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That was unexpected!
10 years ago
I tried out IVMU a long time ago and wasn't impressed. Granted, I don't think it is fair to compare one product, a chat-room virtual world, with an art site and expect any kind of honest hint at what the future of either will be considering FA's surprise sale. I think a big part of people's fear is how crappy the IMVU platform is. Despite that, just like FA and its outdated interface, the company has managed to exist for a long time when others counted them out.
One of the perpetual problems of our existence is how to stay in communication with one another and not lose touch. The internet has helped tremendously keeping people together no matter where they are in the world. But as a site like FA shows, once it gets so big and changed, it creates a lot of problems for people worried about what to do when the community is suddenly faced with the possibility for change. At any time, any site we love and rely upon can be sold or deleted altogether, leaving no trace behind except whatever we managed to save to our own hard drives.
It is the harsh reality of our imperfect world, and this is why I have been more receptive to cross-platform accounts on various furry sites more and more. I would do it if I had much to contribute. :)
I remember when Yerf was really big and suddenly went down. The owners there also didn't take the proper precautions to safeguard their site and the community that developed around it. It put an enormous dent in my ability to find good anthro art. I don't think that FA is going to go anywhere, not as long as everything remains free. And really, free sites like Flickr and Facebook and Google do sell your information, and they make a lot of money doing so. That's why it's "free." Their true cost is hidden in the background. For the user, the benefit is that they are able to stay in touch with a large number of people, consistently.
IMVU likely wants the percentage of ad revenue that the site generates, and they are right about IMVU having a large furry community. The two groups do have a lot of crossover and if 1,000 furs from this site join IMVU and start spending money in their in-world economy, IMVU would see the benefit pay off immediately. The real question is going to be how independent FA's TOS will remain. It could also be that IMVU is just tired of all the furs on their site posting things that are more appropriate for FA's more liberal rules, but they still want to maintain those users within their community. Linden Lab has a habit of embracing their users and then pushing them away, only to embrace them again depending on which CEO is in charge that year, so I don't think Linden Lab would be a proper fit. Really, FA should have found a way to sustain itself and maintain its independence. Independence is the greatest value of all, but it also isn't free.
In order to maintain the vitality of the fandom, though, we need more than one site. People should create online or in-person meet ups that are offered consistently and cross-platform to encourage people to find each other across any platform. That is one reason I think the Skype meetups offered by the Valley furs are so unique. I'm not sure I'd ever participate myself, but it's cool to have that option out there and it's a pretty creative use of technology to draw people together.
At the end of the day, FA is pretty weird. IMVU is pretty weird. I guess their offspring are going to be pretty weird, too. :P
One of the perpetual problems of our existence is how to stay in communication with one another and not lose touch. The internet has helped tremendously keeping people together no matter where they are in the world. But as a site like FA shows, once it gets so big and changed, it creates a lot of problems for people worried about what to do when the community is suddenly faced with the possibility for change. At any time, any site we love and rely upon can be sold or deleted altogether, leaving no trace behind except whatever we managed to save to our own hard drives.
It is the harsh reality of our imperfect world, and this is why I have been more receptive to cross-platform accounts on various furry sites more and more. I would do it if I had much to contribute. :)
I remember when Yerf was really big and suddenly went down. The owners there also didn't take the proper precautions to safeguard their site and the community that developed around it. It put an enormous dent in my ability to find good anthro art. I don't think that FA is going to go anywhere, not as long as everything remains free. And really, free sites like Flickr and Facebook and Google do sell your information, and they make a lot of money doing so. That's why it's "free." Their true cost is hidden in the background. For the user, the benefit is that they are able to stay in touch with a large number of people, consistently.
IMVU likely wants the percentage of ad revenue that the site generates, and they are right about IMVU having a large furry community. The two groups do have a lot of crossover and if 1,000 furs from this site join IMVU and start spending money in their in-world economy, IMVU would see the benefit pay off immediately. The real question is going to be how independent FA's TOS will remain. It could also be that IMVU is just tired of all the furs on their site posting things that are more appropriate for FA's more liberal rules, but they still want to maintain those users within their community. Linden Lab has a habit of embracing their users and then pushing them away, only to embrace them again depending on which CEO is in charge that year, so I don't think Linden Lab would be a proper fit. Really, FA should have found a way to sustain itself and maintain its independence. Independence is the greatest value of all, but it also isn't free.
In order to maintain the vitality of the fandom, though, we need more than one site. People should create online or in-person meet ups that are offered consistently and cross-platform to encourage people to find each other across any platform. That is one reason I think the Skype meetups offered by the Valley furs are so unique. I'm not sure I'd ever participate myself, but it's cool to have that option out there and it's a pretty creative use of technology to draw people together.
At the end of the day, FA is pretty weird. IMVU is pretty weird. I guess their offspring are going to be pretty weird, too. :P
