Fur Affinity and IMVU

[RainRat]

So Fur Affinity got bought by IMVU.

Official announcement: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6588324/
Additional Q&A: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6592316/ http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6606934/

Flayrah article: https://www.flayrah.com/6017/imvu-buys-fur-affinity-furry-fans-respond

So what are your thoughts? How will it affect you?

[Shiro]

I'm hoping dragoneer's decision was for the best.

[Drake Wingfire]

My thoughts.... Well, I guess its been a while since the last "OMFG!!! FA is going to hell in a hand basket and this is the end of the fandom as we know it, jump ship and return to FA in 2 weeks guys!!!1111!" psuedo-issue drama. I think its a lot of typical over-reacting and paranoia that we have all seen at least a dozen times by now...  so I will just be sitting around waiting till the same swarms of reactionary furs return with sheepish looks of embarrassment upon their faces when this thing doesn't end the world like they are making it out to be. Just as they have for about the 5th or 6th time since I've been around FA. Its pretty typical...

I will still be there, cause well.... I do art for arts sake and my own enjoyment, Funny that eh?... I just find it truly silly how some of the biggest fuss makers are the ones who don't really even do much art at all or even upload all that much. So with everything being said, see ya'll on the other side, and hey. If there existed a "frequent drama lama" card just for FA alone... I am sure a few thousand people would be eligible for a free sundae right about now.

[FurryJackman]

I personally think selling out means they will eventually lose control to corporate powers. Notice how all the recent announcements sound like corporate PR instead of a down to earth personal message? The only goal IMVU would have out of FA is to earn it more money.

They will find out sooner rather than later that FA makes no money, instead it bleeds money. Infrastructure improvements ONLY would have been nice, but by basically selling the entire site, nothing's guaranteed anymore. When the bookkeeping is done at the end of the day, if someone in financial sees a segment of a company failing to produce profit, they'll do WHATEVER THEY CAN to try to make a profit out of it. This includes adding the frequently mentioned shady third-party ad suppliers which have been linked to malware on the main IMVU site.

As much as 'Neer thinks he'll retain control even though he sold the entirety of FA to IMVU, the fact is: He doesn't. In the current position, he is now an employee of the larger company and the higher ups can always veto his decisions meaning malicious ads/pop-ups could be dropped in without him knowing.

Locally, there were 2 people that proposed to buy out FA from 'Neer with a reasonable offer and structured with a Board of Directors, but he still refused likely cause he didn't want to give up control, lying about his reasons later on.

I'm moving on to Weasyl and Inkbunny. I'll make a SoFurry when my suit is complete for more site diversity. Anything I post to FA will intentionally be low-resolution cause this is quite literally the last straw.

'Neer promised transparency, yet went off the record to sign a NDA with this deal. You may think this will blow over, but when (not if) IMVU starts doing what IT wants to the site, the train will fully derail.

No longer will they handle individual cases of trouble, like how obviously stolen art showed up in premium avatar content on the main IMVU site and how the company by-line was to use the "Standard Flagging procedure" instead of helping individual artists by directly removing offending submissions.

[carvore]

I'm sitting back with the popcorn waiting for this to blow up in Neers face lmfao

[Sasha]

Skylar told me about this last week while sipping tea at Void/Chris' shop, I hadn't heard of IMVU for the better part of a decade as an alternative messenger with avatars - I'm guessing seeing no ads or exposure in that time, perhaps they hired some marketing wanks or wanted to do some strange angel investing to bring the site some internal regulation (never goes as well as corporations think) and plus some form of exclusive rights to some artwork? I'd watch out for their upload policy changes just for kicks!

I can picture wanky things they might do - i.e. create puppet accounts in IMVU of every FA user with their avatar on FA as their display picture, or charge FA users xyz dollars to create a 3D avatar of their fursona (I've never used IMVU before so I've no clue how it works however) among other things.

Sasha~

[Ashley_Joy]

The instant IMVU starts charging fees on FA is the instant things actually derail. But honestly, I don't know how else they could possibly make money off of the site. Considering the equipment and logistics required for the kind of activity and content that FA holds, and that the vast majority of money is made in private transactions, it's likely IMVU, being a corporation of profit-making mind, will try to get a cut of the profits. I see no other possible way they can make a profit. Not to mention, donations will very likely plummet. Unsavory as he was, Dragoneer was still a person, as was the rest of the staff. IMVU is made of over 120 staff and has an annual revenue of over $55 million. Not exactly pull-at-your-heartstrings/grassroots material.

Frankly, I think it's just a matter of time until IMVU starts charging FA users fees for what used to be free, and considering there are other sites that offer better and more features without fees, it actually has a good chance of killing the site.

[Drake Wingfire]

The instant IMVU starts charging fees on FA is the instant things actually derail. But honestly, I don't know how else they could possibly make money off of the site. Considering the equipment and logistics required for the kind of activity and content that FA holds, and that the vast majority of money is made in private transactions, it's likely IMVU, being a corporation of profit-making mind, will try to get a cut of the profits. I see no other possible way they can make a profit. Not to mention, donations will very likely plummet. Unsavory as he was, Dragoneer was still a person, as was the rest of the staff. IMVU is made of over 120 staff and has an annual revenue of over $55 million. Not exactly pull-at-your-heartstrings/grassroots material.

Frankly, I think it's just a matter of time until IMVU starts charging FA users fees for what used to be free, and considering there are other sites that offer better and more features without fees, it actually has a good chance of killing the site.

Well, in that kind of scenario, if IMVU decided "hey user base, give us money!" FA would die because why in the hell would anyone pay for a service that is also free at no less than 5 other similar web-sights? Its not even gonna make it to the whole "furries are cheap and/or poor" argument. It would fall flat and die a horrible death on the "why buy the cow when the milk is free" argument... But maybe you are right, after all, stupider things do happen in this world. XD

Though most of the fear I have been seeing is more about ads and adware sorts of garbage (as well as art theft worries)... which in the end is gonna still kill things off in this new era of shit-media bombardment that not anyone actually cares for, people got huge variety these days after all, so the first smell of even the slightest off thing can trigger a jump-ship reaction. I don't really buy as heavily into the grass roots description of the fandom in many regards. Maybe if this was still the 90s or early 2000s era of the fandom then it would tug a little harder on the heart strings. But these days, the fandom is getting pretty big and commercialized in many respects and the fact that something like this happened can almost be reduced down to just a mile-stone of what many in the fandom had been pushing for since day one. Mainstream acceptance and being know, perhaps now with not quite the same payoffs people had in mind.

[Ashley_Joy]

Ads? What ads? xD
Seriously, who doesn't use adblock nowadays?

Ugh, don't get me started about those kinds of furries. It's just a freakin hobby. Also capitalism, well, capitalizes, on absolutely everything and anything it can, so I'm not quite sure it's a milestone for furries or a milestone for commercialization. Seriously though, I still don't understand how IMVU thinks they can make a profit out of this.

[Pharaoh]

<----uses imvu for any furries who use it add me XD


and the fact of the matter is that imvu does not do something internet related unless its going to make them some kind of income flow, even their earn free creds charges some fees XD lmfao

he shoulda sold it to trapa or someone who would of loved to keep it in the fandom and someone who isnt money hungry XD

*continues to eat his kale salad*   o3o

[Shiro]

Drake raises a good point. I'd like to hope that this deal will provide - if not fully than at least more than it is now - mainstream acceptance.

My fingers arent crossed, my hopes arent raised, the bar is set low. Impress us, dragoneer.

[willow]

Hey i use imvu don't see much wrong with it its just like a more open chat and just another place to show our creativity. :birdy:

[zenia]

Ads? What ads? xD
Seriously, who doesn't use adblock nowadays?

I like seeing the user-made "check out my art and maybe commission me!" ads. I've found a few people and commissioned them because of them... but I don't like other ads.

[Ashley_Joy]

I like seeing the user-made "check out my art and maybe commission me!" ads. I've found a few people and commissioned them because of them... but I don't like other ads.

Same, FA is one of the few places I turn off adblock

[Neox]

Consider this: FA hasn't changed much since it was created. Other furry websites have popped up or revamped themselves with great UI changes and new features, but we've all been groaning at FA staff since it's... well... it looks like it was built on Windows 95. When comparing FA to other art galleries, it's like comparing a stock $200 Acer laptop bought from Best Buy to a $2000 custom assembled gaming rig with liquid cooling and 4 SSD's in RAID 0. People are freaking out at support tickets that they've submitted over a year ago that haven't even been opened. Donation drives happened frequently and nothing seemed to be getting done.

What I'm trying to say is: it really couldn't get much worse.

Now that IMVU has taken over the business side of it, FA staff should (<---operative word) have more time to focus on taking care of the actual website and its users, instead of worrying about whether or not they'll make the next monthly payment to keep the domain alive. I'm hoping that the staff will acknowledge the opportunity this presents and begin work on improving the website and hammering out support tickets.

Switching to a different gallery is difficult. It requires building your fanbase almost from scratch. Weasyl has been around for a few years and SoFurry even longer, but convincing all your followers to divert their attention to another gallery is slow, and not everyone is willing to manage several galleries.

I'm hoping this is a step forward for FA.