Is the MySpace Party Over? BTR Sunday
This is not one of those “I’M LEAVING MYSPACE” blogs. I’ve never understood those. It seems so permanent, and more than half the folks who write them end up continuing to hang around the site, commenting here or there, pimping or selling this or that but almost always continuing to note how bad MySpace is now and how lame everyone is for continuing to hang out here.
Umm… okay… As I’ve read these “leaving MySpace” blogs in the past, a metaphor came to mind. If you were at a party, found it boring or tedious and not too thrilled with the other guests, would you stand up in the middle of the party and proclaim: ‘THIS PARTY SUCKS! I’M LEAVING!’ then, of course, hang out on the porch, stick your head in from time to time and say “YES, I’M LEAVING! THIS PARTY STILL SUCKS!” That’s what these grand pronouncements of departure have reminded me of.
Even if you do decide to spend more time on Facebook or wherever, it’s not like MySpace is another country or something that you have to take a train, a ferry and mule cart to get to. I’ve got MySpace and Facebook bookmarked in my toolbar and it takes one click to go back and forth.
Well, the party of MySpace has changed now to the point where I have to revise my metaphor. The party has been slowly dwindling for years. Most of the most interesting guests have departed, leaving a hard corps echelon of hangers on. That’s been fine by me. Big fish in a small pond… and the pond has been shrinking even more…wait.. Must not mix metaphors.
With the new 3.0 format, the entire nature of the party has been radically changed. It’s as if the folks holding the party have declared that we’re now all mandated to play Twister, but everyone needs to be wearing a straightjacket at the same time. It’s as if we all need to play Charades, but no gesturing is allowed. It’s as if they’ve put a movie on the big screen, pushed pause at the opening credits and left it that way.
Anyways, I’m still not leaving the party, but my opinion has certainly changed. It’s time to look for other parties. Maybe the party itself is over.
One possible place is a neat little new social network called FriendBurst.com… Yeah, I know, kind of an odd name, but I really like the features of the site. I recommend you join.
I’d also like to invite you to a BlogtalkRadio that another voice whose expressed some of these same opinions (TomDotCom) and I will be hosting this Sunday afternoon. Joining us on air will be Kevin, one of the founders of FriendBurst and the face of the site. Do you think the other Tom or Mike Jones would get on the radio with little ol me and talk? I don’t think so. (I am going to invite Mike Jones anyway)
Here’s the URL for the show page:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/joko/2010/11/28/the-myspace-3-point-oh-no-exodus-of-2010
Hope to see you there!
Here’s a OLD video response to some old MySpace drama back from when I was as enthusiastic and optimistic about MySpace as I am now about FriendBurst. I will give MySpace this: it rhymes to a lot better words than does FriendBurst.
Archived image unavailable
What’s Myspace?
I haven’t deleted my MS. I have over 150 emails that I can’t read. If a blog has more than 5 comments, I can’t see them. It takes forever to get a page to load. Being invited over here was a Godsend. Of all the other places I checked out, this was the best. See you and Tom on Sunday!
We’re still waiting until Rupert goes broke, and then Bad Lisa can buy MySpace for a nickel and a dime. Then we can go back to business as usual, but who is going to have the onerous job of deleting BL on occassion?
Pimped kind Sir!
with a blog..n a buncha shares. 🙂
Good analogies Joko! I too have found it disingenuous to read those proclaimations of abandonment only to see a continuous stream of activity by the person that said they’d had enough, they were leaving…
I, like you, hopscotch at will to myspace from here, my boomer place from there then back to here, then over to facebook or twitter.
I find it interesting that some of the folks I knew on myspace have changed ID’s (but not their syntax, style and favorite subjects to blog about) A fresh start never hurts I guess, or maybe they are afraid that “Tom” will find them here and pull their plug over there like he does with all those links we always post for 30 seconds before they die unceremoniously! IDK.
I’ll be listening to your Sunday BTR joint—Thanks for the pimping of this great place to gather and socialize…Truth be told, you’re probably doing myspace a favor…the less people calling their congressmen about their constitutional right to have a myspace 2.0 style blog…the less official e-mail traffic to Rupert who then forwards it to “Tom”!!!(hehehe!)
This place is nice. Kevin is real nice. I miss myspace. I’ve killed profiles just to start over but I’ve never “left” and won’t until it’s swallowed in whole by facebook.
I’ve gone silent the past two years over there. I’ve been lurking. I’ve kept up but I can’t even do that now, there isn’t much to keep up with. I won’t leave though. It’s got a place in my life, I was there for a long time.
I never threatened or whined… I just kind of faded away.
Big kudos to Kevin and the folks putting this site together.
I’m not ready to give up on MySpace yet. They say they’re working on the bugs and they have taken care of a couple, but they really need a fumigator for the full infestation. I’ll give them a chance to figure out what the hell they’re doing.
I’m checking out a few different sites, but Friendburst has very quickly moved to the top of my list. I’m very pleased with the format and Kevin’s friendly helpfulness. All Tom ever did was ignore me.
Hello Joko, My name is Beth and it is nice to meet you here. I love this blog and you are so right. I still have my MS but am getting all my poetry and pics form there, then yes I will be leaving. It is not that I don’t want to be there with friends or be a part of the community, but I feel that it is just not what it use to be and everything is slow loading, cannot do the things your use to be able to, and then the blogs…well the blogs are a big part of what I enjoy and they took them away…meaning…limiting you on things that you are able to do within the blogs. Thank you for sharing this and I will be tuning into your show tomorrow. I also have a BTR show as well and love to see others on there as well!!!
Always
Beth
Hi Joko and thanks. I’ll see you Sunday afternoon. BTW–I can’t even log into the Spazz to watch it die the slow death.
I had a lot of fun over there but the trolls and a-holes made it not a very pleasant place to be as of late. I hope Kevin can find a way to keep the jerks out. I’m not ready to deal with mtrg types in my spare time.
This place sucks! Oh wait, this isn’t my______. No, this place rocks! I wuz kidding. I have to get used to it all with all the differences, and I feel silly saying this but I don’t know how to post a blog here. I was in my own blog section, logged in mind you, but it told me “inSpireShine hasn’t posted any blogs yet.” I said “I know, I’m him and he is me, and I don’t know how. Where’s the post new blog link?” The page didn’t answer me, though, so I’ll have to go back and look again.
BTW, Joko, this is my first official–or unofficial for that matter–comment of any kind in any blog here. Doesn’t that make you feel warm and fuzzy that I chose your blog among all others to make my first comment in? Well it should. Never mind that it’s the first blog I’ve read too. =p
This Friendburst is pretty good. I still have a myspace account though.
Sorry I got the time wrong and missed your btr, but this place is great!
For me I left the party a while ago, front porch and everything. Occasionally I would drive back through just to see if the party was still happening, people still trying to cyber-kill each other and other things but the last time I went back I realized the party was over…just nobody knew it yet.
Hopefully this site will breathe new life into some of my favorite people. Maybe we will find new things to bitch about and new people to hate.
Either way we will never have to see Tom’s creepy face ever again.