It’s hard sometimes to be a venue owner, even in SL where there is no heavy lifting and not even a cursory wipe of the bar is necessary after the punters have gone home. It’s the social aspects which can make it hard, the boundaries one must draw between work time and play time are a bit blurred because it’s often you that’s working when your friends are having fun. This is especially true if your friends come to your venue to have that fun and you are hosting your own set, responding to a personal IM, handing out a group tag, explaining how the dance ball works (here’s a clue: like every single other dance ball in SL) and fielding an inquiry about rescuing a Tuk Tuk from a ditch (don’t ask). And no I don’t do requests.

So I may take a few minutes to get back to you in the middle of all that. And while I’m on the subject, if I am in the middle of a mix, don’t expect me to respond to your IM about a song on YouTube. I’m not really going to be able to listen to it, am I? I am not in possession of four ears and an alternate cerebral cortex to process a third audio stream independently of the song that is playing and the one I am cueing up.

Away from the club, I might be regarded as socially normal. Well, perhaps. But one is never truly away from the club in SL, requests to ‘open up’ the Cakehole so that someone or other can have a dance there are regular - even during my RL work day, when IMs sometimes trickle through LL’s email gateway with a sense of urgency and impatience that only makes me want to blow up the club with virtual gelignite. If it’s not open, there’s a reason. It’s usually along the lines of working a real job so that I can pay tier.

So, for all of these reasons and a few others, if I want to get out and about without being hassled every half hour, I use an alt.

In case you think I’m some kind of alt-rebel - the idea is still surrounded by an aura of disgust generated by people who have difficulty managing their first lives - I’m really not. My alt is a sadsack extraordinaire; she has NO FRIENDS, she belongs to no groups and definitely never checks out any other clubs or DJs. She chatters endlessly to people at hangouts but never gets involved. She has fun roleplaying in that she plays me before I decided to develop a club. It seems ironic that you have to have a third life in order to fully enjoy Second Life but there it is. In fact, the lure of the alt is so strong I might make another, this time with friends and lots of groups, oh and a hangout and a nightclub… oh wait.