Now that we've all had time to sink our teeth into 2.0, I feel confident in making this post.

So far, this new version continues to have its ups and downs. It's great for new people - it must be what with up to 90k accounts logged into the client simultaneously at peek hours. For the good of IMVU as a company, they finally got something right. New people are attracted to IMVU and best of all, they sign up and they stay.

But while I personally enjoy 2.0 and many of the goodies it has to offer, I am a developer first and foremost - and I can more than sympathize with the rest of the developing community. I think I speak for us all when I say "This isn't working out."

Sales are at an all time low for most people, including myself. Could it be the summer slump or is it something else? - Like the new in-client catalog. The try it feature in 2.0 is extremely difficult to work with since it's impossible to change into clothes you already own and try them on within the dressing room without completely exiting that feature, redressing your avatar in the "Me" category and entering the dressing room again. That is insanely complicated. Not only is it a feature we're accustomed to having - it's a feature that new people will yearn for. This makes shopping very frustrating and I for one, eventually give up trying to shop.

In order to take proper product pictures, you have to switch back to the old client. There is no getting around it. The product shots with 2.0 look smushed, pixelated and unclear. One of the very first rules you learn as a developer is to make everything on your screen as big as you can so that when you scale it down, it looks flawless. This concept apparently has yet to be taught to IMVU who took away literal inches of space off of our computer screens with their huge, top bar within the 2.0 client.

Once again, it's survival of the fittest on IMVU. Who can take what we have to work with and use it to the best of their ability and attract customers to their catalog?

Tiers are still not updated and we've had little correspondence from IMVU. We do know that there is something wrong, something is broken and they are trying to fix it. No ETA on when tiers will be updated.

So in the mean time, I thought I'd talk about the purpose of Tiers and how it all works. It's a good a time as any and since I still see dozens of questions about Tiers weekly in the forums, it would be a topic worth covering.

What Is the Tier System?
It is the system by which IMVU acknowledges the advancement of developers within the community by "grading" them based on a select set of core and unique metrics as compared to the rest of the developer's peers. Or more clearly put, it's basically how each developer sizes up based on the entire developing community.

Every 30 days (well, it's supposed to be every 30 days), IMVU runs an automated system which takes record of certain metrics and concludes the tier level of each content creator. This information is forever changing, which is why tiers are configured on a monthly basis. And since the metrics of the content creating community changes, it is possible that your Tier score may go up or down from month to month.

There are 8 tier levels ranging from 0 to 7. In order to gain a Tier level, you need a select amount of points. The amount of points you need in order to gain a specific level is always the same. The numbers dictated by IMVU in 2008 are as follows...

0 points = Tier 0
1-3 pts. = Tier 1
4-6 pts. = Tier 2
7-9 pts. = Tier 3
10-12 pts. = Tier 4
13-15 pts. = Tier 5
16-18 pts. = Tier 6
19-21 pts. = Tier 7

There are nine metrics in which to gain points and you may only gain 0-3 points in each metric. Four are Core metrics, meaning that they are the core to being a content creator. These four metrics always count towards your tier score and are the most important. They are as follows...

► Sales (direct) The number of product sales you've had.
► Sales (derived) The number of products others have derived from yours that have sold.
► Income (credits) The number of credits you have earned.
► Income (promo credits) The number of promos that you would have earned. (you get tokens per sale instead)

The remaining five are called Unique Metrics. These are not based on your performance as a content creator, but rather on your participation within the community whether that be in Peer Review, posts in the Content Creator forums, etc. Only the top 3 metrics in this category, count towards your overall score.

► Average product rating: Average of your own product's review scores
► CC Forum posts: Number of posts you made in the CC sections of the forums.
► Peer Review activity: How many 'accurate' peer reviews you did.
► Products in the catalog: Overall quantity of products in the catalog.
► Products recently submitted: New products added to the catalog.

What do tier levels get you?
Each level has a lowered submission rate (that's cost of submitting the item, not the derivation price). This is the main "perk" of Tiers. Here are the submission costs for each tier level.

Tier 0 500cr
Tier 1 450cr
Tier 2 400cr
Tier 3 350cr
Tier 4 300cr
Tier 5 250cr
Tier 6 200cr
Tier 7 150cr

[On a side note, prior to the introduction of tiers, Pro developers (not the "pro" developers we see now, but the original Pro level accounts) were charged nothing for product submissions. Most of those developers are now Tier 6 and 7 and the new system was basically a punishment for them.]

In addition to lowered submission costs, Tier levels 5-7 get a "Pro" icon for their products. Prior to the implementation of the newest catalog to date, it was a red, top border which was the mark of the original Pro developer. The red border is still present on Pro account products when shown in the "What's New" box. But these days, we have a small, green badge that reads "Pro" about half the size of a widget badge in height.

There is one other unconfirmed perk of the Tier system - increased credit transferring and credit lock immunity. IMVU has not released what these numbers are per level. I have found it to be very hit or miss. The age of one's membership along with their tier score seem to play a factor in this. But that's a story for another day.

My personal opinion is that Tiers are nothing more than a developer tool. Do not fret over your score but rather use it to determine in what area you can improve. If your score is really important to you, then try to improve areas in which you scored low. But if your level doesn't matter to you, working to gain more Promo sales probably isn't in your best interest.

Special thanks to Keef who's wonderful website I cheated off of to find some of the hard numbers regarding to Tiers. Keef's IMVU: Tiers Explanation