I pondered the ways in which I could respond to this statement. I mean, since it's my little brother, the obvious comeback is, "um, nuh-UH!" But honestly, I wasn't sure that would really get my point across. And since I've been taking a lot of heat lately from my friends for even having a Myspace page, I thought it was the perfect time to talk about it.
Let's see... Where should I even start? I mean, up until about two months ago, I didn't even have a Myspace page. I was hardly knowledgeable about the workings of the site, my only experience with it being nsfw videos and bizarre profiles of freakish people that revealed far more personal details than I ever wanted to know about them... This was also combined with the fact that each page was plastered on the web for all to see in more variations of hideous combinations of colors and images than I even thought possible. When people would mention Myspace, I would make sarcastic comments and explain that unlike the masses, I had no need of a profile on a site I thought of as "internet for dummies." I was doing fine on my own -- I had my own domain, I updated it now and then, why would I possibly want to join a site that seemed to attract exactly the kind of people I work to avoid in real life? No, I don't need a profile on Myspace!
But... one day... I finally caved. My opinion on the site hadn't changed, but enough friends had asked if I had a profile, so I finally just did it. FINE.
The thing is, though... I was so ashamed. I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror. Me, the Myspace hater, was there with the rest of the "dummies," customizing my profile, adding friends, and posting comments on friends' profiles. But interestingly, even as I continued to use the site, my opinion continued to stay the same. I still think that Myspace is a poorly put together site regardless of that fact that it was built around the fantastic concept of using the internet for social networking.
But enough general whining. I'm definitely prepared to back up my claims that Myspace is a crappy site. So here we go. And good news, everyone! Because I've been using Myspace for the last two months, I actually know what I'm talking about.
Profile Customization
Like I mentioned before, people love customizing their profiles as horribly as they please, and Myspace does give people the ability to do so... However, customizing a profile is about as user-friendly as setting a clock on a VCR from 1983. How are you at writing html? Just asking, cause up until a couple of weeks ago, that's all Myspace offered in terms of profile customization. It's no wonder that tons of "profile editors" were created by users on outside websites to fill this need. So let's get this straight. Myspace allows you to customize your profile, but then they don't even bother to give users an editor to help them do this? It might arguably be one of the most important features available to a user, yet there is such an extreme barrier to entry.
But, great news, kids. Myspace finally stepped up to the demand and now the site offers its own profile editor. But wait, are you using Firefox? Oh, that's too bad, because this editor only works in IE. Also, the geniuses over at the Myspace headquarters didn't even bother studying any of the excellent user-created profile editors out there before making their own. I've personally tried out quite a few of these editors, and without a doubt, the one on Myspace is by far the worst. It's difficult to use, buggy, and frustrating as many changes you can make will actually override settings you've previously chosen. But that's cool, I like setting the text size of my name multiple times.
Aside from the fact that profile customization isn't made easy and accessible to a population of internet users that frankly, could use the help, the mechanic of actually implementing the customization is a total hack. Users are told to copy and paste a chunk of html code into the "About me" section of their profile. Come on... You guys really can't do better than that?! And everyone at Myspace should feel even more ashamed that even the editor on the Myspace site still instructs users to do this! Listen, if you're going to implement a profile editor, do it right. An editor that is integrated into the site should simply be completely linked to the user profiles, saving off its own html and posting it on each profile in a way that is completely hidden to the user.
Customization should become more polished, allowing fewer but "smarter" options for users. Basically, allow users to be creative with constraints that allow them to make something pleasing 99% of the time. Igoogle should be a lesson to Myspace. I can customize to my heart's content (happiness!) but no matter how I set up my page, it always looks good. Plus, the widget format allows me to rearrange things so that they are exactly to my liking. On Myspace, I am confined to their default setup, which is... lacking. Users here and there have found some interesting hacks for moving or removing certain items, but in general, doing such things is for the few that have the desire and the means to write rogue html code.
Alright, moving on.
Site Navigation and Layout
Where to start... How about logging into the site? First of all, the login fields are not even given priority the main Myspace page. I'm forced to locate the login among several animated ads and other random crap also present on the main page. Also, this is the one and ONLY place I am given the chance to log in. If my session expires, I am not presented with the login fields to log in again, instead I am forced to navigate to the homepage again in order to log back into the site. If a page can tell me I need to be logged in in order to view something, why can't it also provide me the means to log in again?
I'd sum up the look of the Myspace site in general as "clunky." The layout, the menus, the entire design of the site is poor in comparison to so many other sites out there. Every single page is simply crammed with all kinds of things that I don't have any interest in looking at, not to mention the multiple ads per page. I'm constantly sifting through all this stuff on each page just to get to the things I DO want to see... My profile, my friends, and my account. My homepage is hardly MY homepage if you fill it up with a bunch of random things that I don't care about. Look, Myspace, if I really want to see profiles of people I know nothing about, I'll click on browse! And stop force-feeding me your highlighted videos and bands. If I want to see this stuff, how about I'll let you know by clicking on the link you've provided for me at the top of the page.
Speaking of easy navigation... Many areas of the site are not even accessible from the main navigational menu, forcing me to click multiple links in order to do simple things. The best example of this is the email system that is used to send emails between users on the site. It took me 5 minutes to figure out that from my own inbox, I couldn't write a new message to one of my friends. The only way to send someone a message is by either replying to a message, or to go the user's profile page and click on "send message." Wow, how convenient. Oh, no worries, Myspace. Communication isn't important on a social networking site, is it?
Don't even get me started on finding people. The organization of the site is equal in quality to the search functions that allow users to search for friends. And because the information is input in such a varied way in each profile, sweeps of this information wouldn't be effective to gather for search functions. Even if it was, the name search usually returns such strange results that its true usefulness has never been fully revealed to me. Other areas of the site that suffer from the same issues are: organizing friends, the blog functionality, and bulletins. I'm not going to get into details with these but let's just say... they're about as cutting edge as a Zack Morris cellular phone.
Using Myspace, you too can have the enjoyment of frequent page errors. This error message should actually say, "Hey, I really did send your message, but I'm going to pretend there was an error so you'll hit the send button twice and look like a dumbass! Teeheehee."
Things that Just Shouldn't Happen
With so many users, it's no surprise that Myspace isn't the most responsive website out there. And I'm willing to withstand a little lag without becoming frustrated. However, when there's so much traffic that I'm getting page errors almost every time I try to post a comment or send an email, it's time to find a solution. The best side effect that comes with these frequent page errors is that when you hit 'back' and try again, your comment gets posted twice (since it didn't really error out the first time), or your email gets sent twice, and you (the sender) look like an idiot that hasn't figured out how to use web forms. Just today, I recieved 4 emails on Myspace. Okay, so it was actually 2, with a duplicate of both of them. But... I'm still popular, I swear! And I do NOT derive my sense of self-worth from my profile! You can't prove anything...
Yeah. This really happens on Myspace.
What else shouldn't happen? How about the neverending chain of RE:'s that pile up as you send messages back and forth using the fantastic Myspace message system. I don't think I need to mention that almost every single email client out there solved this problem years ago... Why is this still happening here?
So... Let's say that despite what I'm suggesting here... you decide to make a profile on Myspace one day. You better make sure that the email address on your account is one you'll always have access to, because otherwise, you're screwed -- you won't be able to change it. This exact situation actually happened to someone I know. He created his account using his work email, and then changed jobs. Myspace only allows you to change the email on your account if you can confirm the change from the ORIGINAL address, not the new one. Since he couldn't get to that email account anymore, he was forced to make an entirely new profile page. Now he's got two... One he uses, and one that sits around, clogging up the search engines. And yes, this must happen a lot, because searching on Myspace seems to pull up a LOT of duplicate profiles. Brilliant.
What Else?
I really wanted to include a section on the types of people that Myspace seems to collect in droves, but decided against it in order to keep the focus of this post on Myspace as a site. I can say loads about the users and the things they do, but I'll save that for another day. In no way are they to blame for the mediocrity of Myspace. As good or as bad as they may be, Myspace users are what make the site successful, and in the end, they will dictate whether or not Myspace continues to coast along in its ignorance, riding the reputation it has somehow gained in popular culture.
Conclusion
What does this all come down to? Polish. And in the industry I work in, polish is everything. It's the difference between a game that is a success and a game that is a failure. And alright, this isn't a game... But like a game, it does provide a specific type of entertainment to a large group of users. So while Myspace may have the the attention of masses of people that don't know any better at the current time, it won't stay on top for long. Why do people use it? Because there's nothing better right now. Sure there are other sites like Facebook or Friendster that have attempted to do the same thing, but none have approached the social status that Myspace holds. So, I'm waiting. Over at Myspace, I can hope for some serious thinking about keeping up with the latest developments on the web and presenting a better product to all of their loyal users.... but if you ask me though, none of that is really necessary. Maybe Myspace will just slowly fade away... Allowing others to move into the market and fill the need in a more effective and useful way.
Myspace... We're waiting...
