us on our honeymoon to Paris. @Bagnu was the best man at our wedding. I like Sandor. He tells the funniest jokes, he's for sure a fun one to have around. Even the gallows he put outside the front door of our apartment was amusing in an odd sort of way. I loved moving in with Bill into his apartment on Sandor's Sandy Island, that was one the most fun times of my SL. It's nice to reminisce, we should all do that from time to time.

Here's our apartment when we lived on Sandy Island.

 

[MoiraKathleen]

6 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

"Hey I am new and dont have many friends yet. Still trying to work out just what to make of SL right now."

Either I don't remember this aspect, or I didn't pay that much attention when that new account was created.  Either way, for me, I'm not going to let that continue to color my thoughts about anyone. 

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

4 minutes ago, cirleen said:

Bill's alt, Talligurl, was forced into a life of pole dancing to make ends meet.

Sad story. Weirdly so many female alts end up pole dancing. I don't know why! It just seems to happen. 

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

Serious question...are you all actually one person? Would you even know at this point if you were? Or are you all too far down the rabbit hole?

[Luna Bliss]

10 minutes ago, cirleen said:

Well since today is confession day, I have to confess that I was Lintel. When I married Bill, his name was Ayeleeon. Bill's alt, Talligurl, was forced into a life of pole dancing to make ends meet. Fishing didn't pay well. We deleted our Lintel, Ayeleeon, Talligurl and 5 other accounts so no one would interrupt us on our honeymoon to Paris.

This is why, when we need couples therapy, it must come from within SL.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Serious question...are you all actually one person? Would you even know at this point if you were? Or are you all too far down the rabbit hole?

Yes, and we are all Sparticus.