No, that’s it. I’ve had enough. MySpace is rubbish on so many levels. It is a terribly designed, shoddily built application for bringing out the worst in everyone.
I joined a little over a year ago because a real-world group I had joined needed to find a way to communicate. I was underwhelmed with the application back then. I am still at a loss to understand how the entertainment industry flocked to this site, which was rife with server outages, bugs, errors, craptacular designs which were only made worse when the hackers started in. Then the schoolies came, then the toolies (too-old-for-schoolies). The media talked about it. Bands started getting cheap web hosting. Then, the ads came – in ever-more-overwhelming waves.
MySpace is an old idea, executed badly, which made some clever connections and got some good press somehow.
- I mean – for the Sake of Pete – when I log into my own home page, I’m presented with incoherent babble like ‘David is in your extended network’. Great start. I’m my own BFF.
- ‘View my friends’ status updates’, ‘You have X Friends’, ‘Change My Top Friends’, ‘Your network’ ‘Show My Friends’ – I’m getting confused – who am I? Who are you? And why can’t they decided if they’re first or second person?
- ‘Your Network: 202,973,661’ – Wait,… what?
- I have a ‘Ranking Score’ of ‘4’ based on ‘0’ votes?
Most people know crap when they see it. Don’t they?
Especially when they’re exposed to ‘how-it-should-be-done’ products like Facebook. (Facebook has its own problems, don’t get me wrong – but at least it’s a serious piece of web development, with at least an understanding of how a social network is supposed to operate.)
I’ve not had any negative experiences with MySpace. Nor any positive ones. That’s the point. It’s a nice place to visit, but I don’t want to live there.
I’m joining the exodus out of there. Farewell, MySpace.com/bonwag.
UPDATE: And no sooner had I posted, than this comes up on the wires:
No space for non-Optus Aussie mobile users
MySpace has blocked Australians from accessing the new mobile phone version of its site in order to protect its exclusive and probably lucrative partnership deal with Optus.
Well, if my leaving the site wasn’t a nail in the coffin, this certainly is. You can only afford this sort of crass arrogance if you have the goods to back it up. Like Google.
Seriously, I wouldn’t be planning any Christmas parties with MySpace.
BONWAG 