Tackling Censorship and Building a Safer Community

@Heckpomeh - you're clearly not listening to what we're talking about, or a very obvious shill. You should read this all again and actually pay attention.

This discussion was quite for sometime and I assume the issue is still there… even though I didn’t get censored for a while, perhaps because I cut down my going to rooms time by good 95%, but as a greeter I spent at list 30 minutes everyday in Hangouts rooms and it’s like all hell broke loose there. People cursing, insulting, bullying, from time to time I walk in on conversations that are literally can be characterized as unlawful and come with a punishment 10-15 years in prison. Absolutely nothing is censored and if I try to interrupt it… I can start writing a dictionary on millions ways how to insult a person. 

I believe, that the only reason this censorship was only implemented in private rooms, to get long-active users to provide feedback, because those 1hour old and free-to-play accounts simply don't care about all that…

And in the light of all this it’s really standing out the way old accounts are being treated. It’s exactly as mentioned below, we can spend whole day reporting bad behavior, bad rooms and products and they will remain live and untouched, but one fake complaint against you will get you banned almost instantly.

So yes. Stay safe, stay quite, don't go anywhere and enjoy this amazing direction this social platform is going to… just wish we knew what this direction is …

No one even knows what Imvu is or is trying to be anymore. An animated social media site as an extension of reality, ? A graphic 3d roleplay site with nothing to do with reality? A place to police peoples thoughts and report them to FBI? Probably safest to log off and never enter this app again. It’s not safe in 100 different ways 

I fully agree with Jesse. The environment in the chat rooms is so toxic I don’t use them anymore. Was so scared of bans I closed all my public rooms. When my account of 15 years was banned over a roleplay I stopped using the app except with free GA accounts out of fear. Imvu rewards bullies , new users who don’t buy anything, and sex addicts. They banned so many devs , and still won’t allow a verified adult male to have an erection as any person past puberty has in reality. This is all nuts  and since the app moving to smart phones it’s become a horrid place. You’re right, it’s not an escape it’s a nightmare and I’m moving my money someplace else. Never seen any company or organization so abusive to its own customers. It’s run more like prison than a corporation. Horrible. The devs made a good technology years ago but the administration has killed it. Very unfair and random . And why are there people dressed like 5 years old in prostitution rooms in Imvu with no way to flag it? I’ve flagged dozens of rooms for rape torture or black market products , all remain up and open . Imvu is lost as a company. Sad. Had a lot of potential 

I fully agree with Jesse. The environment in the chat rooms is so toxic I don’t use them anymore. Was so scared of bans I closed all my public rooms. When my account of 15 years was banned over a roleplay I stopped using the app except with free GA accounts out of fear. Imvu rewards bullies , new users who don’t buy anything, and sex addicts. They banned so many devs , and still won’t allow a verified adult male to have an erection as any person past puberty has in reality. This is all nuts  and since the app moving to smart phones it’s become a horrid place. You’re right, it’s not an escape it’s a nightmare and I’m moving my money someplace else. Never seen any company or organization so abusive to its own customers. It’s run more like prison than a corporation. Horrible. The devs made a good technology years ago but the administration has killed it. Very unfair and random . And why are there people dressed like 5 years old in prostitution rooms in Imvu with no way to flag it? I’ve flagged dozens of rooms for rape torture or black market products , all remain up and open . Imvu is lost as a company. Sad. Had a lot of potential 

I've already read a lot of complaints about this.  My own actual experience with it is ....is that it is happening to me in chat in PRIVATE (non-public) rooms. ????  You HAVE to fix this before you roll it out!  I definitely understand your reasons for implementing it in PUBLIC GA rooms, ...I get that.  But I'm hoping this is not going to extend into people's private rooms and AP rooms, either intentionally or "accidentally".  IMVU, I'm begging you ...DON'T SHOOT YOURSELF IN YOUR OWN FOOT AGAIN.  Safety has to be implemented in the proper way.  You have a lot of legacy users who love the platform.  Your "so-called" automated script/bot in 2021 for weeding-out people who were supposedly using an "Unauthorized Client" FAILED MISERABLY, permanently disabling a lot of people (including myself), some who you have lost, some of them good legacy users who had been with you for 14 years.  That in-and-of itself proves that you really don't care "nothing" about your customers.  Please at least let us know what in the world is going on, and GIVE YOUR USERBASE "NOTIFICATION" on what you're doing, and what the rules will be for this, ...."if" ....and definitely "before" you implement it.  Because if it "FAILS", and you go resorting to automatically suspending/disabling people from another defective script/bot, I think that will be the final straw-in-the-camels-back that will cause you to lose your userbase, your online numbers, and finally bring an end to IMVU.

The fact I can call someone a "cum guzzling faggot for your Daddy" in a public space, yet can't in a private window is baffling.

AlphaJVicious: fucker

Admin  whispers: Your message was not delivered due to a possible Community Guidelines violation. 

AlphaJVicious: slut

AlphaJVicious: cum

Admin  whispers: Your message was not delivered due to a possible Community Guidelines violation. 

AlphaJVicious: whore

This is my room in  PC , when going in shared room generating the same words  it pops up even used in a sentence playing around .  If I go into my public room none of these words are flagged.

The Imvu administration always cares about each user and reacts immediately. IMVU is never blocked for no reason.

My hubs and I have messed around with different wording in our pc/married room as well as public ap and public ga rooms, the amount you get away with in some is ridiculous and backwards. We can go be the kinkiest of kinky talk in a public room but every other word is flagged in a private pc married room. We both provided all the information needed to prove without a doubt that we are both adults a very long time ago. I'm wondering how IMVU would feel if all of their customers asked lawyers if we had means for some type of lawsuit, idk if there is one, but I have a feeling there just might be....either way, yall are treating us like children when we are proven adults and pump enough money into this place to give yall a paycheck. Without us there is no IMVU, there is no job for yall to work at. The users are not being heard or listened to. 

As far as AP+ goes, the things I've heard- it's monthly sub, poses are 5k-30k and one person said it would cost them 200 dollars to make one room, you have to have it public, you have to have 3 people in it to use it, shareds cant be AP+, only select people are testing AP+ at the moment and they had to pay a fee to be able to do it as well as buy their things, they are wanting to get it so ga cant see ap and ap/ga cant see ap+. This is just info I've seen over the dozens of AP+ convos taking place on here in the forums, if all of this is true then what the heck is this mess IMVU? That would be why they are taking things from our inventories and not returning funds, changing things, censoring people, etc etc etc, the list goes on and on, no wonder so many people are jumping ship and going elsewhere. 

Apparently my user name is against community guidelines.  I have had multiple friends report getting the whispered admonishment.  This happened before, almos ta month ago, and has started up again.  I've also been hearing anecdotal stories about other users receiving 1 day suspensions for using language against community guidelines - they say that all they said was another user's name.  I trust them, but I don't have any proof of their stories.

I consider my own personal username, which is my IMVU brand, becoming against community guidelines to be probable retaliatory behavior against me for mentioning that I was considering making a complaint to the Better Business Bureau over this Orwellian (bleep).  Over the years I have earned for IMVU way more money than I have earned myself.  I have also contributed to this company through helpful suggestions that were implemented, such as:

-Display Only mode in the catalog.  That was my idea.

-Developer Tokens for developers doing PR rather than worthless predits.  Also my suggestio

-Various feedback given over the years for programs that have since vanished, such as the once profitable promo bundle program.

Back in the old days I had over 30 promo bundles run.  It wouldn't shock me to find out that my efforts have earned this company over a million or so dollars through those contributions, as well as tuteling up and coming new developers and in general aiding the creator community.  

For the last several years I have witnessed IMVU slowly but surely shove the old cadre out through policy changes.  I have resolutely kept my catalog open throughout this, even as my profits have dwindled due to their policy choices.  They have an almost 70 million product catalog now - I know that they no longer need the old developers.  But I don't see the need to cut off the income stream just because the company does upsetting things.  I last in spite of that.  But this ... this is too far.  

funny how i was told the censorship thing had nothing to do with ap+ yet, the ap+ users are not censored at all. i was told that it has nothing to do with that at all but seems i was lied too again by imvu. and they only invite so many people to test... probably people who dont post on forums so you all dont learn the truth! censorship from an american company is illegal unless its in a workplace. we dont work here!

Susuke, you presume the VU development team cares. It's probably safe to say that they really don't, at this point. We're just great test beds for their stupid AI shit.

Thirdly, I feel like you cant just slash in half something that we already paid for a set price tag. Subscription services are different because you can cancel them if you don't like the new plan rules, updates or new price hike. But since we already paid for it, that feels like we're getting scammed a bit don't you think ? 

Iv thought about it for a while, and I think the fact alone that we already paid for an adult pass to access AP content and have the adult experience, but now suddenly it's like, SIKE, actually you only get half the experience now, When AP is STILL advertised as the full adult experience on classic, so why firstly you allowing people to buy AP on classic client still under the guise they get the full adult experience but not actually get it, it literally says on classic client right now as I speak and i'm quoting "Looking for adult chats,romantic interactions and mature entertainment? Get the Access Pass and meet other 18+ people in exclusive AP chat rooms and groups." that don't sound like half the experience, and 2, you should refund anyone that has an AP badge on their account then, because that isnt right.