Looks like the community wins once again - which is good news for people like Sparkle who recently had a product using the word "Bitch" on it rated to Access Pass.

Senior Community Manager, Jamidiaz has retracted her statement and apologized for the misunderstanding. The word "Bitch" is indeed, a General Audience word! In fact, it has now been added to the VGP as seen here (click to view larger)

To see the full comment from Jamidiaz, check out the final post in this locked thread.

Once again, IMVU has changed their Terms Of Service - without warning. This time, they have taken the word "Bitch" off of the list of acceptable General Audience words. Check out this thread Most importantly, check out the post by Senior Community Manager Jamidiaz where she specifically states "This topic came up recently and I verified that B**** [Bitch] is considered AP."

Well la-de-da. Additionally, we now face the issue of what is really acceptable. There used to be a nice little list of words and the categories in which they fell under. The proof is in the pudding in the image below. (Click to see larger image)


Thanks to several members of the community, I have confirmed that there is now no list to be found anywhere on the website. The Virtual Goods Policy has a link suggesting it leads to what IMVU calls a place "To learn more about what IMVU considers profane" but upon clicking the link, you are lead to IMVU's crappy help center. Upon searching for information on words suitable for General Audience, you are sent right back to the VGP. *Sigh*

The real kicker? This topic is being first adressed by Sparkle (not to be confused with Sparkles) who due to a re-rating of the word "Bitch" has had to issue a significant amount of refunds. Ex Community Manager GuardianRob posted nearly a year ago HERE that Content Creators would NOT be responsible for refunds issued to buyers due to a change in the TOS. Point 11 of his post states "If the VGP should receive an addendum and it affects creators with a refund, IMVU will cover the full amount of refunds. However any product found in violation of that new rule after IMVU covers the cost, the creator will be responsible for the refund."

So now we wait. So far, IMVU is standing by their so-called new policy. I will update this post with further information as I receive it.

Whether you hate Peer Review or... wait, does anyone actually like it? Well, no matter what you think about the system, if you plan to participate, you should be doing it correctly. But it seems like there are members of the community who still don't understand what Peer Review is, what is is for or how to do it properly.

What is Peer Review?
Peer Review is a way of the IMVU community screening products before they become available for sale in the catalog. The main key is to determine if the product is rated correctly based on the Virtual Goods Policy - whether for General Audience or Access Pass users. Secondly, it is to determine the functionality of the product - meaning, does the product work?

Who Can Participate in Peer Review?
Members of the community that are aged 18 and older are asked to participate. You do not have to be a Content Creator in order to participate.

Common Misconceptions about Peer Review...
► Peer Review is NOT a tool by which to screen out copy written or trademarked products. It is only for measuring products against the Virtual Goods Policy.

► Peer Review is NOT there for you to decide what should or shouldn't belong in the catalog based on quality or your preference. In other words, you thinking a product "sucks" or "is ugly" is not the reason for you to fail it. Your job is merely to determine if the product is following the rules.

► It is NOT your job to make opinions of the Content Creator's marketing or the lack thereof. Product pages do NOT require images nor do they require a proper icon. Remember that some products are meant to be hidden items either for its creator's personal use, or for testing. Again, so long as the product follows the rules, it is to be passed. Product pages must only have a description that either describes what you are looking at whether it say it is a hidden item or "red shoes". It can really be that simple.

Please do Peer Review correctly. There seem to be a lot of people who still aren't. We're stuck with this system so doing it wrong to "prove a point" or whatever reason some have come up with, really isn't helping.