[Archived - Polystyrene] Drastic drop in sales

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 07, 2022.

Agree with all you said. Next is a mess and I have a feeling anyone who takes one of those positions is going to be more frustrated and less productive than they are on their own. I cannot imagine using mobile for any of this. I have a feeling 10 years from now we'll all be looking at the IMVU website on the wayback machine website and watching old videos from the time before it turned into a dumpster fire.

Posted by “MsPixelicious” on May 07, 2022.

what i'd give to be able to hold the proper keys here with a collection of my own meshes!? (sighhhh)

i was trained on 3d stuff called infini-D and if youre not there, front and centre in a studio keeping pace with the tech, you just wont survive!..software/firmware/hardware updates so fast!...dont think infini-D even EXISTS anymore!

but i'd always hoped to be able to atleast create SOME means of an income here with deving skills, but theres always been some 'brickwall in the way'..something that kept me just shy of an actual income..a nice tidy means of 'a top up' but never an income!

the trouble for ME with this 'residence position' is, i've got over a DECADE of material in the catalogue here and the NEXT graphics engine destroys almost ALL OF IT!

old transparencies dont work with the NEXT system!...but whoever it might serve best i've no clue...

i'm old tech with a love of tower pc's and a lovely big screen so that i can focus on the fine details...virt chatting on a MOBILE!?!?!?

...but HEY, isnt that where the cash is these days???

but here in the UK, the government has just taken a pounding over local concil elections as EVERYONE is venting against those who dont seem interested in addressing the fact that the cost of living is going to ruin everyone......who was it that said "let them eat cake!?"

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 07, 2022.

It's really sad what they've done to the creator community. I won't dump money into that other site but I'll do just enough to have a presence so I can visit with my friends and attend the events they hold. No creating though...I'll find another creative outlet for that side of me

Posted by “Vespera” on May 06, 2022.

I do know that Im about ready to close shop after 14 years.. Its getting ridiculous. And I dont want to pour any more money into another site. As much fun as I had here.. It might just be time to do something else with my time.

Posted by “shopdaisylogo” on May 06, 2022.

I co own a company in real, but in my spare time i have also put my effort into earning more by making craft items to sell, I will also start to make art canvas work. I made more in a day than i did in 3 months on imvu lol. I am very lucky to be in a situation that i can have the luxury to do this many don't and i feel so sad that its hurting them.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 06, 2022.

Hell, they could even give the resident creators a zero cost derive fee if they chose to...especially if they're creating meshes because they're the most important ones...without the meshes, there's nothing in the catalog.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 06, 2022.

I've actually gone off to play on eBay and am spending 90% of my time focusing on something where there's a chance of an income. After almost 2 years of busting my butt creating here (I was creating before but not at that level) I saw no changes in the number of credits I was pulling in. I know I make weird stuff that isn't for everyone but so do lots of others and two years is long enough for me to know it's not going to improve. So I've set my sights elsewhere and educated myself before doing so. If I put as much effort into that as I did into creating here I'll actually make money and I won't be working for someone who doesn't appreciate me

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 06, 2022.

That actually sounds like a wonderful idea! Unfortunately, there will always be those who will tread along being good little creators and keeping their prices low because they have hope things will change or that IMVU will suddenly appreciate them and they don't want to rock the boat. Until everyone wakes up and realizes IMVU hasn't ever and never will really care about the creators it's going to be this way. We are nothing more than producers for their catalog to them and if you saw one of my earlier comments that may not be the case for much longer if they hire on a bunch of resident creators. Creators who are being paid a salary won't have to mark their products up at all and could set everything to zero profit if they're getting a paycheck and their prices would be far lower than everyone elses. And sales would tank even further.

Posted by “shopdaisylogo” on May 06, 2022.

And the residence i would put this down to not many new developers understanding studio, who better to do the job but long term creators that understand studio quickly because we have been doing it for such a long time. Cheaper to pay us than to have to get staff and train them up into understanding the programme. When you have an abundance of pro developers who are now finding things hard in the pocket its a bit of a carrot. But i think lots of members are having to find outside income because of the drop in sales, i cant see them getting many i might be wrong.

Posted by “shopdaisylogo” on May 06, 2022.

Can you imagine what it would be like if we all raised our prices,...

Posted by “shopdaisylogo” on May 06, 2022.

Totally agree, i have been deving now for around 10 years, if i wasn't grandfathered in i wouldnt be deving, i am lucky i don't have to rely on this as a income, but i will always have the backs of the developers who lets face it made imvu what it is today.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 06, 2022.

Oddly enough, my older products are what seem to be selling (when I manage to get sales) and like I said since my tier dropped I've been seeing fewer promo sales which is just fine with me

Posted by “4u” on May 06, 2022.

I presume it was an algorithm change in search that happened sometime ago but has now filtered though to results.. older products got hit.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 06, 2022.

Oh and because I've stopped creating (save a couple of things here and there) I went from tier 8 to tier 2 in a month LOL! Don't really care because it seems to have slowed down the promo credit sales a bit and my sales were already in the toilet so that part hasn't changed. I stopped creating and I'm still selling the same number of items I was when I was churning out product, however few that may be.

Posted by “FemmeDraven” on May 06, 2022.

@shopdaisylogo​ The creators are the ones who really pay here. If we're not grandfathered we pay for monthly VIP for the privilege of putting items in their catalog, then we pay fees equal to more than the cost of purchasing the item when we submit that item, then we pay fees again if we submit our items as a bundle, then we pay for IMVU's advertising every time someone uses promo credits. And after all of that, we make pennies on the dollar (if we choose cash). I don't know how many of you got the message regarding IMVU hiring resident creators but it smells very fishy to me and got me wondering if the Creator program will even exist in the future. If they hire a staff of creators and pay them a salary they won't have to deal with any of us anymore, or maybe they're worried all the creators will head for the hills because of the new tiers mess and how we're being treated and they figure they'd better snag some people while they still can to keep at least a few new items coming into the catalog on the regular. I don't know what their motivation is for hiring residents but it's surely not going to benefit the current creator pool.