IMVU Blog

Terms of Service Violations and Account Disablement

Posted on 11/2/09 in Community, Customer Support by JeffH
72 Comments

Hello, IMVU Community!

My name is Jeff, and I’ve recently joined IMVU to help transform IMVU’s customer service team into a more proactive Customer Care and Education organization. As one of the first steps toward addressing some of the concerns you’ve shared with us, I have exciting news to announce. We understand the frustration and anxiety many of you have expressed about our current process for addressing policy violations on the site and the potential for your account to be disabled without notice or explanation. Historically, IMVU has not been consistent in notifying our users when we disable an account for violating our Terms of Service (ToS), Virtual Goods Policy (VGP), or Privacy Policy. Accounts were disabled for many different types of unacceptable behavior, from selling content that was unsuitable for IMVU (UFI) to credit fraud, and the penalties were permanent by default. We have been working hard behind the scenes to improve this process, with a focus on proactive communication.

Beginning today, we will have the ability to temporarily suspend account access for a particular period of time, depending on the offense. All actions taken on an account will be accompanied by a detailed email explaining why the account was suspended or disabled and when you can expect to regain access (if that applies). For example, the first violation of the ToS results in a 2-week suspension. The second violation may result in an additional 4-week suspension, and the third violation may result in the permanent disablement of your account. Our decisions regarding the penalties we impose on accounts are final. Some offenses will remain serious enough to permanently disable your account immediately.

Of course, most should never receive any of these emails because you are good community members and follow the IMVU Terms of Service and Virtual Goods Policy.

As a reminder, you should never share your IMVU password with anyone, especially with someone you do not know. You are solely responsible for all activity originating from your account. Granting anyone access to your account is not a good idea and could result in the suspension of your account. Please remember: IMVU Staff will never ask for your password.

We’re making significant progress in responding to some of our oldest tickets, and you may have already noticed some improvements to our Knowledge Base (where you can search for answers to common questions without having to wait). You will continue to see many positive changes over the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, please continue to access Customer Care through our Support Center by clicking Help at the top of any page of our website or in 3D Chat. I won’t be able to respond to specific requests for help via the Blog.

Regards,

Jeff

Manager, Customer Care & Education

72 Comments

Redeem any Prepaid Card in November & Get a Posh Sushi Club!

Posted on 11/2/09 in IMVU Credits by admin
3 Comments

Need a sleek new club to chat in? Redeem any Prepaid Card this November, and you’ll receive a posh sushi club and plenty of Japanese sushi sets to decorate it with!

This month’s Prepaid Card Gifts were created by Whystler, one of our pioneer creators. He added some great touches to this room that you’ll be sure to love! Start decorating your sushi club now!

3 Comments

The New Peer Review Process

Posted on 10/29/09 in Community, Creators, Product by Community Manager
277 Comments

We’re very excited to announce that we’ve just overhauled the Peer Review process. In response to your persistent and valid concerns, we’ve introduced many changes which should help get new products into the Virtual Goods Catalog faster and with enhanced rating accuracy.

Who Can Participate in Peer Review?
First, we have broadened the eligibility of who can review products.

Now, any user who is 18 and over, has been on IMVU for at least 30 days, and uses 3D Chat may participate in Peer Review. (Existing Creators who are 18 and over and have not yet been on IMVU for 30 days will still be able to participate).

Why Should I participate in Peer Reviewer?
Second, we now reward reviewers for participating in this process.

Users can now earn 5 promo credits for each product they review, with a limit of 500 reviews per day (note: this limit is subject to change).
Users can also now get an exclusive sneak peek at new products. Users can also add these brand new products to their wishlists, so they can purchase them as soon as they have passed Peer Review and are available in the catalog.

What else do I need to know?
There are a few other changes that you should be aware of before participating in Peer Review:

The first time a user visits Peer Review, they will see a pop-up window with an explanation of what Peer Review is and how the process works. All participants are required to learn the rules for participating and must familiarize themselves with the Virtual Goods Policy (VGP).
Customer Support will closely monitor individual Peer Review performance and behavior. They will prohibit users from participating in this process (and earning promo credits) for routinely passing or failing products inaccurately, or in a deliberate attempt to disrupt this process.
Additionally, Customer Support will track the product re-rating history of all Creators to look for deliberate attempts to pass UFI content through to the catalog. Creators who routinely submit mis-rated/UFI products will have their account(s) suspended or permanently disabled.
To learn more about the Peer Review process, please read the FAQ link at the top of the Peer Review page.

We hope you are as excited as we are about this major update to Peer Review. We will be actively and closely monitoring the effects of these changes over the next few months, and we’ll continue to make changes as necessary. We encourage you to share your feedback with us by commenting below.

Thanks again for all of the feedback and suggestions you have shared with us on this process!

Jami
Sr. Community Manager

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General Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is Peer Review?
A. Peer Review is a system that IMVU has put in place in order to give the community a voice in the kinds of content allowed on IMVU. Peer Review allows users to review product submissions before they enter the catalog to be sure they adhere to the Virtual Goods Policy and IMVU community standards.

Q. How does the Peer Review process work?
A. After a product is submitted to the catalog, it is put up for review. All products are randomly assigned to a reviewer in order to reduce any attempt to game the system. Each reviewer is asked to evaluate the product and its product details to determine 1) if the rating selected matches the content, and 2) if the product and product page adhere to the Virtual Goods Policy. Using the checkboxes on the page, each reviewer can decide if the product passes or fails. If a product passes, it will be published to the catalog. If it fails, the submitter will be notified so they can address the concerns.

Q. What do I need to know before I start doing reviews?
A. All reviewers should read and be familiar with the Virtual Goods Policy. You should also be familiar with product pages, usage, and information in general.

Q. What are the criteria I should use when reviewing products?
A. You are evaluating a product and its product page to determine if the item follows our Virtual Goods Policy. While you may not be a customer for the actual product displayed, or not agree with the actual merchandising of the product, we ask that you only consider the Virtual Goods Policy when you review the item.

Q. Can I fail a product if I don’t like the submitter, or I think their product page is ugly, contains spelling errors, etc?
A. No. You should only be reviewing a product and its product description to ensure compliance with the Virtual Goods Policy.

Q. I don’t have an Access Pass. Will I be able to review Access Pass items?
A. No. Only Access Pass members can review items rated as Access Pass only.

Q. Are only newly submitted products subject to Peer Review?
A. No. Any product which will be sold, gifted, or used by an avatar must be Peer Reviewed. Peer Review can also be triggered if the Creator changes an item, its rating, or its. In addition, Customer Service may force a product to be reviewed if they have concerns about an un-rated item. Creators may also choose to self-submit any item for review.

Q. I don’t want to review certain types of products. Can I choose which types of products to review?
A. No. All products across all types are assigned randomly to reviewers. The only exception is that Access Pass items can only be reviewed by Access Pass holders.

Q. Do I have to review every product?
A. No. You can choose to skip a product review if you are unsure or uncomfortable reviewing the item.

277 Comments

Pick Your Favorite IMVU Staff Halloween Costume!

Posted on 10/29/09 in Uncategorized by Community Manager
2 Comments

Inspired by our Daily Outfit Challenge, the IMVU employees had their own Halloween Outfit Challenge. Here are the silly, spooky and enchanting results. Visit our Fan Page on Facebook to help us pick the winner by voting for your favorite with a “thumbs up”! Just click the image you like best and then click the “like” link.

Thank you!
Jami
Sr. Community Manager

2 Comments

Peace on IMVU!

Posted on 10/28/09 in Community, Contest by Community Manager
1 Comment

As part of a project that a team at Standford launched called Peace Dot, we reached out out to our active Daily Outfit Challenge regulars and asked them to think about what peace means to them and let those ideas inspire their outfit submissions. Then our community voted for their favorite submissions and we are extremely proud of the results! See for yourself here.

We hope you enjoy this exhibition of 3D avatars, created by members of the global IMVU community inspired by the theme *”What peace means to me.”*

To learn more about the Peace Dot project, click here.

1 Comment

DAOPAY: Buy Credits with your home phone in 31 countries!

Posted on 10/28/09 in IMVU Credits by Community Manager
26 Comments

We’re very excited to introduce daopay, a new way to buy IMVU Credits in multiple countries without using a credit card. We know from your messages to CaryJay that more payment options in more countries is crucial, and the introduction of daopay on IMVU is one step towards fulfilling that need.

daopay is a new payment method that enables you to charge payments to your home phone bill. This new method will appear at check out for users who reside in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy (some restrictions apply), Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and the USA.

It’s super easy to use. Simply click on the daopay button. You’ll see the daopay Payment Screen, and you will be asked to call a number and accept the payment. Daopay will confirm the payment, and the order will be complete when you see the “paid” message. You will be told in advance how long you will need to stay on the line (it’s normally several minutes).

One of the things we like best about daopay is that you don’t need to set up a separate daopay account or remember a password. And the Credits are delivered into your account instantly! What could be better than that?

26 Comments

New Peer Review Process

Posted on 10/26/09 in Community, Creators, Product, Uncategorized by Community Manager
114 Comments

Since introducing the Peer Review (PR) process, we’ve heard the following persistent concerns:

Products take much too long to get through Peer Review.
Not enough people are reviewing products to keep up with daily product submissions.
Review delays lead to unmanageable Customer Support queues.
Reviewers routinely pass/fail products incorrectly to increase their Tier scores, to publish unsuitable for IMVU (UFI) content, or to simply disrupt the process.
Most Creators are operating within the Virtual Goods Policy (VGP), but are still being penalized by the actions of the few who aren’t.

Not only do we agree that these are legitimate concerns, but we are ready to take action. Rather than simply make small changes to deal with each individual concern, we’ve decided instead to completely overhaul the current process. Below is an overview of what is changing.

Goals
Before describing the changes, we first want to make our goals with this overhaul extremely clear. Our overarching goal is to ensure that products submitted to Peer Review are accurately reviewed and visible in the catalog within 48 hours. In order to do this, we are focusing on three main areas:

1) We are broadening the eligibility of who can review products.

2) We are introducing a clearer, more intuitive review process.

3) We will monitor the accuracy of reviews more closely. Users who consistently vote incorrectly will not be allowed to participate in this process. Additionally, Creators who routinely submit mis-rated/UFI products will have their account(s) suspended or permanently disabled.

Changes to who can participate
To get more users engaged in Peer Review, we are opening the process to all users with the following rewards and restrictions:

Only users who are 18 and over, have been on IMVU for at least 30 days, and use 3D Chat (since reviewers are required to view products in 3D in Peer Review) may participate in Peer Review.
Reviewers will earn 5 promo credits for each product they review, with a limit of 500 reviews per day.
Existing Creators who are 18 and over and have not yet been on IMVU for 30 days will still be able to participate in Peer Review.
The first time a user visits Peer Review, they will see a pop-up window with an explanation of what Peer Review is. They will learn the rules for participating, and they’ll be required to familiarize themselves with the Virtual Goods Policy (VGP).
Voters who consistently vote incorrectly will be prohibited from participating in Peer Review and earning promo credits.

By opening the review process to non-Creators, we are also developing a new channel for these users to get an exclusive sneak peek at new products. If someone sees something they like while reviewing, they will now be able to add the item to their Wishlist so they can remember to buy it when it passes Peer Review and is available in the catalog.

Changes to the review process
In order to address some of the concerns raised, we’ve made some fundamental changes to the review process itself:

Reviewers are now required to view the product in 3D for a minimum period of time, since it is unlikely that a product will be rated accurately if it’s never viewed in 3D from all angles.
We are increasing the number of reviews required to pass or fail a product.
Products that have not passed Peer Review will not appear in the catalog.
We are requiring voters to confirm a failing vote to to ensure the reasons they’ve selected accurately reflect the product being reviewed.

Changes to Customer Support’s involvement in this process
Customer Support will closely monitor individual Peer Review performance and behavior. They will ban users from this process who routinely pass or fail products inaccurately. Additionally, Customer Support will track the product re-rating history of all Creators to look for deliberate attempts to pass UFI content through to the catalog. Creators who routinely submit mis-rated/UFI products will have their account(s) suspended or permanently disabled.

Changes to when items appear in the Product Catalog
We will no longer display products that are less than one week old in the catalog to customers who have been on IMVU for less than 30 days. Thus, new users will have the best possible experience while minimizing the exposure of mis-rated items.

What’s the impact to the economy?
Based on the number of products submitted to Peer Review and typical number of votes per product, we expect to issue between 750,000 and 1 million promo credits daily (with a maximum of 2,500 per user per day). This represents a very small portion of overall credit economy, so we do not expect a material impact to creators or resellers. Nevertheless, as with all credit activity, we will be closely monitoring the effects of these changes over the next few months and will adjust the reward if necessary.

We hope you are as excited as we are about this overhaul to Peer Review which should be visible to all users toward the end of this week. As mentioned, we will be actively monitoring the effects of these changes and will continue to make changes as necessary. We encourage you to share your feedback with us by commenting below.

Thank you for all of the feedback and suggestions you have shared with us on this process!

Best,
Jami
Sr. Community Manager

**********************************************

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q. Who can participate in Peer Review?
A. Any user who is 18 and over, has been on IMVU for at least 30 days, and uses 3D Chat can participate.

Q. If users can earn credits for Peer Review, won’t more items get passed randomly? How will you manage this?
A. Customer Support will actively monitor for users who frequently vote incorrectly, and the CS team will take appropriate action. We also believe that a larger voting pool will allow for less biased and more accurate voting.

Q. Will Peer Review voting performance be individually reviewed?
A. Yes, Customer Support will actively monitor individual Peer Review performance and behavior.

Q. Will I be banned from participating in Peer Review if pass or fail an item incorrectly, even though I thought my review was accurate?
A. We’re not going to be monitoring for users who incorrectly review items occasionally, or Creators who have items re-rated occasionally. We are looking for serial offenders and flagrant abuse.

Q. How many promo credits can I earn each day?
A. You can earn 5 promo credits for the first 500 reviews you conduct in each a day.

Q. Won’t this flood the economy with promo credits?
A. Any additional promo credits added to the economy will be directly offset by the new channel (adding products in Peer Review to the wishlist, once Peer Review is passed) for users to purchase the newest content our Creator community publishes.

Additionally, a user can only receive a maximum of 2,500 promo credits per day, which means reviewing 500 products (which is A LOT!) The likelihood that these promo credits would be spent on one specific Creator’s products is small. Our data indicates that a large percentage of users who spend promo credits convert to spending real credits, so we believe the end result will be favorable for Creators.

Q. What happens if a product continually gets skipped?
A. The overall process will remain the same. If something stays in Peer Review too long, it will go into the CS queue for review. However, since more people will be reviewing, we expect the number of skipped products will go down.

Q. Will non-Access Pass (AP) holders be able to review AP products?
A. No. Only AP users can review AP-rated products.

Q. What about ’special order’ products that are intended only for the Creator or specific user who asked for it to be made? Will a reviewer be able to add these products to their Wishlist if they are hidden?
A. No. Hidden products should never be for sale, and they should never be visible in anyone’s Wishlist.

The goal of allowing a reviewer to add a product to their Wishlists is so that they can bookmark the product for later purchase. We believe this is an added benefit for Creators as they gain new customers.

Q. How will product availability and catalog searches change for users who have been on the site at least 30 days?
A. Nothing will change. Users who have been on the site for 30 days or more will experience the same product availability that they experience today. Once an item passes Peer Review, it becomes available in the catalog. Note that this only affects catalog search and browse results. If a new user finds a link to a product that’s new, they’ll still be able to buy it.

Q. Why can’t products developed by Pro Creators with a proven track record require fewer reviews to pass into the catalog?
A. We are exploring the possibility of requiring fewer reviews for higher Tier Creator. However, we want to launch the changes announced here first, and then closely monitor the effects before making any further decisions. We want to minimize the potential negative impact of requiring fewer reviews to pass a product into the catalog would also mean fewer reviews to fail a product.

114 Comments

New Friends Tool & Turbo Product Loading Turned on for All in Release 424.0

Posted on 10/26/09 in Product by Community Manager
215 Comments

New Friends Tool
In response to the feedback many of you shared with us when we eliminated the separate Friends Window, we are pleased to announce that you can now easily access your friends from the New Friends Tool released in 424.0. Click here to download now. The Friends Tool is accessible from the lower right hand corner of the Home Screen (and in any mode) in 3D Chat (see screenshot below).

From the new Friends Tool, you can easily:

See which of your friends are online
Connect with friends you’ve recently chatted with
Launch the Friends Mode
Add new friends
Invite friends into a specific chat

This Friends Tool will update in real time, so when new friends comes online or go offline, the Friends Tool will update immediately.

Performance Improvements
Last week we announced significant improvements to product room loading times. Long load times have historically been one of the biggest sources of community feedback, and we know smooth and immediate performance is extremely important to you. We are constantly striving to offer the best possible experience to all users, regardless of operating system, and this is one giant leap in the right direction. To experience this enhanced turbo product loading, download Release 424.0 now

Initially, you had the ability to turn the new enhancements on and off while we fine tuned this feature. We’ve now finished our work, so we’re turning on the new turbo product loading times on for everyone. We look forward to your continued feedback on these performance improvements.

Here’s what users have to say about these enhancements so far:

“I have to say, the new product loading is awesome. Clever to load everything one by one, so your cpu doesn’t get all clogged up with just loading stuff. Works like a charm!”

“the turbo loading is fantastic, good job”

“The new Turbo Animation mode works fantastically for me! Good job on this release IMVU team. Best improvement yet.”

“I love this new update, rooms are loading so much faster for me now”.

“Turbo product loading. I *love* this so far. I have generally very slow internet (average D/l = 25kbps) so with this it loads things fluidly, fast. I adore that.”

“WOW - I’m impressed with what you have done imvu”

“wow the load is so fast you click product and you are loaded before you can blink”

New Themed 3D Home Screen
Finally, we’ve recently added the ability to include “themed” graphics on the Home Screen within 3D Chat. If you take a peek today, you’ll see spooky Halloween themed graphics! Our hope is to celebrate causes and holidays that are important to our community. Please share suggestions for themes you’d like to see in the future, and we’ll try our best to include them.

Enjoy!
Jami
Sr. Community Manager

215 Comments

Win movie tickets to The Vampire’s Assistant!

Posted on 10/23/09 in Community, Contest by Community Manager
23 Comments

Congratulations to IMVU user Yujisan for being randomly selcted to win 2 tickets to see The Vampire’s Assistant and to RyoheiGin for creating the winning look in the Daily Outfit Challenge!

Win 2 free movie tickets to see The Vampire’s Assistant! Vote for your favorite entry in the Vampire’s Assistant themed Daily Outfit Challenge for your chance to win 2 tickets to see the movie! Today only, anyone who votes for their favorite entry in the Vampire’s Assistant themed Daily Outfit Challenge will be entered into a drawing. One voter will be randomly selected to win 2 tickets to see the Vampire’s Assistant in their hometown (open to US residents only).

The creator of the winning look will also win 2 tickets to see the movie!

Good luck!

23 Comments

METRIC on IMVU!

Posted on 10/22/09 in Community, Uncategorized by Community Manager
0 Comments

We’ve joined forces with the award-winning band METRIC to offer you official METRIC merch, an opportunity to chat live with members of the band and meet other METRIC fans from around the world, and stream Metric’s hit single “Help I’m Alive” — FREE for a limited time in the IMVU Music Store starting today!

To learn more about METRIC, visit the band website here.

Be sure to join METRIC’s group on IMVU now to join them for a live chat this Sunday, October 25^th at 3:00 PM PT!