Authorized Secondary Accounts

Authorized Secondary Accounts (ASA) Documentation

An Introduction To Authorized Secondary Accounts (ASA):
Writing.Com allows each member with an Upgraded Membership or above to create one secondary account for the purpose of keeping some of their writing and site activities anonymous. All ASA's must maintain a paid membership of Upgraded or above.

These important points apply to all ASAs:
          ASAs are intended as an anonymous venue for our writers.
          ASAs will be denoted with a "2nd" account portfolio icon.
          ASAs may not rate or review.
          ASAs may not use chat.
          ASAs may communicate through most any other means within Writing.Com.
          ASAs may not use costumicons at any time.
          ASAs will be registered Authors and will not be promoted.
          ASAs must maintain an Upgraded Membership or better.
          ASAs may not be used to deceive, bash or attack other members.
          ASAs may not be used for any other generally evil purpose.
          ASAs are limited to 1 per member.
          ASAs may not have secondary accounts of their own.

Please note: The true identities of ASA owners are known only to site staff.

ASA's function as any normal account would. To use it, one logs into it as they would with any normal account. The features on the account and size of its portfolio, along with countless other properties are determined by the level of Paid Membership the ASA has, just like with any primary account.


Authorized Secondary Account Usage Examples:
There are a number of great uses for secondary accounts:

         Experiment with other writing styles and formats and keep them in a second, anonymous portfolio.

         Keep more personal writings separate from your more mainstream portfolio.

         Teachers and other educators using Writing.Com for their classes can keep their own writing separate and anonymous to their students who also use the site.

         Be an anonymous angel that can communicate with those you help.


Questions And Answers:
Q. What happens if I let the Paid Membership on my secondary account lapse?

A. Maintaining a paid membership is a requirement of maintaining a secondary account. If the paid membership on your secondary account expires, you will not be able to use the account. To use it again, you will need to gift it a paid membership. In terms of item storage in the account, the same policies described with "When Your Paid Membership Expires..."  apply to any and all accounts.


Q. Can my secondary account use a costumicon?

A. No. To be sure that all members can easily distinquish secondary accounts, each secondary account will have the "2nd" portfolio icon.


Q. Can I have more than one secondary account?

A. No. At this time, all members are limited to 1 secondary account.


Q. How do I start an authorized secondary account?

A. To start an authorized secondary account, visit your "My Account" page and click the link for "Authorized Secondary Account".


Q. What are the differences between primary and secondary accounts?

A. Aside from the '2nd' portfolio icon and the inability to rate/review from secondary accounts, there are no other major differences.


Q. What about previously authorized and created secondary accounts?

A. There are about a dozen previously authorized secondary accounts. All secondary accounts that were approved and created before August 2004 have been grandfathered and will be left as is with the rules already agreed to for those accounts. We reserve the right to convert these previously authorized secondary accounts to our new ASA system at some time in the future.


Q. Do I have to use Gift Points to pay for the initial membership of my Authorized Secondary Account (ASA)?

A. Yes. To make the process simpler, you must use Gift Points to pay for the initial Upgrade (or better) Membership at the time of the ASA's creation.


Q. Can I use any means to renew my Authorized Secondary Account's (ASA) paid membership?

A. Yes. After your ASA has been created, you can login to it and use the "Our Store" area to renew your membership with any payment method we support.


Q. I didn't get to set a password when creating my Authorized Secondary Account (ASA), why not?

A. When creating your ASA, the system automatically sets its password to the password of your primary account. Once you login to your ASA, you can change the password anytime you'd like.


Q. Can I change my Authorize Secondary Account's (ASA) username?

A. Yes, you can change your ASA's username through our normal "Change Username" tool. Login to your ASA and visit your "My Account" page. Visit the "Change Username" link and follow the instructions provided.


Q. Is there a test Authorized Secondary Account (ASA) to look at?

A. Yes, Example ASA is an example ASA.


Q. Do I have to keep the identity of my secondary account anonymous?

A. No. Writing.Com provides the facility to be anonymous, but we do realize that members will brew up plenty of ways to use ASAs and not all of those reason will require anonymity. You are free to share the identity of your own accounts with as many or as few people as you'd like.



If you have any other questions, please visit and post in:
         "Technical Support Forum"