I guess it's mostly on the idea on what third party means in this context. When a furry thinks of "third party" they think of extra-fandom advertising. However, the words being said by IMVU, "third party" could indeed mean intra-fandom advertising.
Where it gets a bit fuzzy is that most of FA ads lead to FA. So now since IMVU owns FA, if a person is advertising their stuff for FA, it's not exactly third party but at the same time is.
I'm sure there may be business terms when it comes to this and I'm sure such practices may have had their foundations set since the dawning of the first Sears Catalog. However, one has to wrap their mind around a system where people buy ads to point to 3rd party content hosted on the 1st party site. So the advertisement would actually be "interparty". The ad gets viewership to the third-party while directing to the site of the first part and thus giving both a benefit.
Seeings as the fandom is more likely to use a central hub and not go to far outside the bounds of the areas they feel comfortable with there is certainly money to be made on the system. But as you said, the costs are probably going to go up.
Another, more unorthodox way, to garner money is to provide services/apps to the individuals who do business on FA. Tools to help with record keeping and such. Of course, with the past security issues that may be a bit too risky on the end user's part in FA. I think that's the direction the bad dragon team may be looking to go. Evolving our current personal, yet pron to fraud, business models into more official, real world, and trustworthy model where customers are held accountable for not paying what they owe, and artists are held accountable if they don't provide the product they promised to deliver.
I do appreciate the pushback on my eye rolling on the furry neologism. The thing is furry neologisms can elicit groans when done intra-fandom. As you said, the probability a furry coined "Furrific" is close to 1. But that being said, if it was coined, then why was it not adapted to the overall lexicon? Why do you not hear that word more often?
Probably because the conversation went like this:
"That's furrific!"
"Ugh... that word was awful, never use it again."
"Haha! Sorry, yeah it was pretty bad."
And then it died.
So to those that find them groan worthy when a fellow furry uses them, it can be really grating when an outsider uses them. Especially when they only reason they used them was to try to make furries comfortable that they "really understand".
But then if they "really understood" would they not know that furry neologisms are very particular, and indeed very personal things which really vary with tastes?
In the end though, at least they're trying to integrate. So I will give them that.
I do hope, in the end, IMVU is really going to get better at furry interaction. They have adopted the most used social network of the furry fandom! This is the first time in the fandom's history that the very future of one of their major social hubs is in the hands of an extra-fandom entity. It's an exciting, and very nerve racking prospect. It all falls on IMVU's ability to instill trust in the fandom, a fandom which is very untrusting of outsiders. And to make matters worse, we were introduced by a person within the fandom where the trust for their decisions is very low to begin with.
But miracles can happen. And for FA's sake it has to happen.
If not, well, the other three social sites better be emotionally and financially prepared for all the refugees they're going to have to be taking in.
And for the love of Frith, learn from FA's mistake. Create a business model that actually works, and try to avoid making it more than 50% donation based.
I guess it's mostly on the idea on what third party means in this context. When a furry thinks of "third party" they think of extra-fandom advertising. However, the words being said by IMVU, "third party" could indeed mean intra-fandom advertising.
Where it gets a bit fuzzy is that most of FA ads lead to FA. So now since IMVU owns FA, if a person is advertising their stuff for FA, it's not exactly third party but at the same time is.
I'm sure there may be business terms when it comes to this and I'm sure such practices may have had their foundations set since the dawning of the first Sears Catalog. However, one has to wrap their mind around a system where people buy ads to point to 3rd party content hosted on the 1st party site. So the advertisement would actually be "interparty". The ad gets viewership to the third-party while directing to the site of the first part and thus giving both a benefit.
Seeings as the fandom is more likely to use a central hub and not go to far outside the bounds of the areas they feel comfortable with there is certainly money to be made on the system. But as you said, the costs are probably going to go up.
Another, more unorthodox way, to garner money is to provide services/apps to the individuals who do business on FA. Tools to help with record keeping and such. Of course, with the past security issues that may be a bit too risky on the end user's part in FA. I think that's the direction the bad dragon team may be looking to go. Evolving our current personal, yet pron to fraud, business models into more official, real world, and trustworthy model where customers are held accountable for not paying what they owe, and artists are held accountable if they don't provide the product they promised to deliver.
I do appreciate the pushback on my eye rolling on the furry neologism. The thing is furry neologisms can elicit groans when done intra-fandom. As you said, the probability a furry coined "Furrific" is close to 1. But that being said, if it was coined, then why was it not adapted to the overall lexicon? Why do you not hear that word more often?
Probably because the conversation went like this:
"That's furrific!"
"Ugh... that word was awful, never use it again."
"Haha! Sorry, yeah it was pretty bad."
And then it died.
So to those that find them groan worthy when a fellow furry uses them, it can be really grating when an outsider uses them. Especially when they only reason they used them was to try to make furries comfortable that they "really understand".
But then if they "really understood" would they not know that furry neologisms are very particular, and indeed very personal things which really vary with tastes?
In the end though, at least they're trying to integrate. So I will give them that.
I do hope, in the end, IMVU is really going to get better at furry interaction. They have adopted the most used social network of the furry fandom! This is the first time in the fandom's history that the very future of one of their major social hubs is in the hands of an extra-fandom entity. It's an exciting, and very nerve racking prospect. It all falls on IMVU's ability to instill trust in the fandom, a fandom which is very untrusting of outsiders. And to make matters worse, we were introduced by a person within the fandom where the trust for their decisions is very low to begin with.
But miracles can happen. And for FA's sake it has to happen.
If not, well, the other three social sites better be emotionally and financially prepared for all the refugees they're going to have to be taking in.
And for the love of Frith, learn from FA's mistake. Create a business model that actually works, and try to avoid making it more than 50% donation based.