[Archived - Unequal] Pay to be paid - New update

Posted by “JadeElf” on May 23, 2023.

I'm lucky to see 4 sales a day. Why should i pay to get paid when it takes almost a year to make enough to withdraw? I'd be wasting money if i got VIP.

Posted by “QBL” on May 22, 2023.

There are a butt load of companies out there these days that hire on a independent contracting basis. They receive 1099 just as we do.. Not one that I know of makes you purchase a product from the company in order for you to be issued your pay, Nor do they withhold pay when you reach a certain limit. There has to be a reason they don't I would assume!!

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 22, 2023.

Yep, the fact there are no page numbers here to skip to and we just have to keep clicking the "Show more answers" over and over again to get to the last page of comments is enough to keep people from commenting.

Posted by “Sylaraia” on May 22, 2023.

Newp. If you scroll up far enough you'll find my posting about how many times I've lived through something like this and what the typical script for these situations is when it comes to our responses. I think I've seen IMVU capitulate once ever and give us badges to mollify us (the only reason I have a badge of my own in the first place). I wish I could remember which situation that was and what made them back off, but all of these situations just run together in your head after awhile. Historically, Vu usually only backs off if they find that their proposal is just too much of a pain to implement from a technical standpoint, or they decide it just isn't worth the hassle. But that was when the old forums were in place, and in those it was much easier for us to organize. This new forum style seems to be designed to make that difficult.

Posted by “Sylaraia” on May 22, 2023.

Not shocked. So not shocked. I think IMVU's gotten overconfident and suffers from Peter Rabbit syndrome. (I hope I'm remembering that right - rabbit who was lazy and irresponsible and didn't save nuts for winter?). Just the fact that they gave app users 0 ways to track their load weights has cost them millions of potential customers. Those people load into rooms weighing a (bleep) ton, get booted or screamed at, and leave IMVU. More importantly, they probably tell their friends that IMVU is full of a-holes because of the experience.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 22, 2023.

I haven't bought credits in forever but I changed from cash to credits when they did the new tiers because it was taking 3-4 months to reach the $50 minimum to withdraw my funds (because so many of my sales were predits) and it just wasn't worth it to get that measly amount of cash. So if I sell something and they actually use real credits I can create if I want something and I can gift credits to my friends here so they don't have to buy any either. I've been paying for VIP in 3-month increments with $25 gift cards because some friends still here are doing events once a month and I like to join them. Everyone is bailing once the original client is put to rest so we're all just basically riding the final wave.

Posted by “shopdaisylogo” on May 22, 2023.

I wonder how many who will be shutting their shops, will now just use promo credits, i mean with so many being given away and the freebies, there really is no need to use real credits, and most of us have a huge inventory already....

Posted by “Unequal” on May 22, 2023.

Ah I didn't mean starting something like a hashtag or anything like that. IMVU get's articles made about them (stuff about how they're taking over the metaverse etc)

Media coverage obviously is very important to any business, this isn't the same company we all joined back then. Bad media - shares tank.

For example, the Vogue collaboration they did where they did a metaverse runway. I'm sure that raised some of those shares, but if Vogue knew how those creators involved were actually treated as virtual designers, I don't think it would have gone down like that.

That's what I meant by media coverage. Maybe I'm just old, but I don't include social media as media itself. Bad coverage on social media brings in views, doesn't have the same impact as a article on a well known site.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 22, 2023.

In case anyone's forgotten this isn't the first time everyone has been up in arms and threatened to stop creating or leave and not one single time has it made a difference to the powers that be at IMVU. They started requiring VIP to create but that was okay because all the grandfathered creators were safe and wouldn't have to pay. They stopped credit resellers and created the MASA disaster with caps on withdrawals and a lot of great people left but everyone else just let it happen. Then they created the 3-tier VIP but the grandfathered creators were still safe so they didn't care and everyone else either left or just went along with it. I know there have been other instances of IMVU changing things that negatively affected creators but I'm currently at a loss. And now this happens and everyone is up in arms once again but if we've learned anything it's that IMVU will do whatever they want and the creators will be the ones left holding the empty bag. I've said it before and I'm saying it again...you teach people how to treat you and we've all taught IMVU that they can continue to railroad creators until we all either leave or work for free. They do not care, they never have and they never will. And if you actually believe they might for once listen to the people who make this place run when they haven't for years, I have some swamp land for sale.

Posted by “Madotsuki” on May 22, 2023.

Like I said, there will be more eyes on the situation, for starters. It would start a conversation about how ethical is this change going to be and would it work outside of IMVU, like SL. While it's probably not going impact the executives, but it'd definitely let customers and other creators know why they're are leaving the platform. For years, every change made on this site that was made against creators, people protested and complained against it in the forums, on this site, and guess what - that has gone nowhere, either. People ultimately left, anyway.

And it doesn't have to be Twitter. It can be Tiktok, YouTube or other social media platforms. You think that people confine themselves to one platform?

Because the worst possible outcome is that there will not be many people left creating on this site. Creativity would be limited to that. I personally wouldn't want that outcome and I don't want to be here to see that. But if people don't do something about it, then I guess we're all complicit on this change.

Posted by “MRxGQxFUTURISTIKxKG” on May 22, 2023.

@FemmeDraven​ I 1000% agree with you.

Posted by “MRxGQxFUTURISTIKxKG” on May 22, 2023.

@Sylaraia​ The kids will because they cant afford better and they cant afford IMVU they are the reason we get so much promo credits. But the new users who are adults are not new to the virtual worlds. Virtual world users that are adults always talk about how crappy IMVU is. When you have all these other virtual worlds where its actually cheaper to play and have things then IMVU high quality. You know how many people I meet on Facebook that into virtual world that recently made IMVU account and abandons it because its not the quality they use too. I going base on the feed back I hear because hang and chat with gamers all over I love to hear the feed back. Its how I know how to market myself as creator. I don't assume by what things look like I actually get out there and get the info. So my responds is base on what a lot of people have to say about IMVU. There is not enough activates going on IMVU let alone product quality to keep paying customers happy to stay. The kids stay because they can be on mobile they don't have to be on a computer. They do survey all the time for promo to shop. IMVU been losing money because they are losing paying customers. No one wants to be here no more because IMVU refuses to really offer something that paying adults want. They want this to be kid friendly and this is turning in to kids site. The kids will get what they can get but they not the people with the money to keep this a float. This is exactly why they needed a way to squeeze creators for more money. Because the creators who are left are the consistent income they have coming in all the money you pay just to create they not making enough in sales so they need you pay for vip.

Posted by “Sylaraia” on May 22, 2023.

And what is that supposed to accomplish exactly? I guarantee that none of the executives at IMVU will see it. Rigs exists as a buffer between us and the actual decision makers. All you're going to do is cause the poor man to start mixing Pepto with his morning coffee. I've seen IMVU shrug off petitions before, and since there is nothing sexy about this controversy (read: nothing hot topic political) I don't see that going anywhere.

Posted by “Madotsuki” on May 22, 2023.

There's Twitter to get more eyes. I know not a lot of people are on that platform, but a lot of media outlets are there. Start a hashtag movement.

Posted by “Unequal” on May 22, 2023.

I have 3 grandfathered accounts, and I 100% do mind paying $10 a month per account. Not only does this site keep our earnings behind this weird MASA concept, but now a paywall? Hell no. I do not have my earnings held from me nor do I have to pay 1 single penny to receive any income I make anywhere else. I get INSTANT PayPal payments, or even money straight to my bank the instant I make a sale elsewhere. If it's a virtual currency, I can sell it back to the actual site I earned it off and cash out that way. MASA and bi-weekly payouts are literally insane, I just didn't realise it till I got the hell out of here.

Either the guys upstairs need IMVU to make more income for their shareholders or whatever, or IMVU can't actually afford to pay out creators hard earned money stuck in the void, so we as creators are going to have to pull money out our own pockets to pay each other.

OR we have funding WithMe for good old Together Labs. Honestly Id bet money on that one.

You just got to do the math on what they will potentially earn from our future paywall to know it makes the most sense right now.

If it's neither of those, they just know we are stuck in this hell hole and have no choice.

We pay a portion of what we receive a month in order to actually cash out, or we earn credits which are predominately useless to us old timers, or we just walk away and IMVU makes cash straight off our backs.

We literally never win and never will.

Unless the media get involved, things won't ever change. A good old deep dive into IMVU's "let's work our creators to insanity" would be well appreciated.

Unfortunately we won't do anything about it, because we can't.

I also don't feel privileged to have not had to pay all this time, because actually I never should have to pay anyway. Period.

I do however feel so lucky that my sales completely died and I lost all my income, that is a MASSIVE blessing to be completely honest.

I can't even imagine what those with 1000's of $ in their IMVU void must be going through. I don't care if you can afford the $10, you shouldn't have to pay and IMVU should never have turned on its creators like this.