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I HATE MYSPACE.
Sep. 21st, 2007 09:12 amOkay, in the past, people have asked me to join MySpace. And I never did. You want to know why? Because I'd seen enough of MySpace from other people that I had no interest in wading through that kind of website. There are too many spammers. Too many random creepy people friending you for no reason. Too many ads and graphics. But people kept asking me to join.
Well, I'm going to be attending Wrockstock, a Wizard Rock weekend out in Missouri, and their primary communication page is on MySpace. So, I activated an account to keep up with the news.
Within one day of activating my account, I've had multiple people request to "friend" me who are just trying to pedal CHEAP PORNOGRAPHY and DATING SERVICES. There's NOTHING in my profile to indicate an interest in porn (I know, that surprises some of you. *wink*), and I certainly don't need a dating service. And there are people trying to friend me who are pushing wierd money-making schemes. More CRAP. Just random people who have nothing to do with Harry Potter or Wrockstock. Random spammers searching for random targets. It SUCKS.
And then, there are advertisements. EVERYWHERE. And even when there are no actual advertisements, most people's pages I've seen are so jumbled and cluttered that they look like cheap billboards. They're hard to read. There's an excess of graphics. And if I click on someone's page, I have at least a 50% chance of having random sound clips starting automatically. I'm sorry to anyone who has an automatically-playing sound-clip on their MySpace page, but... HOLY FUCK it's annoying! REALLY. Even if I like your taste in music, or if you have something interesting/amusing to say, I don't necessarily want to have to rush to hit "STOP" every time I click on your page so that my ears don't get assaulted.
Then, my biggest pet peeve on the interwebz... every time you post on MySpace, if you've got your Age, Sex, and Location in your profile, that information is posted RIGHT THERE, alongside your icon. To me, there's nothing more CRUDE or CHEAP than starting an internet conversation with "ASL?" To me, this is one step worse. I hate that. I really hate that. But if I don't have my "ASL" listed, people wonder if I'm being secretive or if I'm hiding something. Oh, and people seem WAY too free with their real information on there. On one discussion thread, I saw a flood of people giving their real names, ages, and locations... on a thread that ANYONE could access. It was very disconcerting.
It's a whole different etiquette over there, compared to LJ. Netspeak seems far more acceptable there, and I hate netspeak. (No, not everyone I've encountered on MySpace uses netspeak - some of them are very well-spoken - but enough of them do, and it grates on me.) People don't respect privacy in the same way we do here on LJ... including their own privacy. Possibly the greatest taboo we have on LJ is the use of a person's real name, if that name has been obscured. Even when I've gone to HP conventions, we use each other's screen names. People call me "Mijan", or even "Harry" when I'm in costume. But with VERY few exceptions, nobody uses my real name. Even the people who know it, even my fiancee... they don't use my real name in fandom situations.
So, to my friends who use MySpace... I'm glad you like it. Maybe it works for you. And just because you use MySpace doesn't mean I don't like YOU. It just means that I'm highly unlikely to visit you on that site. It's the nature of the website that I hate. I'm using it ONLY for Wrockstock, to talk to other Wrockstock attendees before the weekend, and to access information for a few music groups. Please don't ask me to friend you there, because there's really no point. Please don't ask me to add pictures, or suggest that I join any MySpace communities. It's not going to happen.
I'm going to stick to my LJ.
*sigh*
Well, I'm going to be attending Wrockstock, a Wizard Rock weekend out in Missouri, and their primary communication page is on MySpace. So, I activated an account to keep up with the news.
Within one day of activating my account, I've had multiple people request to "friend" me who are just trying to pedal CHEAP PORNOGRAPHY and DATING SERVICES. There's NOTHING in my profile to indicate an interest in porn (I know, that surprises some of you. *wink*), and I certainly don't need a dating service. And there are people trying to friend me who are pushing wierd money-making schemes. More CRAP. Just random people who have nothing to do with Harry Potter or Wrockstock. Random spammers searching for random targets. It SUCKS.
And then, there are advertisements. EVERYWHERE. And even when there are no actual advertisements, most people's pages I've seen are so jumbled and cluttered that they look like cheap billboards. They're hard to read. There's an excess of graphics. And if I click on someone's page, I have at least a 50% chance of having random sound clips starting automatically. I'm sorry to anyone who has an automatically-playing sound-clip on their MySpace page, but... HOLY FUCK it's annoying! REALLY. Even if I like your taste in music, or if you have something interesting/amusing to say, I don't necessarily want to have to rush to hit "STOP" every time I click on your page so that my ears don't get assaulted.
Then, my biggest pet peeve on the interwebz... every time you post on MySpace, if you've got your Age, Sex, and Location in your profile, that information is posted RIGHT THERE, alongside your icon. To me, there's nothing more CRUDE or CHEAP than starting an internet conversation with "ASL?" To me, this is one step worse. I hate that. I really hate that. But if I don't have my "ASL" listed, people wonder if I'm being secretive or if I'm hiding something. Oh, and people seem WAY too free with their real information on there. On one discussion thread, I saw a flood of people giving their real names, ages, and locations... on a thread that ANYONE could access. It was very disconcerting.
It's a whole different etiquette over there, compared to LJ. Netspeak seems far more acceptable there, and I hate netspeak. (No, not everyone I've encountered on MySpace uses netspeak - some of them are very well-spoken - but enough of them do, and it grates on me.) People don't respect privacy in the same way we do here on LJ... including their own privacy. Possibly the greatest taboo we have on LJ is the use of a person's real name, if that name has been obscured. Even when I've gone to HP conventions, we use each other's screen names. People call me "Mijan", or even "Harry" when I'm in costume. But with VERY few exceptions, nobody uses my real name. Even the people who know it, even my fiancee... they don't use my real name in fandom situations.
So, to my friends who use MySpace... I'm glad you like it. Maybe it works for you. And just because you use MySpace doesn't mean I don't like YOU. It just means that I'm highly unlikely to visit you on that site. It's the nature of the website that I hate. I'm using it ONLY for Wrockstock, to talk to other Wrockstock attendees before the weekend, and to access information for a few music groups. Please don't ask me to friend you there, because there's really no point. Please don't ask me to add pictures, or suggest that I join any MySpace communities. It's not going to happen.
I'm going to stick to my LJ.
*sigh*
