Dragoneer sells FA to IMVU

[Fiz]

That post was from 2012, so it was just a planned feature. But when Weasyl first opened to the public, there was a way to create a group.. I tried to... It was never fully functioning, though. You'd "create" the group but then you'd never see it again. The request basically went into a black pit. I think they removed the ability to create a group since then.

It'd surprise me if the feature wasn't still on the table for the future, though.

Yea you're basically correct. The Groups feature was in a WIP state and it was so un-usable it caused more questions than actual proper use, so it was stripped.

It's something we want to bring back at some point but there's other priorities right now.

As for premium accounts, basically the same thing: it's something we want to do at some point, but there are other priorities.

[KajTaotsu]

Something that seems to have gotten overlooked in all the discussion is the fact that IMVU thought FA was worth buying in the first place. Is this the start of a trend like what happened with science fiction fandom 50-60 years ago, where furry fandom is seen as a market worth courting?

the fact that easily half the users that commented on those journal updates didn't know what IMVU was makes me doubt that. If barely anyone in the fandom knew about that company, I don't think many other larger companies out there would really give it much thought. They'll see mention of it, but doubt they'll make any moves since IMVU is small.

[QT Melon]

I have to say it's rather disturbing that when someone who was fed up by the backlog of ticket handling on FA, actually went to IMVU for help, that Dragoneer had the audacity to claim the user was making a threat.

The fact of the matter, is he sold it to be employed under another person, if he cannot handle that pressure of accountability, then simply leave. Saying users are making threats when there really was none is ridiculous.

[chaos_1152]

I have to say it's rather disturbing that when someone who was fed up by the backlog of ticket handling on FA, actually went to IMVU for help, that Dragoneer had the audacity to claim the user was making a threat.

The fact of the matter, is he sold it to be employed under another person, if he cannot handle that pressure of accountability, then simply leave. Saying users are making threats when there really was none is ridiculous.

or he just sold it because of the thought that the other sites kicking him out and his worthless staff with much more competent ones.

Also does IMVU even realize how broken and how much a security risk FA is site wise?.

[KajTaotsu]

Considering the the 300k cases of stolen work in their own shop, I'd say they care even less than Jame's Giant Piche.

how...did you get that number of cases? Is that just a guess or... :s

[Tara]

I didn't get the impression that IMVU is that insignificant. And there's definitely money to be made off furries. FA might be a mess in terms of code, but it's got people that visit it regularly. The question is how will IMVU play it.

[QT Melon]

I didn't get the impression that IMVU is that insignificant. And there's definitely money to be made off furries. FA might be a mess in terms of code, but it's got people that visit it regularly. The question is how will IMVU play it.

If you read about the owners of IMVU it's about being a lean company so it's likely things that cost it money, like say staff have a good possibility of getting reduced or cut out. Now yes, there's a backlog of tickets, but it may be easier for IMVU to appoint such staff and eliminate those that feel redundant or useless.

There's also the fact that IMVU is probably going to look into how little protection or walls Adult work is under, especially because they are opposite. They may be looking into how to make it easier in the meantime for artists to look for their work, but I can see in the futre how it's going to be more setup like IMVU where you may have to enter Credit Card or Social Security information.

See, right now they want to keep it as is to preserve the current userbase, but usually companies allow that lull to come in before they make changes to make people so used to being there that when they make changes a number of them can't/won't leave because they're so used to things or it's a hassle. Works pretty well in other venues...

So yes, I saw the interview, heard that song before and have a really hard time believing it since it would mean that IMVU is pouring money into something that has a very lax policy on how one can see adult artwork. Given how restricted it is on IMVU who is fronting so much advertising to get furries on its site, I can't see how that would work for long.

[Tara]

Yes. I've been aware of IMVU for a while. The lull and the slow changes you barely register at first sound about right, but I'm a bit sceptical about the possible ban on adult art. If they know anything about the furry community (on FA), they should know that banning adult content would be an effective way to lose a lot of users. They may think it's worth it in the long run. Because at the end of the day, it's all about profit. If they think banning adult content on FA will bring them more money than if they don't, then they'll probably do it.

So if I'm going to be worried about the possible ban on adult content, that's the angle I'll be coming from, not because IMVU is a site that has its own working system and rules that are different from FurAffinity's.

But we'll see.

[QT Melon]

It won't be a ban on adult content but more of a paywall to have it on the site. It's more of effectively managing a site with adult content, and it may eventually come to the point a paywall is necessary like their own site. I think you need to re-read my post again because I never said anything about a ban, but the FA's lax policy on the ability to view such content.

[Viciviser]

I guess I should address this. Being gone from FA for about 2 years, I missed this whole debacle of changed ownership. I heard of it indirectly as I returned to FA and noticed the IMVU banner ad. But this is all strange to me since I have not processed what effects it will have. I never was invested enough to have concern for Dragoneer or his dealings, and I never spread out into FA enough to really feel completely at home there.

On the other hand, I do know of IMVU. I actively RPed on Myspace until they shut groups down. Pissed me off so badly because I was dumb enough to not save all my RP posts on there. Lost a ton of material. Looking around I found IMVU. I can't remember how exactly. Might have been an advertisement. It was years ago. I thought it neat there was a 3D chat and such, but I mainly just went on there for the Groups they had and found another decent community of RPers. Never really thought much of the chatting... was pretty boring to me and people were weird. I bought a few avatar designs and even spent some real money on the site to get an AP account. Don't ask me why. I can be impulsive sometimes. Mainly just curiosity on what was all available and could be shown.

Whatever the case, there seems to be a lot of anger at Dragoneer. He took donations from users and then sold the site? That is shitty, no doubt. And yes, I noticed that FA never really seemed to improve. I'm still uncertain about all this though. Honestly, I never gave the FA site owner(s) a second thought. He(They) was(were) nebulous to me. I heard a lot of praise and a lot of complaint, but couldn't bring myself to be anything more than disinterested and neutral.

I planned on being more active on Weasyl regardless when I came back to posting art on the community sites. Guess I might just sit on my heels for a bit involving FA though? Hmm...

I actually wish I had caught this when it was going on.