Peer Review Problem

Call for Active Participation in the Peer Review Process

Dear colleagues,

I would like to address an issue that affects many of us and often leads to frustration: the peer review process. I understand that conducting peer reviews is not something many find enjoyable. Personally, I tend to view this process more as a necessary evil rather than a fulfilling task. However, it is crucial that we all take our responsibilities in this process seriously.

Every day, we contribute to ensuring that the submissions of our colleagues are reviewed in a timely manner. Yet, while I am actively engaged in peer reviews, I often find myself waiting several days to a week for my own submissions to be approved. These waiting periods are not only frustrating; they also delay our progress and hinder the efficiency of our work.

I want to make a call to all of you: Let us take peer review seriously and participate actively. It does not help us to rely on others to carry the workload – each of us has the opportunity to positively influence the processing time of our own submissions. It is not just about the few credits we receive for it, but much more about fostering collaboration and improving the processes for all of us.

Let us work together to ensure that the peer review process runs more smoothly and efficiently. I thank you for your attention and hope for your support.

Best regards, Maluc 

Not the right topic, but whatever.  Pet peeve - why do I get product passing notifications from IMVU Official and not IMVU CREATOR?!!?  I am sick of going, 'Oh, a message from IMVU Official - I bet my product finally passed,' and finding out it's SPAM.

Sylaraia 

I agree with you on that

@Petrazenka

I've heard it all from fellow developers over the years.  The ones that anger me are the ones who threaten to destroy their products to spite IMVU.  That's stupid - you're going to piss off your customers, and then IMVU is going to restore them and block your IP address.  And no, boycotts won't work.  Petitions won't work either.  IMVU isn't a democracy and won't care.  They do care about public image, though, which is why I pop in occasionally and tell people to take it to discord or x or whatever.  IMVU has staff hired just to manage this 'forum' who do not report back to the decision makers about what goes on in here, and this is also formatted so that it is next to impossible for people to feed off one another to band together and heighten any protests.  No, if you want IMVU to do anything that they aren't already inclined to do, you have to take it to other forums and carefully word your complaints so that they can't retaliate, and hope that after they delete your post they decide to look into it.  If enough people take it to social media, they will be forced to respond.  

This might upset some of the old school IMVU Classic users but please don't take this as an attack, in fact knowing these things might help with navigating the current situation and maybe even improve it through use of subtlety. 

Ever heard of something called social credit score? Let's instead call it social credit points so to make it easier to understand a theory I have regarding this and related topics.

Most corporations probably keep tabs on what the accounts of customers and other (non customer) critics publicly express about the corporation's products & services.

The specific account of a customer might get more social credit points from a corporation if the specific account expresses satisfaction with the products and services provided by the corporation. The reverse might happen if the specific account expresses dissatisfaction with the products and services provided by the corporation. 

Sometimes several customers; each with own account share the same router (IP address) or even the same device to access a site like IMVU. 

Maybe if the specific account of a customer has a lot of social credit points then that specific account gets prioritized and better services. 

IMVU Inc is holding the long end of the stick; especially since their advertising revenue is probably higher than credit sales revenue  due to the high influx of new costumers who use mobile phones even if those new customers are only temporary and get their purchasing power from earning credits instead of directly purchasing credits. In fact every time a customer uses those earn free credits offers then the customer agrees to the use of data tracking cookies. Selling that data is very profitable. 

 That online customer count displayed at top left of your screen NEITHER DISPLAYS MOBIL USERS NOR IMVU NEXT USERS.

It is estimated that at least 10 to 20 times as many IMVU users are currently online as the displayed IMVU Classic users. IMVU can survive on all the advertising revenue and also selling the data gathered from cookies because of all those mobil and NEXT users.

Threats of boycotting expressed by old school IMVU Classic users like refusing to purchase more credits isn't going to put much of a dent in the profits IMVU is making. The fewer who use IMVU Classic the less of a reason IMVU has to cater to the old school vanguard. 

IMVU IS HOLDING THE LONG END OF THE STICK

Hit up their social media with that information.  All you're dealing with in PR nowadays is cheap AI and minimum wage employees.

"Waiting on Agent"... forever?

Stucked with a help ticket since 2025/09/04

Maybe is because my help ticket is related with the peer review? I have an stucked item on peer review since 2025/08/23 (just today, one month ago).

Other of my items (uploaded after) passed the peer review, but this one is a problem. 

The problematic item link is this, uploaded on 2025/08/23: https://www.imvu.com/shop/product.php?products_id=72257087

I've sent a help ticket asking about the problem on 2025/09/04 and I have not an agent assigned yet (the green button says "Waiting on Agent").

It's sad :(

That would be wonderful, but we're contractors, not employees, and to have had a chance of ever achieving that you would have had to start in approximately 18 years ago, back when the catalog was less than a million products   That was long before IMVU allowed anyone with VIP to clog up the catalog, and there were features like the old promo bundle program that were great for monetizing your catalog.  At whatever millions of products the catalog is at now, monetizing it is a hundred or more times more difficult, even if you're one of the despicable creators who only publishes ZCDs of page one hits.  

If someone is going to be a developer with a lot of products in their shop then they might want to think about if it is worth the time and effort plus expenses. This is because at some point it's akin to work instead of socializing in a chatroom. Other developers on their "friend list" are akin to work colleagues instead of real friends. IMVU has become a second job.

How much real life money could they have earned at work if they had used the same time at their place of real life employment at overtime wage rates. For the sake of argument we will consider the developer already works 40 hours a week. Now add the time they develop on IMVU to those 40 hours. 

Then there is the other expenses associated with being a developer. Things like the cost of their PC and other hardware. The price of software and programs, internet, electricity, "office space" and insurance. There is also the price of a VIP subscription unless the developer was grandfathered in before 2012. If a developer does not make own meshes there will be deviation fees, there is also submission fees, and IMVU Inc wants their cut too so they mark up the price of a product. 

It's expensive to be a developer.

Unless a developer earns A LOT of credits then they would have been better off working overtime at their real life job. Anything less amounts to an investment failure.

Now for the icing on the cake: The hassle of IMVU related issues; like products stuck in peer review and a Staff that is so dedicated to making everyone feel so welcome. 

A similar theory could be applied to peer reviewing products. 5 promo credits or 1 dev token per product reviewed is not enough

@Petrazenka

If you're addressing me, I actually make a profit that I report on my taxes.  It is a side income source.  It's pretty modest compared to the old days, but it is enough to replace a laptop every couple of years.  I do make a lot of stuff for friends too, at their request.  

Why invest time and effort developing products unless friends or oneself needs those products?

Side note, for people who love conspiracy theories - interesting how this slowdown seem to match the delay in us getting our profits after a sale now (2 weeks).  I'm sure it's coincidental buffoonery, but still interesting.

If you want to be heard, start hitting IMVU on their social media with these complaints.  They actively despise negative press.  Don't be shocked when they delete your posts - but if enough people start creating a stink and reposting screenshots, they will suddenly be proactive.

Dear Petrazenka,
Thank you very much for your thorough response to my problem. I also opened a ticket, after completely overwhelming the live chat AI with my sentence about wanting to complain. I fear the same thing will happen to me with my ticket. This so-called customer service usually doesn't want or isn't able to help. In the past and in the future, it has been the same. They don't care: AND I AM REALLY SURE Elon won't help under any circumstances, in any area. Sooner or later, the lights just go out.

sincerly,

fornica

Or become friends with Elon