Argh

By JoCo May 3, 2006

I’m sorry for bringing this up again, and no offense to the people who use it, but can we please start the MySpace backlash now? Can we do the thing where some new thing comes along and everybody decides that it’s cooler and better and moves over to it? I keep my profile there only because everybody tells me it’s important to have a profile there, but man, I am this close to ditching it. This is the year 2006, there’s no reason you should have to get a cup of coffee while you’re waiting for some bullshit ad to load so you can see your freaking email.

And if it’s such a great tool for musicians, why the hell can’t I email all my “friends” who live in NYC to tell them when I’m playing? And sweet Jesus, can you guys buy some more servers or something? We’re dying out here. I know, you’re growing very fast, I don’t care. Get. It. Together. Hopefully now that News Corp owns it, a bunch of clueless executives will start squeezing money out of it until the whole thing goes to hell.

Comments

S says

Agreed. But I'm glad you're on it.

Dakiwiboid says

Gosh, what happened to your feed? I wanted to add it, and FeedBurner said it's not there?

Patrick says

My school has recently exploded with anti-myspace feelings from the parents and teachers. They are worried about the amount of information that's put out, and the fights that seem to originate online and cause trouble once they reach school. I personally agree, way too much info for minors is put out and
the website as a whole needs some modifications.

Oh, and a few of your songs were featured in a podcast I listen to.
Link: http://www.freakinfunnymusic.com/
Direct link to mp3 for anyone too lazy to click twice: http://themadmusicarchive.com/audio/JakeWaters/FreakinFunnyMusic-37.mp3
Your songs are about seven and a half minutes in.

jpez says

I have steadfastly refused to get a MySpace for over a year now. I think it's time MySpace went away. Perhaps a song would rally folks around the cause?

Steve says

Agreed. Wholeheartedly. The only thing I've found that it's good for so far is for me to find *new* bands that I didn't know about before. But even then, after I find them, I'll just google them and get the hell off of myspace.

BadServo says

I personally detest MySpace as well...it's very unreliable, and not terribly user-friendly. There are also aspects of the system used for posting blogs that make it frustrating if not impossible to post what I want.

I have historically always used LiveJournal, and find it a fair alternative with much of the same features, at least enough features to suit my purposes, but as you say "everyone" is on MySpace now. So I go through the extra hoops to replicate my blog there as well. On the bright side, I suppose double the coverage is nice if you want hits... but what frustrates me most, is that with all the "MySpace-Mania" alot of people are migrating to it exclusively, which means that in order to get news about some of the bands that I always read about on LJ, I now have to go through a slow and agonizing login process and go through all sorts of pointless crap messages and posts and then isolate the blogs I actually want to read.

I'll be glad when the Baptists or whatever extermist group it is this week decides that MySpace is making kids evil with it's rock music or whatever and kills it. ^_^

Completely unrelated, but I saw a link to this site:

http://www.jamendo.com/us/

It seems terrible similar to what JC has goign on here, except it's a central site for lots of musicians. You might consider posting a few songs there as well... can only help to generate traffic and perhaps more donations.

Jason C. says

FIGHT THE MASSES JONATHAN!!!!

MySpace is for emos anyway. Plus you were on The Daily Show, and you have fans who pass on your great music.

Sleep Addict says

I've been on MySpace since late 2004, and don't have any of the issues you seem to. First, there's a section on every band page where you can keep your show list. I like that people have to go to the band's page to find show dates... if I wanna know when a band plays, I'll find it myself. Last thing I need is more messages that potentially don't interest me sent to MyMail... slow login? I'm on a cable modem and I can stand waiting, maybe, 5 seconds...

And the main insult people throw at you when you tell them you're on MySpace is that you're a "myspace scene whore" ... I'm sorry. But a site with nearly half a million regular users isn't "scene" and more to the point, your space is what you make of it. You decide your friends, and your info, and your blogs... I've made MySpace into something quite PERFECT for myself. If it doesn't suit you, JC, quit using it. But don't call for the end times of a website I get nothing but joy out of. That's silly.

Much Love & Still a Fan,
Charles

James Garrett says

I agree wholeheartedly! Down with MySpace!

Glenn says

I hate MySpace, and I've never even used it, except to befriend you and Urbaniak.

The media blitz against MySpace has begun, but not because it sucks, simply because teens do typical teen stuff there instead of everywhere else.

Eric Ginsberg says

Yeah, word, mine is awesome. Never slow problems. Once in a while there's a hang up (like once every few months). And you CAN e-mail all of your friends in NYC. Here's how:

Events -> create an event -> invite friends -> sort by location -> plug in x miles from ABC zip code -> select all -> send

You suck, I rule,
Eric

Jason C. says

Eric...I think thats the first MySpace profile ive seen that one can actually read.

matt says

MySpace = Plague upon the Internets.

JoCo says

Eric - sure, but then I have to click the invite button once for every person that comes up on that list. Also, when I just went to MySpace to verify this, Firefox crashed.

Who sucks now?

MR Scsi says

Maybe its wrong to do it this way, but I use firefox and have an extension loaded called 'adblock plus'. supports wild card blocking of entire sites. Useful to dump entire banner providers.

Most 'my space' pages/profiles load in normal web times.

Eric Ginsberg says

No, sir, it is YOU that sucks! I can't help the fact that firefox sucks.

There's a "select all" button at the top of each list of 10-20 friends from within x miles of a zip code. True, it's easier to have an e-mail filter that takes care of that for you, but with a bazillion e-mails each day, who has the time to read them all? With a myspace invitation, members get a notification, and when they click on it, they see your face (not, "who's e-mail address is this? who was this guy again?" It's "I'd know that red beard anywhere! It's JoCo!") Like any interface, there are ups and downs. However, it has a certain personal element that mass e-mails do not, and therefore generates better results, statisticly (myspace's inability to spam makes each notice received that much more special, sorry if it means you can't spam people and wind up losing half the e-mails to spam filters).

As far as legiability goes, there are idiots who put up stupid backgrounds that make their type illegiable. That means that THEY suck, not myspace. Hell, you could do that with your own .com, and that doesn't mean that the internet sucks, does it? No, it just means that YOU suck (not you like you, but you like them).

Blow me,
Eric

P.S. I'll be on my JoColess road trip starting tomorrow (Miami to NJ in 4 days, just me, my guitar, and the road...and a car, of course), so I won't be near a computer when Thing-A-Week comes out. Could you do me a favor and RSS it directly to my brain? That'd be great. Thanks.

Max says

Yep. Word.

Sometimes I think the whole Intarweb just pastes itself all over whatever site sucks the most. :-)

It would at least be better if (a) it didn't crash my Firefox (b) it worked more than half the time and (c) it didn't take a geological era to open a page.

-Max

Eric Ginsberg says

You know where this is going to go? It's going to go where JoCo eventually says, "I'm sorry I said that myspace sucks...I was a doubter just like you...Everyone has a homepage. But if you don’t have a homepage you can build one there."

Lisa says

MySpace is fucking terrible just a mess. Sorry MySpacers
I sign in for a account so I could see some stuff but now I stay away from MySpace links, just a memory hog on you browser and that FUCKING mp3 player starting ARGGGGG

With Love
Lisa

jcfan says

myspace does suck. why? because I said so. I pretty much decide everything.

I'm not a member of myspace. And it peeves me when I go to someone's myspace page, and I click to look at something, and it says I have to join. I'm already staring at the stupid banner ads that no one clicks on, why must I join just to look at Eric's videos?

oh, woe is myspace -

good for nothin', bad in bed,
nobody likes you, and you're better off dead.
goodbye. goodbye.
we've all come to say goodbye.

(I was at a phantompalooza on the weekend, sad Paul Williams sing, in case you're wondering who I quoted).

Lauren says

I have always hated MySpace. The layout isn't very navigatable. Which might not be a word. Plus it's full of creepy old men trolling for hot teen lovin. *shudder*

I'll stick to LiveJournal. 'Cuz it... is awesome :)

Oh, and my Mormon friends want you to know they think "I'm a Mormon Now" is hilarious.

*heart*

Lars nCompany says

I guess I'll give my two cents.

I got an account around October (the time you were asking for e-friends) and have been using it off and on (more of the former) since. Personally, I don't have a huge problem with the system itself. Except for the setup that allows for a popularity contest-type atmosphere and the occasional crappy coding, it's rather tolerable. I'd have to say that it is quite fun to see how school mates try to portray themselves on the internet (though I will admit we're coming from two different worlds on that). I do agree that people's layouts can really suck (hay guys, I can make a clock made out of letters follow your mouse!!!1), but that's what happens when you attract a bunch of people with no sense of layout to the internet for the first time (geocities was a lot like that). If the people who make those sites lose MySpace, they'd just do it at the next big fad.

As for the future of MySpace, I'm guessing it's going in the direction of AIM. It's way too user-oriented to just be another fad. People (especially teens) don't go there primarily for the features, but their friends. To go back to the previous analogy, that's why AIM (a mediocre chat system) is still the dominant chat system, everyone and their brother has a screen name.

Glenn says

Coulton, speaks, people listen.

Hey, there's a song about Mormons now?

Glenn says

Why is AIM a mediocre chat system? I has all the features I need of a chat system (text messaging), and doesn't have the drawbacks of some others (it stores friends lists online and it's not provided by Microsoft).

James says

If you'd like a social networking feature that's cleaner and more streamlined than MySpace, I'd suggest checking out Orkut, which is Google's take on the subject. I believe you only need a Google account in order to use Orkut, and while I haven't used it very much yet (been busy finishing up college), Google tends to attach its name to pretty cool stuff. Anyway, figured I'd throw that out.

joy says

did anyone read the article in the new york times recently about marketing on myspace...there are corporations with plans to have you list their products as 'friends' and then blast you with video ads. ugh.

plus also the stalkers and childmolesters. ain't noone getting killed off of friendster.

can i get three snaps in a circle please?

Rebel says

Myspace, Xanga, and Livejournal all suck. Facebook owns everything. Granted, you can't be a part of it if you aren't in college or in high school, but if you are lucky enough to be a student, it's just amazing.

webjones says

CodeMonkey say MySpace suck.

jpez says

@Rebel: I beg to differ in regards to the Livejournal comment. Livejournal is an excellent service; I have used it for over 3 years and it has always been stable, easy to use, and generally a good blogging site. The problem with Livejournal is the people who use it are a little...emotionally unstable. Fortunately, LJ gives these people only limited ability to make your site experience as devastating as MySpace because you are allowed to customize how your friends page looks. I use my LJ strictly for non-whiny and usually non-personal purposes, and all is good.

Slythfox says

I totally agree with you, Jonathan. My first impression of MySpace was I thought it was one of those parked domain names with lots of random links... And after I learned what it really was, I thought it was a very stupid site because it's so pathetic.

I recently took on my Code Monkey persona and coded a website called the Quate "Newsnet" (ever read "Ender's Game"?), which is a website for submitting all sorts sort of written material. The site takes on a more mature aspect of MySpace or ChatZilla (I had that site so much... and it's not even used for quizzes!)

Radek says

Soooo...whats with all the JoCo flaming, especially from one Eric....look if you don't like the music and or don't like what JC is doing and have some constructive criticism than fine, but don't just post on the site to be an ass. As Mark Twain once said. It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. You my friend have just removed all doubt.

Prestron says

I think most of the people here would like to read this Wired Mag. article.

Please read and disseminate: http://wired.com/news/columns/0,70717-0.html

I have a myspace account as well, and like any other utilitarian object it can be used appropriately or inappropriately. Let's just remember that in the end... it's only myspace.

Rebel says

@jpez
Meh. Well to each his own. I tried using LJ, but I found it annoying and frustrating.

I suppose the reason I like Facebook over all of those other sites is that Facebook doesn't give you and opportunity to 'blog' all your whiny thoughts about how much your life sucks. Also, it's pretty uncustomizable, so there's never a visual assault.

And while I realize that there are plenty of Myspace, LJ, and Xanga users who DON'T use their blog to whine about their lives, the fact still remains that far too many do...for my taste, that is.

spi says

I have a myspace site but I don't use the site much at all. I find it way to slow and annoying. There are better places to network and find new music.

Eric says

Radek, take a joke. JoCo gets it, I'm sure. But seriously, his issues are isolated. Like any interface, you can't please all the people all the time (and, last night, all those people were at my show).

Lumpy says

LOL I don't use it and don't care for it due to similar reason.

The myspacers and those with similar sites have been ripping my bandwidth at lumpyscorner.com apperently they liked to use on of my photos of strawberries as a background. The result was a 6000K+ use of my bandwidth in just this month. I figured I would just replace it with a photo that better showed them the real me.

The result was this little prank --> http://gnimsh.candjsolutions.com/?p=1124

I hope they have a sense of humor there were 5 using that photo alone.