Cartoon: Alter-ego
If you're anything like me - and if you're reading this, chances are you are - you have a lot of online identities to juggle. LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook, Google Friend Connect, Google Enemy Connect, Google Ex-Sexual-Partner Connect... there's a lot.
But for some people, that isn't enough. They have armies of online alts: alternate identities, like a second avatar in Second Life or another face for Facebook. Some use them for testing purposes, a way of peering through the eyes of a regular user instead of the God-like perspective of an admin. (You know, the way a certain emperor supposedly disguised himself as a commoner for one day every year and went out to mingle with the masses. It was history's first attempt at QA.)
And then there are the others who like to explore their wild sides - mild-mannered folks by day, libido-flaunting maniacs behind the privacy of their keyboards. I like to think there are people out there with extravagant public personas who like to log on at night and pose as insurance adjusters.
Got an alt? How do you use it?
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I love exploring things, maybe now is the time to use alts instead of just using a single identity.
I like to keep an eye as a normal user this way other users can interact with me and let me know things that they would not tell the admins. Or keep a eye on the pulse of what users like and dislike. But I also use accounts to make sure that the changes are acting as expected and not doing what they are not expected to...