(01-15-2013 04:52 PM)Nocshadue Balbozar Wrote: So my question is this. How do we come together as a community, embrace new breeders, and work together for the benefit of all?
I tried to follow the thread that Dimpz started and I'm grateful she expressed her concerns, clearly it was something many of us had asked ourselves, and probably many who never thought about it before, with the thread now do, I also think the thread somehow managed to "unlock" many things for many people and many of the contributions touch a very wide variety of issues, concerns, observations, critiques and whatnot in many different subjects which makes it hard for me to see a result. In my humble opinion, it needs to be broken down into separate threads to actually be able to have a specific, intelligent, healthy and productive discussion to reach a goal.
I will list my little contribution to answer the essence of Noc's post: "How do we come together as a community, embrace new breeders, and work together for the benefit of all?" I'm not over sensitive with critique when done with tact and with the aim to progress. I would love to hear some feedback and to be able to debate our suggestions to reach a goal.
1. Respect: without it you can't buy a pint of milk at the corner shop. Without it, you won't be able to even sell bread to the hungry.
2. In rl, in most countries at least, professions and services are subject to Law and in many cases below this law acts a Code of Conduct. I think it's only natural that we feel the need for one here. It cannot be a mandatory rule of course, because we have repeated to exhaustion the fact that everyone sells and does with what they own whatever they want. A Guideline, maybe? A set of suggestions or pointers to help us know what's the best for us and for all? Possibly collecting anonymous data from what the general public (not only us who read and reply on the forums) "feel" it's correct, acceptable and we abide to the results? I also think of the possibility of having different guidelines for market selling and for auctions. I won't develop this idea any further because I'm not the most qualified to suggest the methods to effectively collect information to obtain a satisfactory result, but I'm sure in due time someone with these capabilities can correct me or suggest something more effective to capture the info required if this idea is accepted.
3. Price check and advisory: one of the most common questions from new users in the KittyCats Addicts group is "Is this a good kitty? How much is it worth?" I've been breeding for almost a year now and I still feel as if it was yesterday when I asked myself the same questions. Back then I joined the "Price Check" group where people helped in around 70% of the times, of course this all depends of many factors (the same that haunt us in any other SL event: timezones, group chat closed, people online but afk etc) however I noticed how the response was less and less over a few months to the point there was no answer at all towards the end when I decided to leave the group because of it. I still often read people asking in group chat where can they go to have help pricing their kitties. The fact that this topic is not accepted in the Addicts group makes this subject a though one to deal with oneself and there's no where to go to get specific help which might end up leading to "I have no idea how much it costs but I want to sell it so I'll just put a low price so I increase my chances" That rule of thumb of 100L$ per trait is long lost and forgotten, although I try to stick to it, we know the prices have dropped massively in the past few months. So my suggestion is: Create a pricing system, one we won't discuss in the Addicts group chat but we can mention it's existence without breaking the rules of the group charter and refer everyone there to check it out. Somehow I think we all could benefit from it. I also think it has to be a constant work in progress that will evolve and change with the market response and with the different characteristics the new traits bring (e.g. exclusive or rare traits). One of the common bits of conversation I have with breeder friends is "Hey, G, how much do you think I can ask for this?" when the truth is, I'm lost in the woods as well
I value a lot the kitties I have spent months breeding, but I am one of those who see them as part of the project, once they have played their part they can and should go to someone else's cattery to do the same for them, it breaks my spirit to see months of work being under priced due to the fact that many others are doing it, so it's ok. (it's not!)
4. Breeding Classes, teaching tools, aids, etc. Educate, train and retrain. I think most of this has been covered thanks to the kindness of the experienced people who has set classes up. I haven't been able to attend to a breeding class in a long time (the last one was from Malicia, the others are out of my online hours) but I heard many good comments about them and I feel that considering the information is given on voice, it only leaves videos as the option to record the information and be able to share it. The idea of making youtube videos is absolutely fabulous. I don't know how simple it is to make them, but I've seen so many on youtube that it makes me think it's not that hard. I can't wait to see this!
I think it is only natural that posts like this come up every now and then to make us all spare some time to think: -What can I do to improve this? -How can I make this more enjoyable for everyone and therefore for myself? I cannot wait to read what others have to say about this! I am sure we can come up with bright suggestions and ideas to make something that is already good, even better!
Giulia
Fair Trade
