WhoseSpace?
OurSpace!
MySpace is a bit weird. Lots of people, mostly young, pretending to be friends with people they've never met and never will meet. It is, at best, harmless. At worst, a great big, revenue-led corporate vacuum sucking up innocent minds on the pretext of being some kind of community project. These were my views until this weekend, when the aforementioned Day The Music Died MySpace page went live. For those that haven't dipped a toe, your MySpace page has your picture on it, and some very basic information. The crux of it is that you can invite people to be your "friends" and then they can accept or reject that invitation. Since our first programme went out at 1pm on Saturday, we have had upwards of 80 friend requests. I have accepted them all, obviously, as it's a way of generating interest in the programme, which has pretty much gone out ignored for four consecutive series, unreviewed, uncontacted. This time our producer Will decided we should get out there and shout about ourselves, and so we did, and . . . it's worked!
The only downside is that I am now personally hooked on MySpace. I care whether we have any pending friend requests or not! I care that the basic mechanics of it are useless! (For instance, it asks for your age but you have to scroll down a list of possible years of birth, which only goes back to 1906, so you can't put your age as 111, which our collective age is. Also, your name appears "in meaningless double quote marks" at the top of your profile. Why? Also, and I am clever, I can't work out how to invite someone to be our friend. This is my fault, obviously, but compared to Blogger it's awfully user-hostile.) Still. WE'VE GOT 90 FRIENDS! AND THEY ARE REAL FRIENDS!
I've started one of my own, here. I really don't know why. This is my space. I control it. It has a little community of its own, with no banner advertising or hidden agendas. You don't have to be my friend. You can comment without even adding your name. I love it and I hate it. Go here if you want to be our friend. Go here if you want to be my friend.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 1:37 PM
5 Comments
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5 Comments:
I quite like the mechanism for browsing to a favourite band and then adding their music to your page. I thought it would all be teen pop groups and then I found Pizzicato Five ... :-)
To add someone to your friends you have to visit their profile. Just below their photo should be a little button which says "add to friends". And remember, only famous people should be allowed in your Top 8. Ooh! Ooh! You HAVE to add Frank Sidebottom! He's on his way back, you know.
I just added you Andrew.
I like Myspace a lot. If you do have genuine friends on there (not just famous people and bands) it is really handy for mass communicating.
And as everyone already knows it is great for dicovering new music. Comedy is becoming more prominent on there now as well. I have Larry David as a friend! I'm still waiting to be invited round his house for tea...
I actually find it a lot user-friendlier than Blogger too.
Oh, thanks for the quick explanation on the workings of My Space. I've been wondering what it was...
I've found out about loads of bands through MySpace - or they've found me which, while it perhaps takes some of the fun out of it, is perhaps even better.
You can expect one of those awful 'thanks for the add' comments from me soon. :)
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