A Thought on Retiring of Furs

[Chelle Zimmer]

So, I am sitting here thinking WHY WHY WHY retire the Snow Bengals? Everyone loves them. And there are other furs not as popular. Soo...

As a suggestion....You let us suggest phrases for cats to say, How bout letting us suggest what you are going to retire and then let us vote?

I know I am not alone in being sad about Snows. I would REALLY love to see in the future KittyCatS asking us what to retire and letting us offer suggestions like they do with the phrases. What about you?

AND I HAVE TO PUT THIS IN TOO...I REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT A FURIOUS TAIL. JUST SAYIN'!

<3 Chelle

[Shania Singh]

I totally agree on that .... still almost crying about the retired Snows and Russian Whites ......

[Saga Felix]

But... Retiring a fur does NOT mean it goes away, on the contrary! Rather, it becomes more popular, more people will breed it.

This is especially true for the Bengal Snow, as it is the most recessive retired fur, and hence extremely useful in breeding vs. starters. In my auctions, I have promoted Bengal Snows quite a bit since they were retired, and given an example on why this is a very good thing:

At one point, I mated a starter with a Bengal Snow, and got a... Bengal Snow! "Whoa!" I thought - "This means the starter hides something gooood!" and I kept breeding the starter + all it's fur-carrying offspring, and a friend got some of the offspring and also bred those to even more recessive furs. -All to no avail... Several months later, I finally had to realise the ugly truth: I had been breeding and feeding all these cats for months in the hope they carried some recessive fur, but actually the hidden fur of the starter was... Yes, you guessed it: Bengal Snow. And while Bengal Snow is all nice and good, the "old" Bengal Snows I already had were of course showing more and better traits than those coming from the starter - so yeps, it was all for absolutely nothing. The whole family now enjoys their days in the Menagerie.

Since Bengal Snow is now retired, it simply means this particular can never be the hidden fur of a starter again - and that also means that if you mate your starter with Bengal Snow and get a Bengal Snow kitten, the starter's hidden fur WILL be more recessive. This is a brilliant way of figuring out how dominant new furs are, since then you will always know: More or less recessive than Bengal Snow?

So, I am most definitely not sorry that the Bengal Snows are retired - on the contrary. They are now more useful than ever, and I will absolutely both continue and expand my Bengal Snow breeding projects. Bengal Snows may be retired, but they will NOT disappear :-)

Saga

[Kayleigh McMillan]

I think the fact KittyCatS retires furs is a good thing and certainly the Bengal Snow.
We didn't lost the fur it has even become way more valuable, especially if the bengal snow is pure, to help pull out a starter fur as Saga mentioned.
I noticed also the Russian white has become even more popular than it already was.
I think when we have hips of older furs already it is just amazing KittyCatS retires them at some point especially since they are still breedable and likely their popularity will grow as well.
When we have a new starter it is cool I think we have more chance to have newer furs we don't own yet.
Which makes it more fun to buy starters in the past I saw no use to breed starters before they started to retire furs and brought so many new furs and traits.
And when people purchase or own retired valuable furs they can endless reproduce them and I think this gives a sense of extra value.
Don't get me wrong I adore the snow Bengal and the Russian White and love most of the retired eyes but fortunately we don't have to miss them

[Nocshadue Balbozar]

I love the snows too, but don't think it was a bad move to retire them. It is very useful now in breeding with new starters and their popularity will cause many to keep breeding them. I actually think a LOT of furs and eyes should retire.

This is a 'big picture, long haul' decision. KittyCats has not been around much over a year and yet look at all the changes and growth we've seen. Think 5 years down the road..how many of us who are currently breeding will still be here? Retiring traits is a way to reward die hards for sticking with it I think. And suppose I do take a break from SL for a while..and come back a few years down the road. I wonder how many active breeders then will have a hoard of red tabby and bengal snow boxes? How many newbies would be like omg..where did you get THAT??

Its not something that will happen in 6 months or even a year, but it opens that possibility. Now how hard it will be at that time to update those boxes, your guess is as good as mine..but if KC support stays strong as it is now, shouldn't be a big problem.

Think of how many furs are still in starters that you FINALLY get to show and think "oh...burmese champagne" or "pfft...pink & white chateau". Of course it seems the more recessive will always be the most popular. That is a mechanism I'd like to find a way to change actually. But until then..I'd retire on a regular basis and am thinking that some traits other than fur and eye should be on the list as well.

Just my 2 L$,
Noc

[Tad Carlucci]

"That is a mechanism I'd like to find a way to change actually."

The problem is not that hard to solve, technologically. but involves a change in philosophy on the part of breedable publishers which may be unacceptable. They would need to very closely monitor populations, trends, and take more active roles in the markets .. think in terms of Central Banks, such as the Federal Reserve. The central issue would be maintaining a level of trust which companies like KittyCatS have worked hard to build, while working to stabilize the various markets. The real issue is setting up the parameters of the human systems, not the supporting infrastructure.

[Chelle Zimmer]

My point was, it would be nice if they would let us suggest what they should retire, and
let us vote like they do what the cat says. This has gone off kind of on a tangent on
whether it was good or bad that snows are retired.

Not what I had in mind. Snows are retired, the end. There's no changing that now and debating whether it was good or bad to do it pointless.

What I really would like to discuss is whether you all also would like to have some input
in the furs they are going to retire? So, would you?

[Kendrah Vantelli]

(05-04-2012 11:32 AM)Chelle Zimmer Wrote:  As a suggestion....You let us suggest phrases for cats to say, How bout letting us suggest what you are going to retire and then let us vote?

<3 Chelle

I agree with your suggestion Chelle on letting us vote on what will be retired next like they are doing with the Phrases. Good Point! That would be fun!

[penfold83 Resident]

(05-08-2012 10:10 AM)Chelle Zimmer Wrote:  My point was, it would be nice if they would let us suggest what they should retire, and
let us vote like they do what the cat says. This has gone off kind of on a tangent on
whether it was good or bad that snows are retired.

Not what I had in mind. Snows are retired, the end. There's no changing that now and debating whether it was good or bad to do it pointless.

What I really would like to discuss is whether you all also would like to have some input
in the furs they are going to retire? So, would you?

In my view i think that decision is best left to the powers that be, i can see cat fights braking out if not.

[Khea Karas]

A vote would be a good idea...perhaps out of a pool of possible choices.

Afterall we are the ones following the market and know what is and isnt selling.

At the same time, Penfold does make a good point about getting into long winded arguments hehe, as not all of us will agree.

Guess it depends on what criteria we give in order for a cat to retire. Old fur, Slow selling, too many on the grid, aesthetics...etc.