Firstly: WoWism = love! All I can hear is the little goblin NPC before Cataclysm changed their voices screeching "Time is money, friend!" Yes, I loved me some WoW.
I agree, it's very hard to window shop when people just clump boxes in the same order side by side with the same floating text, I think going the extra mile to scatter the boxes or putting them in an interesting order goes a long way. It's gotten out of hand with smaller spaces of course, as space is limited and boxes must overflow from the cart or tiny kiosk. I'd really never peruse those small spaces unless I did an Area Search and that box fit what I was seeking, even then it'd be a frustrating event attempting to find the box in the huge pile of boxes already there.
I do enjoy auctions because it's fun to interact with the community (and if you're a new to fairly new breeder, it's the best and fastest way to learn, in my opinion, you can never stop learning even if a seasoned breeder), and actively participate amongst others however window shopping can be fun too if it looks like love was put into the kiosk in question, much like I complimented Kendrah's post highlighting some of the creative cottages at Adorable made with love that makes it interesting for shoppers to actually look around. I don't like feeling as though I'm walking into a garage sale of cats (and yes, there are a lot of these garage sale-looking kiosks of low prim kitties with no names and just rotting away breeding with whatever cat is nearby, with the owner putting a price on the random new box and leaving it at that - but hey, it's their choice), I want to feel like I'm walking into unique shops with cats that reflect the breeder's tastes and a decoration aesthetic that's unique to them, to me personally it's hard to justify purchasing a kitty if it looks like the seller is just trying to cash out, I think that's why the decorated panels required at auctions really make me frequent at so many of them. It really does get boring quickly to window shop if people don't want to put that extra love into what they do, albeit it may be time-consuming or cost a bit of pocket change, but I think it's worth the investment.
In my own cottage, I prefer to have a line-up of five live kitties at a time and a few boxes scattered inside my cottage, I really don't want to think of my cottage as the KittyCats Wal-Mart and all those live kitties aren't going to find new, loving homes over night so I don't find a reason to mass open boxes for the sake of looking like I have a massive, populated shop to the masses. I think having less stock makes the shop look cleaner and more open too, which is always a plus on some of the overcrowded sims.
Overall, I wish more new breeders would come to seasoned breeders and seek advice, I think they'd feel a lot more involved in the community and not get so discouraged as I've seen recently with the events of mass fire sales "closing my shop, come get your fire sale kitty!" With KittyCats expanding in population and the wide array of sims people are loyal to expanding, it's hard to see who is actually new and who isn't, but it'd be awesome if one sim sponsored a peer-mentor type program. I know there's plenty of breeding classes going on but perhaps the instructor of a breeding class could explain the importance of making a shop looking clean or aesthetically appealing as it may turn off a buyer from even stepping into your messy shop of hover text spam and the class instructor also pair up a new breeder with someone more seasoned and really get a feel for KittyCats while creating ties within the community more so.
I know Sanura had a Valentine auction which allowed you to bid on the kitty and the breeder's time, allowing the winner of that panel to view the cattery in question, and something like that would be really awesome for new breeders while getting advice about anything on their mind. I sure wish I had that when beginning KittyCats and only had my real-life friends getting involved in KittyCats at the same time as me to exchange any information with including our newfound KittyCats love, whereas I know plenty of others don't have that kind of encouragement. I think that for sure would strengthen our community bond which in turn results in people not being discouraged from KittyCats in terms of the secondary market.
* I have a problem writing on the long side so I apologize. It's a notorious issue but I think in a forum about a hobby we all enjoy, people won't mind reading a little bit more about KittyCats even if I respond in novel form every time.
Sorry!
Just my thoughts on everything you mentioned in your post as I hope the KittyCats community continues to grow and strengthen.
Hugs,
Deer
Time is money, friend
