If you don't tell us (sorry possibly too late), we aren't likely to find out, unless your alternate account is so obnoxious that it gets investigated. In this community, that's a damned high threshold.

Seriously, I don't think it's a problem. Nobody objected to Clippy probably being a regular member, though there were efforts to find out who it was out of curiosity.

Depending on your use case, you might also just want to use this account (for which the password is 'password').

I think there is nothing wrong with using something upfront and obvious like throwaway_<yymmdd>. Or any other name, as long as you preface your question with "this is a throwaway", as is common on Reddit.

I think the case law on the issue is that, nobody speaks up when people do this and mark it specifically.

On the other hand do not use both accounts within one discussion. Don't use both accounts to vote on the same thread.

Given that you have written the thread, it's however likely a bad idea for you to start a more anonymous account right now ;) if you care about keeping secrets from people on LW and not only the casual browser.

I've done the reverse: created an account for when I do need to discuss things associated with my name, like "I wrote this post elsewhere that...."

You may recall I had a previous user account not linked to my real name: eggman. I started using one with my real name since I intend to post to Less Wrong and the effective altruism forum more frequently in the future, and it works better to have both accounts linked to my name if people want to contact me. Since I already happen to have access to two accounts, I was thinking of using 'eggman' for the same purposes. Now, obviously, I've just stated I was, or am, eggman, or whatever. So, it isn't anonymous anymore. However, it's more anonymous, as it doesn't use the same name that's on my government-issued I.D.

More than using it because I don't want other users on Less Wrong to know it's me, I might not want it searchable, or linked to me public identity, for others off of Less Wrong.

So, I consider this acceptable.

If you want to make it more acceptable...

• Consider stating with the profile, or at the beginning of each comment, that you're a regular user of Less Wrong who is using an anonymous sockpuppet account not because you want to troll, but because you don't want your name linked to discussiong more controversial topics. I believe the genuine merit of how you discuss such topics would quickly dismiss speculation that you are just a troll.

• If you don't do the above, and never express that the anonymous account you're using is used by a regular user of Less Wrong going under their real name, none of us would actually tell. We wouldn't know you had two accounts. I'd be surprised if someone is such an inquisitor that they snoop profiles to ensure someone made a credible introduction of themselves in a welcome thread, and reports them to a moderator if they don't.

• If the topics you'd be discussing on Less Wrong are controversial among the Less Wrong community itself, that might be another matter. That might be playing with fire, and in that case I'd just caution you be more careful, lest you cause harm to Less Wrong as a discussion board.