Benefits of IMVU
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The majority of IMVU's users are female teenagers, which comes as no surprise given the dress-up aspect and cute, Barbie-like appearance of the avatars. Interacting with other avatars in beautiful 3-D themed settings also appeals to the sense of imaginary play, and artists love the creator program. Since you can earn credits by selling created items (and retain the intellectual property rights to items that you create), it's possible to defray a chunk of the cost.

IMVU isn't the only kid on the block, though. Sometimes it's been compared to Second Life, the virtual world launched in 2003, but the two are pretty different. Second Life is more immersive; it's aimed at adults and isn't Web-based like IMVU. Second Life also has an in-game currency and creators can sell their items. However, it's much more complex in terms of customization, going far beyond clothes and furniture to include purchasing and designing land, vehicles and buildings. The avatars are more customizable and generally look more realistic than IMVU avatars.
A closer competitor is Habbo, a Web-based virtual hotel that launched in 2001 and is aimed directly at teenagers. Like IMVU, Habbo consists of chatting or playing games using customizable avatars in public or private rooms that can also be customized. However, Habbo has a mechanism to filter out profanity, sexual references and indentifying information such as phone numbers and e-mails. It's more limited than IMVU in terms of creativity, although there's still plenty of customizing going on. Habbo offers groups, or clubs, and individual Web pages. There's an in-game currency, but no creator program. Habbo avatars have a very distinctive, cartoon look and feel.

In public beta since February 2008, Rocket On describes itself as a "parallel virtual world" added to existing communities and Web sites. Unlike traditional messaging clients, Rocket On users can use their avatars at any Web site that has embedded a specific line of code into its global header. It's essentially a Flash-based plug-in or widget. For example, logged-in Rocket On users visiting a merchant's Web site will see their avatar (as well as others) walking around, chatting and interacting (even purchasing) virtual items specific to the site. Again, it has some similarities to IMVU, but it's also quite different.

Will graphical instant messaging clients eventually overtake traditional text-based ones? It's hard to say for sure, but it seems likely that with their huge earnings potential, more IMVU competitors will continue to appear on the market.

For more articles on IMVU and related topics, see the next page.

While most IMVU users are teens, the site holds a lot of appeal for adults as well, hence the availability of the AP and mature items for sale. Internet watchdog Web sites warn, however, about the sexy appearance of some of the items that are designed for a general audience. While content creators must agree to rate such items as AP only, some choose to violate the policy. The animated, gamelike interaction might lull young teens into a false sense of security. In addition, there's nothing stopping an adult from posing as a minor and interacting with them. In February 2007, a district attorney investigator in Denver, Colo., posed as a 13-year-old girl on IMVU and ultimately arrested an adult who proposed a face-to-face meeting [source: CBS4 Denver].

IMVU's Web site contains a list of basic safety tips that apply to all online interactions, as well as specific information for parents. Ultimately it's up to parents to familiarize themselves with IMVU and discuss its use with their kids.
Creators are only allowed three threads in the catalog forum at one time.
1 shop advertising thread
1 give away thread
1 mesh advertising thread
1 request product thread

Creators can not have more than that at any one time open. If you already have a thread for advertising your shop you need to continue using that thread to advertise your shop by adding to that thread, NOT making a new one as that would be considered spam.
Should you no longer wish to use your first thread and wish to start a new one you need to first contact a forum moderator (
http://im.vu/help756
) linking them to the thread of yours you wish them to remove asking them to do so. Then once that thread is removed you can make a new one.
Please know that making any more than one thread of the same kind is considered spamming in the forum guidelines. Those doing it will end up with warnings that could easily and quickly lead to banns.
*Please note that mods are removing spam posts in order to clean up this forum.*

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Many IMVU users are content creators, creating and selling products in the IMVU catalog. Users also devoted time to customizing their individual homepages, setting up public and private rooms, creating and participating in user groups (similar to forums but personalized via the owner), and participating in the Community forums. Additionally, there are numerous user-produced third-party websites providing additional forums and resources to the IMVU community. IMVU users are also able to conduct peer review on virtual products waiting to be submitted into the IMVU catalog, with a reward of 10 promo-credits per product review. Also, IMVU has gained some small press in early 2019 when a couple 'tweeted' about their first encounter being on the site.[11]