Ok. I'm seeing a lot of people panicking and running around helter skelter over this IMVU thing. I'd like to ask everybody to just take a deep breath and calm down a little.

First of all, let me say I'm aware of many of the problems the site has had in the past and currently has as well. I'm not looking at this with FA fanboy or hater blinders, but rather as a well informed, thinking adult with plenty of experience in the business world and elsewhere.

In regards to the two major complaints I'm seeing.

1. Lack of transparancy.
I don't see this as a big deal. It is customary business practice to put an embargo on information about a deal or merger until every detail is ironed out and finalized. Misinformation during negotiations can be a major deal breaker and can the whole thing. A lack of transparancy in this situation would be if you suddenly looked down and saw "owned by IMVU" in the bottom legal type at the bottom of the page with no public announcement.

2. The "redistribution" clause.
This is a little more disturbing until you realize it's there for the protection of the owners of the site. Without this type of clause, you could sue the company (and win) for them putting your art on the front page or sharing your work in a site search, or even allowing Google to crawl the site and return your pic as part of an outside search. It's standard legalese for any art posting site. They're not going to sell your work or pics to some outside provider. At most, they might use a screen cap of the site with a thumbnail of your pic in an advertisement. All in all, it's not something to panic over.

This is not to say I don't have some concerns.

The Terms of Service will be retroactive, which means you automatically agree to any changes to the TOS if you already agreed in the past, so they could potentially screw things up that way. I also worry that the AUP may change. Not that I'd mind seeing a little less porn on here, but on a personal level I know that babyfurs and diaper pics are often frowned upon and often discriminated against. I hope that the tolerance levels currently in place remain.

I'm also concerned about FA taking donations while these negotiations were under way. That seems a little fishy to me.

Tl;dr

Don't panic yet. The inclusion of a large lucrative partner to FA could have many benefits that far outweigh any potential negatives. As of right now, we simply don't know how things are going to pan out. Just be cautious, keep an eye on things and an open mind.

Slàinte! Brock