The Idolmance Is Over

[alleyalligator]

In what I think will be a surprise for maybe three people on the internet, now that I'm out, I'm officially announcing that alleyalligator was, in fact, theafaye.  I thought it would be obvious to most people mainly because whenever I've done fiction under Thea, it's always been exactly the same as Alley's stuff, but in case anyone out there didn't know and was

Comments

[lawchicky]

I suspected this account may be your alt, more by process of elimination than anything, after you'd said you were playing with an alt.

I totally agree about needing a strategy to win the game. If I ever had a chance to make it into the finals, I think it would have been last season, but I played with no strategy whatsoever, and was pretty shocked when I was voted out. Now, I look back and think that there's a lot more to the game than I was willing to give credit for.

You have a lot of good work to be proud of, both with your main account and your alt!

[alleyalligator]

*nods* I think if I'd been voted out sooner, there'd be more of a ZOMG!!11!! moment, but really there wasn't anyone else it could be now.

I *am* really proud of the body of work I created this season. So much stuff to use elsewhere. And two IDs hitting top 50 when more than three hundred started? Not too shabby at all.

[kathrynrose]

I had no idea.

About the alt, I mean. The strategy stuff, I did have an idea about.

[alleyalligator]

I know - strategy in Idol. Who'da thunk it??

One of the things doing alts has taught me is that my writing isn't nearly as important to other people as it is to me. There are all sorts of reasons why people don't read or can't pay attention to past works. I struggle to remember entries *I* wrote, let alone anyone else's, so unless someone knows me really well, I'm not surprised that this alt is a surprise if you're new to me. It's only that I've gradually been telling people through intersections, etc., that word has been creeping out, so I wasn't sure if there was anyone left to suprise.

[kathrynrose]

Well, and I really am horribly name challenged. I can see a person and be able to tell you all kinds of anecdotes about them, and probably even the names of their pets, but not be able to tell you their name.

I figure that's psychological, but I havent figured it out in fifty years, so I'm just used to it.

It's easier for me to conneect a nonfiction post to a writer because it's about them. Also because I connect to the "journal" posts more than the "story" posts.

Anyway, congrats on your success.

[alleyalligator]

I find it really hard to keep track of people on LJ too. It takes ages for me to figure out who people are and that's reliant on them posting regularly so I can get to know them. In Idol, I just can't keep track of who writes what until the end days.

I did mean to do a post about what do people think they know about me before revealing my real identity, but I never got round to it, mainly because I disagree with the argument that fiction is equally revealing. I don't see how anyone can know anything about me from hallucinated fat men or zombie plagues.

[sarcasmoqueen]

I was so sad to see you go! Obviously, since we intersected, I knew who you were, but I honestly thought you'd make it to the end. I thought you might even win. Your stories are just completely fabulous and I don't think there's been one that I didn't like.

But I agree, it is completely DRAINING to keep one account going, let alone two... I don't know how you did it! Kudos to you on that for sure.

[alleyalligator]

Awwww thank you! I'm not allowed to win because I published the Idol book, but it would have been nice to make top ten. I'm pretty cool with what I did manage though - the only way I was able to keep two accounts going was by sacrificing quality and hope that I conveyed the concept strongly enough for that to carry me. Most of the time, I did. I've always been an ideas person - most week I could come up with multiple options to choose from so it wasn't that that was the problem so much as time.

[alleyalligator]

Mind, by that point process of elimination also helped :D I do think that the styles were very similar, which is why I'm always surprised by people who didn't know which alts were me (last season I had 3.5 IDs, one I co-wrote, one was me, one was a-cheese-fan and the other was bad-evil-echo in SCI who, funnily enough, only wrote horror). On the one hand, it shows that I can be pretty versatile, on the other, I still think I'm obviously me in all of them.

I do think that one of the things which hurt Alley was the lack of commenting. I didn't want to comment with both IDs and I didn't want people to guess from IP addresses that I had two IDs earlier in the game. That's one of the big problems with alts - if you want to use one to play to win, you have to enter into a level of deception I'm not comfortable with. Commenting on Alley as Thea during weeks when I commented everywhere was about as far as I was willing to go.

[pixiebelle]

I knew from maybe week 2? Once I realized it was an alt and read the horror stories, I knew. But that's because I know you dabble in alts and because I know you love horror. I never feel a need to call people out, but ask Java... I told him I knew in the beginning :P

But I can see where others who don't know you might not get it. When I had an alt last season, I figured it was so obvious... But I was shocked that no one thought it was me. That was fun. I wanted to do that this year, but I just didn't have the time.

[alleyalligator]

I hadn't planned on doing an alt and then I got dared into it and the rest is history. Because I hadn't planned it, it was obvious to fall into a pattern of writing horror.

Maybe I'll do weird next season. If I do next season. If you add up all the weeks from my alts, I'm well over 150 weeks in Idol, if not pushing 200. That's an awful lot of writing.