Tackling Censorship and Building a Safer Community

Imvu: "We support open dialogue."

Also Imvu:

@BaronDraksfell  Maybe the bot considered it an insult/ because the man's name is Louis, not Louie. :p

To lighten this up - I played a trigger song.  Another player in the room asked who sang the song.  The singer was Louie Armstrong.  But neither of us could type this without getting the warning.  So we experimented.  We could type Louie, we could type Armstrong, but not both words consecutively.  These bots are extremely dumb.  Or is there some bullying/insulting/racist/sexist/extremist connotation to the poor man's name of which I am unaware?

@Meeows Maybe IMVU should first start 'testing' this in its own IMVU rooms/welcome rooms to help start training its chat tool, that way there would be less disruption and then maybe a smaller rollout, its disrupting the flow of every chat with incorrect censorship, this is a VERY poorly thought out idea, in the long run of poorly thought out ideas, as others have mentioned how do we know IMVU isnt recording these conversations, that is a serious breach of trust and unethical, maybe a censor for profanity in GA rooms in time but NOT in AP rooms, private rooms or anything like that. And being brutally honest most if not all Room Owners already have their own rules for their rooms and their mods (including profanity etc)and we have done pretty well so far, this is censorship is something that is NOT needed.

this censorship is a BAD idea from any point of view. I can understand you want to filter what's being said in public, IMVU owned GA rooms. But what we do in our rooms, how we talk and who we talk with - is none of IMVU concern. If any user not happy with the way  conversation goes or don't like the topic, they are free to step out, but in my room GA or AP I should be able to say what I want and how I want it. Just because I paid for it!  and then you trigger on whispers??? same in private msg's??? in what world is this normal??? if your bot can get triggered by a specific word anywhere on IMVU, where the guarantees that you are not recording on private conversations??? this nonsense must stop and must stop immediately. 

Come on, this is impossible to deal with, we can't even have a typical chat now! what the hell is this!!! Do something right now or we are all leaving.

the words that are getting censored is out of control 

I had two of my female friends (that sent out messages) that they just got IMVU "Married" and BOTH of them were censored for NO good reason   

Seriously this needs fixed ASAP, was just in a GA room and said nini to a friend and it got censored, this is ridiculous, censoring explicit chat in ga rooms i would think for sure but this is just annoying , it also interfered with a trigger song i had played, come on IMVU do better at this.

This is going too far. In an Ap room and talking about research at the Univerisity. Talk about big brother watching you what is next our personal messages. 

Fix it please, I'm going crazy. Sometimes there is no problem, and then again two times in a row.

Not censored, There is completely nothing logical on how this works.

If IMVU is going to rely on AI for making things work, I can tell you from another experience, that that is a bad idea. Even AI image generators can't "think". Tell them to make something "not with stained glass windows" and all it can produce is "stained glass windows" because in the AI "thinking" all churches have stained glass windows. AI can't do a reliable job!

It just happened again. A room welcome, omg.

But when I said it without "Welcome" it was not censored.

So Welcome is the bad word?

have an AP room, AP pass, age verification etc, and cant say the F word????  what gives?

I hope vu fix the filters it so hard to texting with them 

Just now:

I have been here for 14 years and am well over the age limit to do what i want to do on IMVU.  I do not interact with anyone else but my bf.   I have purchased AP and VIP passes, AP products from your catalogs and you have given me AP products as gifts.   I have had AP clubs and homes which i purchased from your catalogs.  All within the last 14 years.  And now,  in your appreciation of me spending hundreds or thousands of dollars over the years, you have censored my private discussions between me and my boyfriend of 12 years.  C'mon IMVU, I think you are better than this.  

Nods

@MagicRose This is likely a temporary issue with the chat system, which we are actively reviewing and revising as necessary. This mixed-behavior should be resolved soon.

I understand being worried about toxisity and having hatefull remarks, but is that not why theres a boot and block button. why do we need moderators in our private rooms telling us what we can say. if we dont like it all we have to do is leave or boot. this seems like you are punishing us all for the bad behavior of others... i complained about censorship a while ago. i also warned thoes that said i should suck it up that it would only get worse if we didnt stop it there.

@Kanjiirahlni We would like to clarify that the recent changes are not related to AP+ and was purely coincidental in timing. We have received reports of negative experiences on our platform, including instances of bullying, harassment, and toxicity. In response, we are actively training our new chat model to better handle these types of conversations. While we aim to support open dialogue, we do not tolerate use of harmful or hateful language. Our goal is to foster a more inclusive and positive community for everyone, and we appreciate your support as we work toward this important mission.

Many of us are experiencing the same issue here. This makes no sense. There are 2 avatars (people) in one private room, both of whom are AP and age verified, both using the same version of the client. Yet one person CAN type the exact same words WITHOUT receiving an admin warning/whisper and the other person can NOT type it. The other person DOES receive an admin whisper reading Your Message was not delivered due to a possible Community Guidelines violation and the message is not sent. This is a major issue. Please advise. Thank you so much!

Another thing that I and many others are worried about; does this have anything to do with AP+?

One of the listed features on AP+ is "Private Chat Rooms: Invite someone and enjoy intimate and private conversations with other AP+ age verified members in specially designed chat rooms."

Does this mean we won't be able to have "Intimate and private conversations" if we're just normal AP?

Also, I'm concerned about what you mean when you say "we are committed to reducing bullying, harassment, and toxicity to create a safer, more positive environment for everyone".

Does this mean you will be censoring "hate speech" or "offensive speech"? Because that is a TERRIBLE idea, considering there's no accurate way to determine what is considered "hate speech" or "offensive speech".

yes, bullying is bad (m'kay?), and nobody likes toxicity, however outright censoring people from "saying mean things" is much worse than either of those.

Thank you for explaining to us, I hope that next time there is an update, there will be a notification so that we don't panic, and imvu remains a comfortable and fun game.

So, does this mean AP users will still be censored when chatting with other ap users?
If I may offer a suggestion; why not adopt a chat tool that censors chat only for non-ap users, and blocks "explicit" chat messages for non-ap users? (I would say to not censor for ages 18+ but it's much easier to lie about your age than it is to take a card to purchase AP, so i could at least understand that aspect)

Personally, I would advocate for no censorship, because I believe parents should monitor their children instead of relying on a tech company to protect them, but that's just me. :/