I hate MySpace

[theredbaron47]

I absolutely hate MySpace, with the passion of 1,000 fiery suns. It's so damn creepy. You don't know who anyone is for sure. ( Yes, I know I'm generalizing. If you don't like that, feel free to bite me. ) All the stupid shit you can add onto your page. . . yeah, like I really want dancing sunflowers or whatever on my web page. I guess my main complaint with 99.9% of MySpace is:

Who Cares?

I don't care what your ":)Mood:(" is, nor do I care about which momentous song you're currently listening to. I know people, honest to God, they will spend no less than 4 hours a day --> just <-- dicking around on MySpace.

AGH!

Now, I have a Facebook page. And I must admit, Facebook has definitely gone downhill since the advent of those ridiculous "apps" or whatever they are. No, I don't want to be part of your Oregon Trail party. No, I don't want to bite a zombie / vampire / vagrant. No, I most certainly do not want to know which Sex and the City character / piece of underwear / bacterial spore I am.

I JUST WANT TO USE IT FOR THE NETWORKING TOOL IT WAS MEANT TO BE USED FOR, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!

But for all the complaints of Facebook, it doesn't have the pre-teen feeling of MySpace, though. Funny how that works.

-.-

[Boozy]

I've never used MySpace, because I've always assumed it was for teenagers. I only recently discovered that adults use it to.

I use Facebook. Its great for spreading news among all my family and friends in one full swoop. I've been able to get into back into contact with a lot of people from high school and university, and I've found a few neat volunteer opportunities. My sister received a job offer through networking with Facebook. Its a great tool.

People who ask me to be a zombie or play a dumb-ass pop culture trivia game with them are usually deleted from my friends list. Otherwise I'm inundated by stupid application requests.

I have been playing chess with an old friend of mine with their chess app, though. I'll admit, it's kind of neat.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I admit, I like it as a way to keep up with a select handful of people...a few friends, my siblings, a couple of my favorite wrestlers, etc. And I decorate just to have something to do while I'm waiting on downloads or whatever else. It's a fun timewaster to me, but I don't take it too seriously. It's mostly for when I get bored with random Wiki-surfing.

[Greenday]

Facebook is what I use. I'm a college student, it's basically a requirement. It's a good way to keep in touch with friends from home and such. All the application messages piss me off though. If I want to do one, I'll join it myself. Though if there really is one on "which bacterial spore are you", I'll find that one.

Myspace I hate. I've never heard one good thing about it. The only thing I EVER hear about it is how people now hate each other because of it, adults trick kids and those kids commit suicide, you get the idea. Myspace=drama.

[Saydrah]

I also totally hate Myspace- the layouts, the music, the "thanks for the add" messages...

...But it IS a good marketing tool.

[blas87]

I've lost interest in Myspace since all the spam. I know Tom tries as hard as he can, but people still slip through the cracks. Infected profiles send spam to everyone. It gets old. Porn bots are even more annoying.

[linguist]

Myspace I hate. I've never heard one good thing about it.

i got a job due a series of articles i posted on my blog on myspace.

and it's about the most reliable way i have of getting in touch with my brother while he's overseas.

my friend's band got signed after being discovered by an a&r rep through their myspace page.

now you've heard 3 good things.

[theredbaron47]

Facebook does all of the above while maintaining a better-looking layout and less spam, IMO. Congrats on the job and your friend's band, however.

[chops]

I had enough of MySpace, what with the ads (the interstitial ads still require you to click "Skip this Advertisement" even if you have Firefox with an ad-blocker), the spam, and the last straw for me: the pop-overs to announce new features. You may be trying to check your messages when everything grinds to a halt, the page dims, and you have to acknowledge this damned BOX sitting in the middle of your page, blocking you from doing what you need to do, before you can do anything else. That really tore it for me. Oh, and there's the way it seems to drop one's IQ by 30 points just by logging in...and the way that 3/4 of the messages seem to be written in txt spk text speak.

January 30 was International Delete Your MySpace Account Day. I took advantage of that occasion in the hopes, vain as they might have been, that my cancellation was grouped with enough others to make Tom Anderson, Rupert Murdoch, et al. notice. Probably not, but what's done is done.

/rant

[Rapscallion]

January 30 was International Delete Your MySpace Account Day.

Amazing how some people - not necessarily you - get so wound up about a free service that they form a coalition to delete accounts en masse. Simply amazing!

Rapscallion, amused

[Boozy]

MySpace is an orgy of advertising, and therefore is not free to its users. Their time and attention are worth something. Access to a decision-maker in charge of a wallet is valuable. That's why advertising is expensive.

We pay for it at the till. The cost of advertising is wrapped into the cost of the products we buy.

[chops]

Amazing how some people - not necessarily you - get so wound up about a free service that they form a coalition to delete accounts en masse. Simply amazing!

Rapscallion, amused
Well, think of it this way...while it costs us nothing out of pocket, News Corporation makes money hand over fist with their advertising. Theoretically, the fewer accounts active, the less advertising they can serve to the captive audience that is their accountholders.

As I suggested in my last post, however, I doubt that the number of people who actually did cancel their account on 1/30 would have made much of a difference to those who were counting.

[Rapscallion]

How many people don't automatically ignore adverts? I don't mean by adding in software to rid your screen of them, but more that I've got to the point where I don't even notice them any more.

I'll admit that I have bought from advertising, but only once was it for a product that wasn't a support for the website in question. I've bought a number of T-shirts from webcomics to support the artist, and because I liked the designs. I've only once bought a product from an advert, and it was one of the few adverts that made me more than flick my eyes past it.

Of course, this all amuses me when we occasionally have people who try to cause trouble on CS.com and flounce off saying that we'll never see them again. Okay, this loses us what? No advertising revenue there, and the community as a whole is often improved by losing someone who has proved that they can't adapt to the style of place we have.

Rapscallion

[Boozy]

Of course, this all amuses me when we occasionally have people who try to cause trouble on CS.com and flounce off saying that we'll never see them again. Okay, this loses us what?

The "I'll never shop here again!" threat indeed does not work with places like CS.com, which has no advertising revenue.

But that doesn't mean that MySpace shouldn't be concerned about a drop-off in accounts or user activity, because they do make profits from selling advertising space. Network television advertising is the most lucrative kind there is - and that's a service free to the consumer as well. It doesn't mean that the consumer is not or should not be powerful in their demands.

And for the record, we are ALL more affected by advertising than we'd like to think.

[Rapscallion]

because they do make profits from selling advertising space.

Sucks to be them! :D

Rapscallion

[Saydrah]

To answer your question, Raps, about 2%.

That is, how many people don't ignore adverts.

A 2% clickthrough rate is average. How many of those make a sale? That I don't know. But it's the clickthroughs that make MYSPACE money.

[DexX]

A funny presentation my brother in law made about fixing the web, with MySpace given as a specific example.

Have a look! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hghpuxCHTc)

This presentation is a three-minute "lightning talk" from a recent Linux conference in Australia, and Paul won the award for best lightning talk of the conference.

[Giggle Goose]

I originally liked Myspace better because Facebook used to not let in users that weren't in college. Even though I'm in college; I still think Facebook is just a bunch of drunk kids taking pictures of themselves and then getting in trouble when they try to go to court, which is what happened to some dumb slut at my school.

Also, Facebook was the first to start with that horrible photo tagging thing. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to untag photos of myself from some party from 3 or 4 years ago, when I was a complete 180 of myself today. It wouldn't matter, however, because it would still be my name and my face.

When it comes to sexual predators and stuff; I think MySpace is definitely worse, but it's all about personal preference and being responsible. Which is why I log into my Facebook maybe once a month. Not like it really matters since they both suck equally these days.

[chops]

How many people don't automatically ignore adverts? I don't mean by adding in software to rid your screen of them, but more that I've got to the point where I don't even notice them any more.
MySpace specializes in the types of ads that are difficult to ignore. The brightly colored, flashing ads, the interstitials that you have to click past or watch to their conclusion (in one form or another, you're forced to acknowledge the ad's presence). I think I've seen that annoying talking smiley ad there once (the one that yells at you when you mouse over any part of the ad). Firefox + adblock is an absolute must to make the site anywhere near bearable.

[MadMike]

I've had a Myspace page for just over 2 years now. I had no intention of getting one originally, but a lot of my friends have one, and it's a good way to keep in touch. And I've gotten back in touch with a few friends that I lost touch with ages ago.

As far as the ads, I have a utility that loads all sorts of bad sites into the "restricted zone" on IE, so I don't even see a lot of them. Although I do see it scream and bitch quite often when it tries to display said ads. :D

As far as the spambots, they added some settings not too long ago where you have to enter the text from one of those images that spambots have trouble reading, and that's helped a lot. I used to get several of them a day. Now I've gotten a total of two in the last six months or so.

[SportinGoods]

I created a myspace page about a month ago, not for personal glory really, more to keep in touch with my boss, and most of the employee's and managers I work with. Apparently they all have myspace pages. However my myspace page is pretty much as so:

Likes: Cake, Punch and Pie.
Music: Deathmetal to the randy stylings of Dio.

Thats pretty much it, I haven't uploaded the stereotypical emo photo, because in truth the only images of me that exist on the intranet are on a guild page for the game I play, and both are pretty conservative pictures of me.

As a girl on the internet I have learned two things.
1>Never admit to being a girl unless you are face to face (or on vent, though in this case you can claim to have a voice modulator.) with someone and 2> Never, EVER post pictures of yourself in compromising clothing, or situations.

Dr. Phil had a show about girls from Facebook, and I can't say I've seen that degree of stupidity or naiveness from any girls I ever knew. But a lot of it was "I'm 17 and I regret nothing I've posted on-line" (This was in response to several half nude photgraphs, and pictures of the girl drinking. I loved Dr.Phils' response "Of course you don't regret it now, your 17!"

That being said, I wouldn't be engaged if it weren't for the internet, so I can see how things like myspace would be a good "networking" tool, though 90% of the relationships that form there are under false pretenses. I've been lucky enough to have had visits, and made plans with my fiance. :)

[CancelMyService]

I have no issues with Myspace as a service, just that 99% of the Myspace pages I've seen are eye-stabbingly ugly. The typical page reminds me of the web circa 1999 when people were finding out about things like java and blinking text, but hadn't found moderation yet.

[myswtghst]

I have no real problem with MySpace, and use it on a regular basis. It's a massive section of the users I have a problem with. You post massive amounts of worthless bulletins? Off my friends list. Does your profile take 25 minutes to load and play a ridiculous song at earsplitting volume? Not visiting your profile. Ever. I don't even notice the ads anymore, and I usually just mute the computer speakers entirely when I'm on MySpace, so I don't have to listen to ads/music. *shrugs*

I have found it to be a good tool to keep in touch with friends, both from college and just those who've moved away. Plus, both Facebook and MySpace are fun when I'm bored at work all day long in front of the computer in between calls! I just lay down the rules - if you're pestering me more than we're having actual interaction, I'll delete you off my friends list. Send me something innapropriate? I'll block you. End of story.

[MadMike]

You post massive amounts of worthless bulletins? Off my friends list.

Forgot all about that one. I dropped this one guy because he kept posting the same old Ron Paul bulletins over and over again. I have no issues with RP himself, although I don't think he has a snowball's chance of winning, but some of his supporters are a bit overzealous.

I didn't mind the occasional bulletin, but when I get flooded with many of them at once, including several duplicates, that I have to go thru pages and pages to see if anyone posted any actual content, that's when I have a problem.

[powerboy]

I have no problem with Myspace. It allows me to connect with my old friends from high school. Also with a few wrestlers and fellow ghost hunters. Pretty much my whole ghost hunting group is on myspace. The woman I am talking too now, I have reconnected with her on myspace. I only log into myspace about 2 times a day

[Giggle Goose]

I figured I would open this thread back up because I'm getting kind of sick of the whole Myspace/Facebook thing.

Not to sound rude, but is there an age where having one of these accounts becomes creepy? My aunt just added me on Facebook, which is fine. She's 45 and married without children, and decided to add her 15+ nieces and nephews, including me.

Then she goes and posts this picture from some fundraiser at a bar last summer. My mom is in it posing with this guy that's probably half her age! And it was not just a friendly "hey how are ya" kind of picture. I told her about it and she said: "I knowwww, I made him pose in the picture with me, isn't he cute?"

She's not married and it's her life, but.....ew.

[blas87]

I don't mean to sound rude....but Myspace is how that creepy maintenance guy found me....now he's like 40, and his only friends on Myspace are a couple of coworkers (men in their 20s or early 30s) and then porn bots or models (and you know they'll take any friends they can get!) 18-24......so yes, sometimes after a certain age it's creepy if you're doing that...

[Boozy]

Not to sound rude, but is there an age where having one of these accounts becomes creepy?

Depends on what they do with it.

My grandmother has a Facebook account that my cousins convinced her to get so that she could see up-to-date pictures of her great-grandchildren, keep in touch about birthday parties and family events. It has made everything a lot easier with our family spread over half-a-dozen cities.

But then, no one in my family posts anything racy on our accounts. I think your aunt's problem is not with Facebook, but with understanding social protocol in general.

[Kaylyn]

You post massive amounts of worthless bulletins? Off my friends list.

Ugh, my nephew's wife posted repeated anti-Barrack Obama bulletins. The thing slung mud all over him, then said, "Here's a link to Snopes, which verifies everything said here." I, being more intelligent than the average Myspace user, actually *gasp* checked out the link. In bright red letters it said FALSE! So, thinking there was a chance I could enlighten my friends and possibly get the correct info passed along, reposted the same bulletin, but with a disclaimer at the very top, stating that though (at the time) I didn't like the guy, I didn't think it was fair for people to spread false rumors. If you don't like him, don't vote for him, but please base your opinion of him on the truth rather than lies.

Then my nephew posted MY bulletin, but DELETED my disclaimer. :mad: I know it was mine he reposted because of some typographical error that was a result of my addendum to the message.

The whole thing blew up, and I decided that, you know, I'm not super close to his wife, so I'll just delete her from my friends list, and if I need to get in touch with her for some reason I have her phone number or I can go through my nephew. I deleted her, and you would have thought I'd killed her cat and forced her to eat it on toast or something...

So I added her back, because I forgot that some people's lives REVOLVE around myspace, and to deny them a spot on some stupid electronic friends list is to deny them any sort of friendship EVER (dear Lord, how did people become friends before Myspace?). And since I use Firefox, I found a plugin from greasemonkey that actually blacklists bulletins from annoying users. You can still click and view them if you're feeling masochistic, but they're not in your face, tempting you to click on them. Very useful for friends that you want to keep but can't stand a thousand bulletins a day about "What kind of lover are you" or "I'm a paranoid monkey who likes to do it on a George Foreman grill" or something like that.

[BlaqueKatt]

I have both a myspace acct, and a facebook acct-(and even one on the myspace clone-zombie friends :D )-not on any of them very much really-but I have them due to some people perpetually losing my phone number/email address-and it gets annoying having to give it to them repeatedly-(even though my cell phone number is easily found if you happen to know where to look and my full name-no I'm not saying where-but one of my ex-boyfriends posted it somewhere to prove a point)-so that's pretty much all I have them for-I actually went through a few weeks ago and deleted 90% of the crap on my myspace page(it's blank and unformatted)-and went from over 100 "friends" to around 25-mass deletions are fun.

[Slytovhand]

My thoughts on this matter (not that it's worth much, TBH) is...

It can be a good, convenient way to keep in touch with people on what you are doing, what you are like, etc.. esp if they aren't in your local vicinity (but don't ever let it replace personal direct contact...I've ditched 1 person from my life, because all I get is invites to their page..but no actual email from her...<sigh>). This can lead to meeting new people...for better or worse.

Also - if you are an up and coming artist, it's a great way to get your stuff out to the broader public..cool! (although - there is some crap...<sigh II>

And lastly, it can be a good way to put out to the world at large some thoughts etc that would otherwise go completely un-noticed in the world (or would be better in a book...if ever it could get published and read....)

For me, I've got a myspace page. It is completely anonymous, and it falls into the last category.

Unfortunately... I've seen a lot of pages that don't fall into any of the above which isn't much different to graffers tagging a fence, building or train...nothing particularly worth looking at, and all it says is "I've been here" (please... yes, I know there are some really good artists out there who don't have a break, but don't say that 3 letters on my white fence is really cool...<sigh III>)