[Archived - QueenArchives] Something isn't adding up. I also asked a question about this last week on my other account WLNTRR. I think I need a staff reply because my help ticket I made isn't getting anywhere.

Posted by “jazzKat” on June 12, 2024.

Thanks for the clarification!

Posted by “Saturi” on June 11, 2024.

Hi, @jazzKat​ 

Our regular Customer Support team is not involved in these assessments. Instead, we have a dedicated Royalty team within our finance department that reviews all cases individually. This team is specifically trained to handle such matters with a deep understanding of IMVU's intricacies and the practices within the Creator community.

Posted by “jazzKat” on June 11, 2024.

So a question occurs reading that, obviously you can't go in to details but what safe guards are in place to ensure assessments of dodgy activities are 'fair'? A lot of things creators do to self-promote could quite easily be construed as being dodgy. Are these types of incidents processed by normal CS or are they escalated to more knowledgeable CS?

Posted by “Polystyrene” on June 11, 2024.

Thank you!

Posted by “Saturi” on June 11, 2024.

Hi,@Polystyrene​ That is definitely allowed.

Posted by “Polystyrene” on June 11, 2024.

Thanks Saturi for clarifying, that is a relief. I just have a question about purchasing our own products - I sometimes purchase products from my alts because I want to own that product to use in my main account (or vice versa). Is this not allowed at all? Do I have to gift the products instead?

Posted by “Saturi” on June 11, 2024.

Hello, Creators!

We appreciate your concerns regarding the recent confusion about deriving from your own products using alt accounts. We want to clarify that deriving from an alt account is indeed acceptable and remains a common practice among our Creators. We encourage creativity and innovation in all forms, including the use of multiple accounts for product development.

However, we must outline certain practices that are not permissible to ensure fairness and integrity within our community:

Manipulating Sales Metrics

Purchasing your own products to manipulate sales figures, tiers, or the front page algorithm is strictly prohibited. While you may derive from or gift your own products, intentionally inflating sales metrics for personal gain is not allowed.

Fraudulent Activities

Engaging in any form of fraud, such as creating fake accounts to generate false sales or reviews, is against our Terms of Service and will result in account suspension or banning.

Exploiting System Loopholes

Attempting to exploit any loopholes within the IMVU system for unfair advantage, such as unauthorized access or altering data, is not permitted.

Laundering Activities

Any activity that mimics financial laundering, even within the context of virtual goods, is prohibited. This includes creating complex schemes to disguise the origins of virtual goods and currency.

We are committed to maintaining a fair and vibrant community where all Creators can thrive. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

Posted by “Vespera” on June 10, 2024.

I've neem deving and meshing since 09. This has NEVER been a rule. I have never seen such a stupid response from Vu on something like this. TONS of Mesher/Dev's have two accounts or more.. and many of those dev from themselves.. And people wonder why meshers and devers are leaving.

Posted by “Nums” on June 10, 2024.

I feel this could use a good follow up from the IMVU staff. This is saying we cannot ever buy our own products. Things like this is what scares people to create on IMVU in the first place.

Posted by “jazzKat” on June 10, 2024.

This does not seem right at all and basically undermines one of the core fundamentals of making derivations of your own base products; a blank box being derived and given difference 'gift wraps' now equates to a banning offence?!

Posted by “Angelskiss2007” on June 10, 2024.

Sorry, I wish there was an edit button still lol. The only side scenario I could potentially see is using an alt to mass gift, which coulddddd be cutting it close to gaming the system. However, using your legitimate money and credits to do so isn't laundering, either.

Usually folks used to cheat by getting tons of alt accounts to buy a product in an effort to game items to the front page, which IS against the terms of service, and IMVU tracks activities like that and has failsafes in place like hiding new products from brand new accounts until they're X amount of days old for example.

Posted by “Angelskiss2007” on June 10, 2024.

Additionally, buying your own products has also never been against the rules. You can gift your products all you like. You get the earned value from it technically, that's not an issue. I do believe that IMVU implemented a backend thing though that those self sales don't count towards tiers or front page algorithm or something to that effect, if that's still in place. All around crazy info for them to be giving you.

Posted by “Angelskiss2007” on June 10, 2024.

This cannot possibly be true. This has never, ever, ever been true, at least not in the last 16 years I've been creating. It has never been in the ToS, Community Guidelines, nothing. It's so common for a top dev or meshing dev to have additional accounts for textured products - there are some folks with tons of accounts. IMVU even has a way for you to tie them all together.

I'm not sure what system flagged this, but it was wrong, or the agent did not know what they were talking about. Also, laundering is not a thing when it comes to legitimate sales - I have no idea why they would say that. I'm so sorry you had to go through this.

Posted by “Polystyrene” on June 10, 2024.

@QueenOfBags1​ I'm so glad you got your account back!

@Saturi​ could you please give us an official confirmation on this? This is not a rule that has ever been made public before. What happens if we have already derived from our own products? Should we be hiding these things so they can't sell? Honestly this is really dumb, I don't think deriving from oneself should be considered gaming at all and it has me very worried. I don't see how it differs to deriving from anyone's products.

Posted by “QueenOfBags1” on June 10, 2024.

Hi @Polystyrene​ I thought I should provide an update to you. The team helped me out, and I am able to create again, thankfully! From my understanding, since you earn from derivations; it is also considered as buying your own product, which is against the rules because any sales must be made by other users, not the creator themselves (when earning money).

"Only bona fide, third party sales of virtual items from the IMVU catalog and sales of In App Purchases (IAP) from a developer app are eligible to earn money for the account of a creator."

But I definitely think other creators may not be aware about this because it is such a common practice.

Posted by “BigMama” on June 07, 2024.

Omg!! This is exactly what happen to me too!! Help us please!!! @Saturi (Senior Community Programs Mananger)​ 

Posted by “Saturi” on June 06, 2024.

We've received your email. Thank you. We'll investigate and reply shortly.

Posted by “QueenArchives” on June 06, 2024.

Hi there, I just sent an email. Thank you for the reply to this discussion!

Posted by “Saturi” on June 05, 2024.

Sorry for the delayed response,@QueenArchives​. Can you please email creatoradvocate@imvu.com with the names of the two accounts, and a summary of this issue? We can forward the report to be investigated further.

Posted by “QueenArchives” on June 04, 2024.

I guess they’re ignoring this one lol.

Posted by “Polystyrene” on June 01, 2024.

That is terrible. Deriving from oneself is pretty common and should not be a reason to ban an account. I have never heard of it being a problem. If this is some new rule then a lot of us have reason to worry. @Saturi​ are you able to help out?