

IMVU is 3d avatar chat; it’s also a pride-inducing piece of software engineering. - Hates_
http://www.egometry.com/tech/imvu-is-3d-avatar-chat-its-also-a-pride-inducing-piece-of-software-engineering/

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gruseom
Belittling other people's achievements is obnoxious enough. But the _way_
Atwood chose to belittle them -- "I’d be too embarrassed to blog about it,
frankly" -- is a piece of genuine douchebaggery. Of all the people to fling
claims about software blog embarrassment, you'd think the king of mediocrity
in the field would pick something else. Except he wouldn't, because mediocrity
is smug.

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axod
Twitter is fashionable, IMVU is not, Twitter doesn't have a business model,
IMVU does.

It's a shame some people choose to follow fashion rather than logic.

~~~
potatolicious
Most of my non-techy peers do not know what Twitter is (seriously, it's just
not very big up here in the Great White North), whereas _everyone_ has seen
the IMVU ads...

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fallentimes
The twitter exchange reads like a giant Tech Crunch comment. IMVU is making
over $1 million per month [1].

While I wouldn't ever use IMVU, hundreds of thousands of other people do. How
many people have created something where they can say that (even if Jeff can
with Stackoverflow)? Though I am surprised that they're not profitable.

[1] [http://gigaom.com/2008/06/24/fresh-look-at-imvu-mini-mmo-
wit...](http://gigaom.com/2008/06/24/fresh-look-at-imvu-mini-mmo-with-big-
numbers/)

~~~
electromagnetic
They have an amazing rating from the Better Business Bureau, which is quite
surprising for an online product, I mean it's probably better than most chain
stores.

The reason I think IMVU isn't profitable is likely because they have such a
high monthly usership and such a comparatively low revenue. I mean for 600,000
monthly viewers (not even repeat views) a blog would bring in amazing profits
for relatively low bandwidth usage. However IMVU has high bandwidth usage
simply due to its nature, yet it only brings in $1 mil a month.

I mean adsense can bring in like $1 easy for 1,000 views, that's easy $600 for
600,000 views. If people are constantly using it, like they do IM's, even just
a daily visit from each would be near $20,000 with 100% front page visits from
1 small banner.

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pclark
who is Jeff Atwood and who is he to decide what is and isn't an
accomplishment?

~~~
Xichekolas
Well... he _did_ make Stack Overflow... which, you know, cured Cancer and AIDS
on the day it was made public, and has a strategic lead on solving World
Hunger.

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anotherjesse
"@prestemon I'd have more respect for IMVU if it was a porn site. At least
that's honest."

    
    
      http://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/1211577601
    

I'm looking forward to their worthyness badge that Jeff will be giving users
of stackoverflow.

------
Andys
I know I wouldn't enjoy working on something like IMVU because it seems so
childish. I also probably wouldn't waste my time making a deployment system or
unit testing it.

I might joke about it in person over a beer, which is perhaps the analog
equivalent of a casual tweet.

The funny thing is that this is coming from Jeff Atwood, who blogs with pride
on his use of MS and .NET technology. In the circles I mix with that is not
something to be proud about or admit publically!

~~~
axod
I would really enjoy working on IMVU. It looks like there are some really
interesting software problems to solve, and it's making real money.

Working somewhere like twitter would be horrible. They've gone the whole "hype
it up into its own bubble" route.

I guess if you don't like working on things that are used by kids, then that's
up to you.

Look at <http://www.neopets.com> also - hugely successful. When you see kids
using these things it's pretty cool.

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unalone
As much as I think Jeff Atwood is a clueless writer, he's got a point. IMVU is
childish (not to mention really, really ancient), and it provides essentially
nothing. "Providing value" to me means "make something that other people can
use to improve themselves" - IMVU isn't doing that. At best, it's
entertainment, and low-brow entertainment at that.

~~~
ChaitanyaSai
And what do you mean by improve? Does a Doctor provide value if she extends
life. What if that life is devoted to endless silly pursuits like chatting on
IMVU. Or commenting here? :)

Value is subjective. If someone pays for what you are doing, you are providing
them value. You do not have to worry about the others. Yes, there are probably
some behaviors that might lead society towards the brink and you could say
that these should be negatively valued, but then who decides whether that
society must be forced away from the brink.

Low-brow entertainment is valuable in someone's world.

~~~
patio11
I have always admired Tom Clancy's response on whether he considers himself
literature:

"I entertain people. It is an honest occupation."

