Of course, I created my first website in the early to mid 90s, but almost everything on MySpace far surpasses anything I did, "back in the day."

Thanks for the tips on the G-Monkey scripts - I'll have to check that out; 'cuz, fact of the matter is, I am a bit of a design snob and I do get tired of all that random music coming at me.

I know - I'm showing my age - but, how many other almost 50 year olds do you know that are this deep into Social Networking?

Good post - you're a great writer, keep up the good work Marshall!

I live in mid-Canada, and of the people I mingle with on a daily basis, I could find maybe 1 or 2% that spend more time on MySpace than Facebook.

MySpace is an outdated website that has no real value these days. Sure, some of the music on it is valuable, but beyond that, meh.

We've all heard the phrase "one million people can't be wrong," well, in this case "72 million people are wrong" seems more apt.

As far as MySpace being "chronically unappreciated by geeks" you should be grateful. If us geeks thought MySpace was the best thing on the web then IT WOULD BE... But thankfully we're NOT satisfied with what "everyone else" uses or we wouldn't be hard at work coming up with something better.

That is not to knock all the people who use MySpace at all. I'm glad they enjoy it. But I hope the guys and gals who build houses for a living would look down their nose at my tools. And I assume professional athletes wouldn't be caught dead in my sneakers.

Why not look down on MySpace? It's the bottom rung of the ladder. The bottom rung is where most people start but let's not pretend it's the goal.

Muting my computer so as not to be assaulted by some teenager's choice to force his/her teenage angst onto me by way of a lovely diddy from Slipknot? Really? This great example of the read/write web that is allowing millions of users to experience the web in a whole new way can only offer me the mute button?

This post is ridiculous and only validates all the reasons I hate MySpace.

MySpace is by far the dominant social network in the US, it's still over twice the size of Facebook here.

One fact you got wrong here is quoting the Dana Boyd article that suggests MySpace skews towards working class and poor people. If you check Comscore (or even read her article closely), that's not the case. Rather, MySpace has more of EVERY kind of person on it, so it also includes working class and lower incomes, whereas Facebook had college roots so almost everyone on it is college educated. MySpace actually has MORE higher income US individuals on it than Facebook because MySpace has more people of all types in the US.

"Just install one of the MySpace custom style remover Greasemonkey scripts available at Userscripts and quit your complaining already. Then add some of Duncan Riley's great FriendFeed scripts while you're at it and you'll end up happy later that you read this post."

Are you kidding me? You're saying that the millions of MySpace users should have to install a third-party script to making browsing without being spammed possible? Seriously?

The real reason MySpace sucks? It's fake. The people on it are fake.

Most people just want to see how many friends they can collect and on occasion post a really annoying animated image in your comment section.

I just fail to see how real friends can maintain a relationship via myspace. "We don't need to hang out anymore, we have myspace, I'll chat you up in a few days with 'Hey, Hows it going?'".

Perhaps the place just has too much to offer for a guy like me, I really do prefer the simplicity of places like IRC. One of the original "social networks".

Music on Myspace is not always a good thing.

MySpace certainly is the ugliest site I've ever seen, even dating back to the mid 80s.

MySpace is no where NEAR spam free. I get spam notifications every 10 minutes still.

MySpace is one of the most important sites on the Internet? Wrong. Is it one of the most popular? Sure, I'll agree with that.

But there's no way it's one of the most important sites on the Internet.

While most communications get dumbed down over time, because I can't claim there is smarter dialog on Facebook, I can confidently say most people who use Myspace are pretty net retarded. I don't care what the setup of the page is, or if I'm being a snob, Myspace is the McDonalds of online, ugly, lower IQ, great marketing, and convenient. But still trashy.

Let me break down their business model: Let's get 500 million in finding, get a massive PR campaign going to convince everyone that we are the clean and cool site, of course everyone buys into it, and then lets get software developers and build the innovations we cannot do ourselves.

When you break Facebook down all it is, is an inbox to inbox messaging, community forum site, THATS IT, sorry to burst everyone's bubble. Myspace may have its flaws, but it has amassed an awesome artist portfolio, delivers great media and videos, and unlike facebook, you need to know a thing or two about css or html to make a really nice page.

2. Disliking is very different from ignoring. As a web developer, I hate Internet Explorer - but you better believe I still make sure my code works on IE, I keep up with IE news, I have IE installed locally for testing, etc. MySpace has many positive aspects, as well as many negative aspects. I still have a deep dislike for it, but I certainly don't ignore it and I can understand if other people use it - more power to them. I'll stick to services I like better. If that's being snobbish, well, guilty as charged.

Anywhere between 30 to 100 "friends requests" that are just fake accounts linking back to Fling or someother porn site.

Can't sort my own friends list. Can't edit my own profile info without 10 mouse clicks and acceptance of some nasty spyware ( From Fox themselves, not hackers ).

No OpenID, no Microformats, no APML.

Site wants to write 50+ cookies, each demanding I lower my security settings to allow ActiveX installs.

...I mean seriously, it's as bad as ever, if not worse.

If you are kidding around, and really making fun of the barrel of dung that is MySpace, pleas add some winking smiley faces or italic text to this post. KTHXBAI

I think the main thing that bothers most people about myspace, though, is that it represents everything the web has fought to overcome over the last 5 years: auto-playing music, blinking text, flashy images, eye-gouging color-schemes, etc. The typical myspace page gives one the feeling they just time traveled a decade into the past.

Still, you're right; there are solutions to all these issues. If you use firefox, there's extensions out there that will even stop the music from playing automatically.

Just because a company is massive and has influence doesn't a good site make.

@20 Agreed

Is MySpace imperfect? Certainly, but at its core - it does a good job satisfying that basic user promise of expression.

I don't think I'm setting up a straw man by suggesting that picks itself apart without further analysis.

You'd think it would be the other way around, but no.

My notation on this in Google Reader is as follows:

“It's totally snobby to hate on MySpace, the same way it's snobby to hate on Second Life. Why? Because it's not the company, it's what the USERS create. This is what people want, and if you don't like it, go suck on some Clear Channel propaganda and turn your blog off.”

That's 2 real markets. None of whom click on ads and buy much on the internet anyway. Except music. So there. It's a glorified music exchange. That must be good for something. I wouldn't actually know. Except that now there is a plethora of crappy bands who think they are good. And I blame MySpace.

Anyone who take the sites seriously has to get their head examined.

Say what you want about facebook, at least you can ignore, block the dump applications and keep your profile clean.

Plus people are a lot more mature on facebook.

There is a new social network coming out soon which will take the US by storm and it will bring back the fun to social networking, not wasting time with stupid quizzes and utter childish crap.

You have listed all of the reasons why I would not even click on a link that has MySpace in its URL, listed a whole bunch of moot points that can only make people angry, and provided not a single stable, irrefutable argument of why I should really change my mind about the site. If this is satire, which I doubt, leave a clue in the end. But otherwise:

Yes, getting your readers angry is a great way to make them visit the site, see the ads, and leave a comment... it is also the most effective method to make us click that unsubscribe button.