Get MORE With Digital Dish Advertisement

Now you can get even MORE exposure with Digital Dish advertisement! Not only is your ad featured on this website as well as the Digital Dish IMVU home page, but you could find your advertisement on my new product pages Like This One!

Talk about serious exposure. Your mere 5,000 credit/per month can have you riding on the coat tails of a Pro developer. Get tons of new traffic for cheap. This website alone gets hundreds of unique hits daily. Imagine how many people could be seeing your banner on this page alone!

A reminder of what you need to do in order to take out ad space:

• Make a 180x180 image [must be GA compliant and suitable for those with photo sensitivity]
• E-mail your banner, avatar name and linked banner to IMVUDigitalDish@gmail.com to express interest
• Once your ad is confirmed, send 5,000 credits x However many months you'd like to run the ad to DigitalDish

It's really that simple! Every 90 seconds (or upon page refresh), the banner rotates for ultimate and fair exposure!

New Forum Rules

I'm still in the process of reading these New Forum Rules. Honestly, I have no idea what has changed. Perhaps some of you can comment and shed some light on it for me.

Differences I do see:

• Thread "bump" changed to 10 hour intervals [or maybe it was always 10 hours and we've just been pretending it was 6?]

• I'm pretty sure in some ways, this rule applies to Digital-Dish.com [I don't think IMVU is real happy with my site anyways.]

Offsite Linking
Any offsite link must adhere to our Terms of Service.
The following forms of links are prohibited:
- Links to commercial sites
- Direct links to competitor sites
- Links to phishing or other malicious sites
- Links to any content that is considered Access Pass or Unfit for IMVU
- Any links to pornographic or hate sites. Any instances of this type of linking may result in a permanent ban from the forums and may also include disablement of your IMVU Account.

• Pretty sure this one is new as well:

Requests for Charitable Donations
As per IMVU’s Terms of Service, requests for charitable donations are not permitted. Donation requests that benefit federally recognized 501.c3 organizations are the exception. If you feel your cause in support of a 501.c3 org should be considered, please send your request to communityteam@imvu.com for pre-approval.

So what do you all think? Anything I missed?

Avatars Gone Wild

I've been mulling it over in my head and I just HAVE to talk about this.

There is a new AP bundle called Avatars Gone Wild by Hot4Krissy and GothPoser. It's pretty much exactly what the majority of you are thinking - an IMVU version of Girls Gone Wild. I have no issues with the bundle itself. I'm sure it's great. But the marketing gets a HUGE thumbs down from me.

Do you see what I see?


In case you don't get the clue, the avatar lifting her shirt to expose her e-breasts for the world to see, is wearing a wedding ring. Which leads me to my next question(s)...

1. Who did the marketing for this bundle?
2. What mastermind wore a wedding ring for the picture?
3. Does this turn you off from buying the bundle?

Don't get me wrong... It's likely the fault of IMVU. It usually is come to think of it. Most creators don't get much, if any control over the pictures and marketing. But whoever is to blame... know that I find this is very poor taste.

Name Registration Cost Goes Way Up

Let's cut the red tape on this one, shall we? It now costs $19.99 to remove the "Guest_" from your name. Ridiculous? You bet it is. We saw the cost of the Name Change Token (NCT) go up last month from $6.00 to $12.99!

Here is a list of the current prices:

Name Registration: $19.99
Name Change Token: $12.99
Age Verification: $15.99
VIP Club: $6.99 / per month.

I should mention that the VIP club costs 99 cents for first time VIP club registrants and it includes the name registration. So even if you aren't eligible for the 99 cent special, it's still a heck of a lot cheaper to get the VIP for one month and then cancel your subscription. Of course now that I'm said that, IMVU will undoubtedly change it.

Get in on a discussion about this HERE or feel free to leave a comment on this blog.

IMVU Introduces Friends Tab in 2.0

IMVU finally introduces the Friends Tab in version 417.12 which you can download here. Unfortunately, for someone like me with 871 friends, this tab looks mighty messy.

They haven't done away with the regular "Buddies list" of all just yet, but according to IMVU Staffer and Engineer N8Downs, "All the engineers are definitely itching to get rid of the separate friends window, but there's still some functionality that needs to be migrated to the new UI (e.g. settings) before we can throw that old code away. As you've observed, friends mode is a big step towards that, and you can expect to see more steps in that direction soon."

One of the functions of this new tab allows us to see what Public Rooms our friends are in. I foresee a lot of people screaming for the option to not use this new "feature". While I for one, don't really care that people know I'm in a Public Chat room, I do have an issue with it being so easy for them to locate me and come in. Let's face it - I love y'all, but I don't always want to be found and bombarded with developing questions. It's all very different from scrolling through the list of Public Rooms and having that little icon that said "One of your buddies is in here" and being able to look at the list of people there.

You can view the list in different ways - whether it be all of your friends or just those online. You can also see a sort of grid view which includes the pictures and a little information regarding that friend, or a more simplified list view. So seek out these options in 417.12 you need to click the small gear icon at the upper right in the friends tab section.

Unfortunately (yes, more negative stuff) the ability to switch back and forth between IMVU 2.0 and the UI of old will soon vanish as the old "buddies list" is done away with. There go my nice catalog images.

Of course a picture is completely necessary. My apologies to the people on my buddies list. It wouldn't look right if I blurred you all out. For the sake of giving you all the real idea of what it looks like, I chose to display only the friends currently online. (Click to make larger)

No News is Bad News!

Things around IMVU seem pretty quiet right now. That makes for a boring day at the office for me! So just a friendly reminder that if you have anything to share - news, gossip, etc that pertains to IMVU, you can e-mail me at IMVUDigitalDish@gmail.com with your tidbit.

More people seem to be getting into Twitter and I'm enjoying seeing all of your daily tweets about your life and your new products! But please remember that if you want the daily twitterings that bring you the dare I say awesome news you get here, you will have to follow IMVUDigitalDish and not my personal Twitter account. (You can follow that one too, but unless you like knowing that I'm twittering and peeing at the same time or what I'm having for dinner, don't bother haha)

In other Digital-Dish news, we have had some great sponsors this month. You can see them in the featured section. Be sure to check out those sponsors and their links! And remember, it's only 5,000 credits per month for ad space of your own. That's less than $3.00 and it reserves your spot on THREE different pages (and soon, my product pages as well). That's a HUGE steal!

Let's Get Naked!

Recently, the Access Pass version of the Daily Outfit Challenge went public. If you're interested in checking it out, you can click here if you have an AP. Edit: Apparently I'm totally wrong! Oops. Well, we're all human. I was told that the AP version went public and since I can see it when I otherwise couldn't, I assumed that to be correct. Sorry y'all! In order to see the AP Daily Outfit Challenge, you have to Join This Group!

The AP version of the DOC is still relatively new and few people in comparison to its General Audience counterpart, participate in the contest. I've been checking it out the last few days. The themes seem decent enough - mostly repeats of past themes from the traditional DOC.

Quite frankly, it seems like people are using it as a reason to get naked and take pictures. It's like looking at fancy, internet pixel porn with pretty colors and whimsical backgrounds. I looked through at least ten of the themes and in each one, I found at least 5 people who were either topless or completely naked. Is this really necessary!? What on earth does a Steampunk challenge have to do with your naked behinds? What would possess someone to expose their e-breasts in lieu of such a theme? I don't understand it.

Is the AP Outfit Challenge still so new that people are just eager to literally bare all for no other reason than because they can? Silly me thought when the AP version was introduced "Finally! I can use all of those totally perfect outfits that I couldn't use in the GA contest due to a few red pixels showing." Getting naked never even crossed my mind.

Switching gears, I'm beginning to wonder if the AP DOC is IMVU's ploy to find some UFI (Unfit For IMVU) content. With themes like All Tied Up and Botched Surgery, I can't help but raise that question... and an eyebrow.

Opportunity Knocks

A couple of days ago, I was invited to a new group (yeah.. shocking *end sarcasm*). But I joined it because it sounds rather promising (and I just love adding to my now 100+ list of groups).

The group is called Oppotunity Knocks and it is moderated by Harley1979. It's not exactly IMVU oriented. it's a group for discussion about opportunities to earn money online outside of our virtual world by using media outlets such as CafePress, Zazzle, DeviantArt, Second Life and more. It's made with a simple philosophy in mind "Don't put all your pixel eggs in one virtual basket."

It's this blogger's opinion that with this horrible economy we are in, using IMVU as an income is becoming more and more impossible. It seems every week between the economy and changes in the catalog, we're all making less money these days. Credit resellers are having a hard time selling credits, so they are having a hard time buying from developers. Sales are at an all time low for most.

I recommend this group. I think it can be beneficial for all of us to look at the world (both real and not) around us and explore other opportunities.

New Ads In Blog

I hated to do it, but I had to monetize the Digital Dish blog. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but the blog sadly has yet to pay for itself. It costs money for the domain name and for the hosting space used by several elements of this site. So in hopes of gaining a little more revenue, I have placed relevant Google Ads within the side bar and bottom of the page.

If you'd like to help me financially run this site, purchasing ad space is a great way to go for very little money. With an average of 100+ unique hits daily, it's the perfect way to increase your own traffic - especially since the ad space is shown on my IMVU home page as well as the Digital Dish homepage. The price is 5,000 credits for a month of ad space. That's less than $3.00!

You can also help by clicking the Donate button in the right-hand column. It leads directly to PayPal. Every bit helps and your contribution is definitely appreciated!

Again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you all understand. Hopefully in time, I'll be able to remove the ads completely.

IMVU Seeks New DOC Mods

This is a rare, public announcement. IMVU is actually seeking new moderators for the Daily Outfit Challenge. IMVU is typically very hush hush when it needs new people to moderate and it's interesting (to me anyways) that they are being so open about it. Heck, they even gave us a real e-mail to contact!

If you are interested in becoming a moderator, you must meet the following requirements and complete the following tasks:

Have previously participated in the DOC
Been a member of the community for at least six months
You must e-mail your real name, avatar name and real age to the following address
communityteam@imvu.com

IMVU Introduces Movie Series and Tab

Such an odd topic to see (in my opinion anyways). IMVU is introducing their own movie series called "Private". It's a 10 week web series about "Easton, an exclusive private boarding school in Connecticut, where having the brains and the money to get in doesn’t necessarily mean you have what it takes to survive…."

You can get a sneak peek of the casting call for this series . It's basically a preview to the actual series that includes interviews with the three finalists chosen to compete for the role of Kiran Hayes. It looks like you can earn 10 credits per episode you watch. Well golly gee.

It appears that in lieu of this new series, IMVU has given us a movie tab within the 2.0 client. This is great for the IMVU users who make their own videos. I know there are some people who make quite a few of them. The tab exists when you download 416.12. Here is a picture of the tab so far.
Is any this really neccesary for the client? In my opinion - no. Why can't we all just go to YouTube to watch these? I understand that the IMVU videos are at least related to our virtual world, but what on earth does this series about rich kids in Connecticut have to do with us? Oh IMVU, you never cease to amaze and confuse.

Ripway.com Users Beware

Last night, something happened to me that changed my entire perspective on the internet. All of my most important online accounts, including my PayPal account, were hacked by one individual - seemingly in a matter of minutes. By the time the person was done, they had the following:

Three personal e-mail accounts
AIM Messenger
My hosting space
Ripway.com account
PayPal
MySpace
One IMVU account

Some of the above is serious and some of it isn't. The most serious part is that I like to think I choose good passwords. I use lots of letters and numbers and even capitalization. I make them unique and hard to guess. But even that didn't save me from one person taking over my entire life last night.

I found out I was being hacked when AIM sent me a message, telling me I was logged in at two different locations. Suddenly, people on my list that I wasn't even talking to began messaging me. I wrote a mass message to my list to tell them I had been hacked. The guy hacking me, used my own AIM account to message me and began telling me that I needed better passwords and told me everything he hacked.

I started changing my passwords - starting with my AIM account. I opened my e-mail to find multiple messages for password retrievals that I didn't ask for - all of them opened. That is how I knew he'd gotten to everything. Not only did he have my main, personal e-mail account, but the use of that account lead him to other accounts associated with me. And since I was using two e-mail accounts interchangeably, it was only too easy for him to use one against the other. Whatever password he couldn't find, he could just ask that it be sent to my e-mail and he had it.

He gained a lot of my personal information - including my full name, address and home telephone number from the account section of my hosting space as held by the company I host with. He was able to read correspondence between myself and family as well as my attorney - very personal and confidential messages.

After he was done hacking into my accounts (or so he said he was) he began talking to me, telling me exactly how he did it. He started with my Ripway.com account. While this topic is important to the IMVU community (and anyone really), I think it's even more important because so many of you use Ripway.com as a free hosting site for your badges and your home page.

According to my hacker, he first landed on me by hacking into the root folders of Ripway. There he was able to find credit card information as well as the logins and passwords of everyone who has purchased space from Ripway. He took my password and the e-mail address associated with the account and put two and two together. He used one account to gain access to the next going back and forth through my entire online life. If he had continued, he would have ended up in my Bank Account. He already had control over my PayPal assets.

Fortunately, I was lucky and the guy was, I dare say... nice about it. He left me alone after that and I changed every password to every account I own. I spent hours last night making crazy new e-mails and dividing up everything. I learned a very valuable lesson last night and I felt it was important to share.

An Update on IMVUPay.com

Remember last year when the drama surrounding the registered reseller "IMVUPay" occured? For those of you who aren't familiar with this, I'll do my best to quickly explain.

IMVUPay.com was a sort of IMVU credit stock market which fluctuated. You could watch the market, buy and sell credits directly into the system and use the market to gain the most from your credit sales or use it to get the best purchase deal. It was a great idea that flopped horribly when suddenly people found themselves paying for a service they weren't being provided with. At this point, it is estimated that IMVUPay owes members of the IMVU comminity hundreds of thousands in dollars for credits sold and purchased credits never received.

It's a locked thread and just under a year old, but if you need a refresher on this topic, you can check it out Here in the forums.

My interest in this topic was revived today when the question rose in the CCGen forums "Any IMVUPay News?" Well I had long since given up on there being any, but a little research and with the help of the community, I landed on some significant pieces of information.

For starters, it looks like IMVUPay.com no longer exists. They closed their doors and left the following message:

"NEWS!! PLEASE READ!
We regret to inform our wonderful members that IMVUPay will be shutting down. Things have been extremely hard pressed on our small team to keep this site functioning with little to no budget and we would like to personally apologize to our users for any misunderstandings and/or inadequate service you have received.

We do have some exciting news for you though: IMVUPay has been purchased! We have been told that they will be incorporating our clients to their new website, which is very user-friendly, and all the old accounts will be reconciled. We hope this will help to clear up any issues we may have had in the past. Thank you for all of your loyalty to us, we hope you will show the same level of energy to the new management.

Best Wishes,
Phil + Chad
PS: Please remember to keep checking here for updates."

Too bad whoever supposedly purchased IMVUPay, missed the memo because its clients are still without payment. No one's accounts have been incorporated anywhere and hundreds of people are still filing complaints with the BBB and Paypal in hopes of getting their money. Some people are owed several thousand dollars.

Here are ex-IMVUPay customer's stories about their run-around dealings with the company:
Report: #418069 @ RipOffReport.com
Report: #437766 @ RipOffReport.com

The most disturbing news? IMVUPay's Exium has been allowed to re-register as a Credit Reseller under the name IMVU Credits Express or IMVUCE. Exium (Phil) was the creator of IMVUPay while the above signed "Chad" did the coding. for it.

It's my understanding that Phil first denied his involvement with this new company, but was caught and has since told the truth. UPDATE: Exium wrote a message to me today basically to tell me that he never denied involvement with his new company. He was not ready to unveil it when his files and folders were found and people began to call him out. Fair enough sir. Several members of the community are suspicious that "ex-partner" Chad may still be working with him. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I cannot believe IMVU allowed a person involved in such fraud to not only continue as a member of the community, but has allowed them the chance to defraud us again. That is a slap in the face of the people still waiting to get paid and and a big middle finger to the community.

All The World's a Twitter

Twitter is quickly growing in popularity and giving social networks like MySpace and Facebook a run for their money. Twitter asks the simple question of its users "What are you doing?" and it's amazing that such a simple question has an unlimited amount of answers.

How does this apply to IMVU? Well for starters, it seems every day I run across another member of our community who has a Twitter account. Even IMVU Inc. has one and they use it to update us on important news from new client releases to Daily Outfit Contest themes. It's come to my attention what a great marketing opportunity this is both for each content creator personally, as well as the entire IMVU community.

Each person I find uses Twitter a bit differently. Me for example, I have a more personal twitter account in which I update friends and family of quite literally what I'm doing at any given moment of the day. Sometimes I throw in some IMVU related "tweets" but it's mostly your every day stuff. But others have taken their Twitter accounts to a more business type level. Developers like Pop, NickyRat, Ashantaey and DarkAngel5 use their accounts to do announcements of new products, freebie giveaways and more. And this marketing idea seems to be working well for them.

I think it's important that the community work together in support of our virtual world. It's become apparently that IMVU Inc. cannot sustain our life here themselves and I believe it is up to us to do our share. With that in mind, I want to share a few Twitter marketing tips!

1. When announcing new products, be sure to leave a link in your "tweet" about the product. Always use a URL shortener so that you can fit as many characters as possible. For Twitter, I like to use http://bit.ly for its Twitter integration. It allows you to see how many times the link has been clicked on.

2. Don't just spam your followers with product information. Communicate with them. Read their "tweets" and respond to them. Make them feel like you care about them, and they will care more about what you are posting.

3. Play games with your followers and offer products from your catalog as a prize.

4. When possible, include the tag #imvu in your "tweets". Together, we can make #imvu a Trending Topic, thus getting our virtual world some attention!

IMVU and the BBB?

Stumbled across some interesting gossip today while checking out an ad IMVU has running called Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. I misclicked and I ended up on the purchase page to find IMVU claiming to be an Accredited Business of the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

I then remembered about a year ago seeing a discussion about contacting the BBB about IMVU's shady dealings with their company. The BBB website had many open claims in reference to IMVU that were quite negative. So how on earth could it be that IMVU managed to become an accredited business?

I checked the BBB website and there is no listing for IMVU or IMVU Inc. anywhere upon searching for it in the "I" section. However, a little research landed me on a page that references IMVU as an accredited business since October 2008 as seen here. I find this funny considering the page specifically states "This company has been accredited since 10/01/2008 and we are satisfied that it honors its commitment. The company has agreed to uphold our accreditation standards, which include a commitment to act in accordance with ethical business practices and to respond to customer complaints."

I'm sure many of us would agree that IMVU has not upheld the standards of the BBB and most certainly does not "act in accordance with ethical business practices". I find interesting that the BBB chose to rate IMVU Inc. an "A+". For what? Because it most certainly wasn't effort. Even more interesting are the horribly negative reviews by real customers on the site and yet, the BBB gives IMVU Inc. an "A+". That's laugable at best.

I hope that you all use the linkes provided wisely. *wink*