IMVULite - Safety or functionality?

DataMine
by DataMine · 10 posts
2 years ago in Mafia News
Poll

Do you want IMVULite to be safe at all costs or slightly risky with more features

Safe at all costs! 68%
68%
Semi Risky with warnings placed in the IMVULite thread. 32%
32%
Features over safety, I take full responsibility for my account. No votes
Posted 2 years ago · Author
For those who aren't aware, we had to take IMVULite down again recently due to an issue that was discovered that could lead to a ban.

Basically, it was brought to our attention and then verified by us that if you create mode in a specific way you would immediately be banned if you were not using a creator account.

As of yet we have not been able to figure out the exact cause. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why a this use case gets you banned or how the client is even detecting that you've done it.

This leaves us facing a dilemma. Do we keep IMVULite down until we can solve this issue, which may not happens for a long time, or do we simply disable create mode for non creators?

In order to answer this question, we need to know what you, the community, prefer. Do you value a safe client even if it means removing features you guys like or would you rather a client that is relatively safe but can still cause bans if used in certain ways as long a warning is provided (on the forums)?

We prefer to find ways to make our clients safe without removing features but there's only so much you can do and eventually it just turns into a cat and mouse game with IMVU. Keep in mind, we receive very little compensation for our time and effort we put into the clients. IMVULite is free, T3DE is a one time payment and the Deep Client is subsidized by BM sales.

We also have lots of other projects we want to work on and real lives to live so we can only devote a limited amount of time to staring at the client code and trying random things.

All that said, please leave us your thoughts, opinions and other feedback by replying below and voting in the poll.
Posted 2 years ago
I think an interesting way to solve this pool would be to have multiple IMVULite versions,one which is safe and another one that is risky(Warnings about the features that might trigger bans would be a nice to have also), another reason why I'm suggesting this is that there are different uses that a person can have with each client.
For example: A safer client would be for persons that want to use it as a main client to play
The risky client would be for persons that want to use a alternate account, but taking advantage of more features.

But if I had to choose, I would definitely prefer more security, not only is this a personal preference, I think that there are more people that want to use their main account on the client then a alternate one.
Posted 2 years ago
first, thanks for all your hard work on this!!

i would prefer a safe client with fewer features. if we need a creator account to use create mode, so be it.

mindful of the work your team is putting into this, if it would be easier to have a relatively safe client, with warnings on the forum that certain operations are known to cause bans, that would be good too. either "safe" or "relatively safe" would mos def be better than unsafe or unavailable.
Posted 2 years ago · Author
@Tenente

Supporting multiple clients is very time consuming. A basic update where we don't introduce any new features or have to rewrite/fix a feature can take a good 3 hours. Anything more can take days or longer depending on what needs done. And that is will custom scripts/tools I've made to automate parts of it and a strict build order that allows us to re use IMVULite for the other clients with minimal changes.

On top of actually updating the client a lot work goes into keeping all the files (records, source code, notes, etc) that are involved organized. If any of that goes wrong, bugs may occur that at best lead to missing/malfunctioning features and at worse allow users or our competitors to bypass our security.

All that aside, my biggest concern with having 2 versions of IMVULite is the fact that the majority of users will ignore or not read the warning. We used to place a warning on IMVULite instead of taking it down and numerous people still complained about getting banned. Some even took it as far as sending us nasty messages and threatening legal action.


@blueDay

Appreciate it! It depends on the status of the client. Having less features makes the client easier and quicker to update. However if the client is already out then putting a warning up is easier and quicker than updating the client and removing a feature.


So far based on the feedback I've gotten, it seems most people would rather a safe client than a feature rich client. I expected it to me more evenly split between safety and functionality. But it does seem like everyone agrees that they want the client to stay available no matter which choice we make.
Posted 2 years ago
@DataMine


Yeah, I assumed that it would be a lot of work to maintain 2 versions of it, thats why I still gave my input on security or features. Sorry to hear that there are people sending you nasty messages, just don't worry about it and keep up with the good work :)
Posted 2 years ago
Hello everyone, I was reading the topic of imvu lite, a suggestion in this regard, it would not be better among all of us, to look for a solution, been reviewing the imvu client since I banned the accounts for using creator mode, I discovered it is not only for using the creator mode but for using The suspicions for taking photos in the store in a few words imvu has already registered all the functions of imvu lite here only to and from one is to be a new imvulite my answer is because I do not share the imvu source code among all look for a solution according to what I was studying the imvu client is created in python I think I have decompiled all the vinary files to understandable code I think I saw that data nine has how much in github and the code would be shared we would all work to improve imvu lite

-- Tue Nov 02, 2021 4:44 am --

another series that imvu works locally without connecting to imvu that would be the solution for those who want to learn to create

-- Tue Nov 02, 2021 4:56 am --

v370.0 if I remember correctly, in versions later than this, all the files were loaded directly in the imvu client from this version onwards imvu began to put everything on their servers to use creator mode without risks, it would work in one of those versions load the files as if they were a mod of and give birth to create what we want without internet connection is a theory that has not yet been proven
Posted 2 years ago
The features were lovely, yet if you followed the help thread over the time, people either don't read warnings, threads or are missing the oversight to use the software in a safe way.
Lite is also meant to keep us safe from imvu's greedy way of overstepping their data collection privileges, so it's better to be clean of bannable features until we find a better solution, still better than keeping the link down for everyone.
Imvu without imvu mafias products has become redundant a lot of time ago, so it's best to have at least this.
Posted 2 years ago
@DataMine
I think a safe client would be my choice as well….imvulite started this way….to protect our account from imvu….anyway we are given the option of using the creator mode with a creator avi…vip or grandfather. So i think this would be best rather than having imvulite down for a long period of time

We really thank you DM for all your hard work…..we know and understand your situation. You always think of what is best for us…..And you get nothing in return but instead complains. Thank you for your hard work….we appreciate you all. Looking forward for imvulite update.
Posted 1 year ago
It's a really good client but we can never be totally safe but admins try to do their job better whenever i need to.
Posted 1 year ago
This really is very good thank this community

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