Pedigree Anonymity (2)

[Petronilla Whitfield]

I think that the posters dismissing the likelihood of pedigrees being used to “out” alts are being naive. Just to be clear—I have no alts involved in KittyCatS, nor do I care myself who might use alts. However, I have been in SL for more than five years and have seen the kind of inquisition-mentality manifested by those intent on discovering which avatars are alts. I don’t share it, I don’t claim to understand the rationale behind it, but I have seen it fuel a good deal of nastiness. Making public the previously private information about kittycat transactions is an invitation to poisonous gossip about who might be whose alt based on the number of kittycat transactions between two avatars.

If KittyCatS decides to implement this change and show both breeder and owner in the pedigree, I hope that the change is not made retroactively. I think it would be a breach of trust--not illegal, not against the TOS—but a breach of trust between the company and its customers.

If this change happens, I would hope that KittyCatS chooses a date in the near future, and then splashes all over the website, message boards in the Main Store, and in group chat that the change is coming, so that everyone knows that kittycats born after X date will show both breeder and owner in the pedigree.