Of alts - questions and experiences!

Last Tuesday's discussion topic, was suggested by a long time friend of LnL, Lewis Luminos - alts in Second Life (SL). The title LnL gave to the discussion, "Zooming in on alts! - the reasons, the criticisms, the reality", suggested several approaches to the topic - Is having an alt a morally debatable issue? Is it a way to experiment with your identity or just a way to have fun? Alts (alternative accounts) are a very interesting topic in SL (Second Life). Often the object of criticism or curiosity, alts are always a door into another life. There are many reasons why residents create an alt, to be able to work without interruption, to be able to override the 25 group limit imposed by LnL for each avatar, to be a resource vault, for privacy reasons, to earn money, to avoid the reputation of their main avatar and even for spying purposes! Some unbelievable situations were mentioned that showed how the use of an alt can be extremely negative. On a positive note, it was also shown that an alt can be a great way to explore one's identity. Many mentioned that by creating an alt, they searched for and found interesting and unexpected sides of themselves. The therapeutic value of an alt was stressed and many interesting therapeutic uses of alts and SL were mentioned. Creating an alt is not an easy process, especially if you are trying to give it its own identity. It starts with choosing the name! The group agreed that it can be a rather long process or a rather short one, if residents are only looking for a work alt who will never become public. Another issue the group discussed was the multitude of alts (some of them bots used to create traffic) in SL. Most agreed that having a large number of alts made it too stressful a situation to manage, plus having not enough time imposed a lack of usage of several of the alts! As a conclusion, the topic of alts in SL is as intriguing as it is fascinating. SL is a world where identities are somewhat fluid and exploring new possibilities is certainly an enriching experience! May it be the source of fun and self-learning! Thank you to all who took part! It was an amazing group! Join us next time at LnL's Lounge for a new topic and a fun discussion among a group of friendly people and... perhaps their alts too! ;)