Looking at my bulletin block in MySpace and seeing a bunch of pornspam generated by a virus on someone’s account I can’t help thinking that MySpace is officially the Windows of social networking. It’s ugly, stupidly designed, full of obnoxious bugs and extremely popular for no good reason at all (which leads it to be targeted by hacker-assholes for their spamming purposes, which I’m sure is made easier by the abominably low coding standards used in its development.)
All that to say that if you want to interract with me online you really should just get a Facebook account. Anyone can get one and the interface is not only sensical and elegant, but actually inspires you to follow the goings on of your friends and communicate with them with various “feed” metaphors. If anything you shouldn’t join because it’s so much more fun than MySpace that you might have problems getting things done. (Not to mention the fact that they released an api for people to write other applications based on the Facebook network, like BillMonk.) Facebook is poised to become the default social network for all kinds of uses, and I won’t mind one bit.
I’ve changed the homepage of the Myspace Beautification Front to reflect the fact that Facebook meets its guidelines and demands in a way that Myspace probably never will. It feels good to be obsolete.
because, truly, what i needed was yet another social networking site i never use.
damn you.
The only good thing about MySpace is the music player.
The thing is, I’m dating a musician who actually uses the music player.
I sent her the MBF link, though. She likes things to be not-ugly, unless they’re deliberately and charmingly ugly.
You are so right, MySpace sucks terribly. “The Windows of social networking,†that’s a great way to put it. This reminded me of John Gruber’s article on why there are so many bugs and viruses and worms and what not on Windows, and none of that junk on Mac OS: http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/broken_windows
but what are those interactions with the bands anyway? I mean, you get sent a bunch of ‘special offers’ from big label bands that usually end up being scams. Smaller bands you can email but you could totally do the same with a facebook group or whatever. As soon as facebook starts giving an option for mp3s & videos and stops being so much an ‘i’m at a school’ thing. it’s all over.
“All that to say that if you want to interract with me online you really should just get a Facebook account”
you’re funny.
Right, Jer. I caved in and signed up for a Facebook.
I haven’t done much with it yet, and I doubt I will. Obviously this hasn’t taken off around the world because Melbourne only contains 46 profiles… So unless I start randomly hitting up people that look vaguely familiar through Philemon, I doubt I’m going to enjoy this.
If they’re not on bulletins, they are in myspace comments. They are definitely annoying, but hey, I use myspace to communicate with my friends who live miles and miles away from me.