I can't stand MySpace. Ugh. I just hate it. Here are some of my reasons:

  • Fosters poor web design. Just about every profile looks completely atrocious. You would think that a company that sold for $580M could implement a simple theme system? I'd love to see a unified theme across a person's profile, blog, pics, etc.
  • The wall is a circa 1995 guestbook reborn. People posting nothing of value just to "holla atcha, baby, woot!"
  • The blog is lame. I think the number one reason a person might come back to your site is the blog. Make it better!
  • Security problems
  • Due to the security problems, MySpace is recommending users upgrade to Flash 9. This means that Linux users are left out in the cold for anything that will require Flash 9: currently, only Flash 7 is available for Linux users. Also, the Flash 9 player for Intel Macs is not released yet (it's in Beta). [update: As of 8/8/06, Flash 9 is available for Intel Macs.] (The irony in all of this is that you probably don't want to add to the visual chaos with any additional Flash-driven content, so maybe this is a good thing?)
  • And, my number one gripe: MySpace tarnishes the meaning and value of the word "friend".

So, do I have a MySpace account? Yep. Pffff. I can't believe it. I wanted to see what all the fuss was, and I was researching the "social networking" aspects of it for a site I'm working on. However, I've tried to minimize the MySpace visual pain. WARNING: If you use Internet Explorer, I recommend not visiting MySpace.com ever.

http://www.myspace.com/curtissummers

Am I way off base here? What compels people to do the MySpace dance?

UPDATE: If you can't get to MySpace, they are apparently having some problems today. Maybe I broke it. Or, maybe they decided I was right and took it down for the good of mankind.

Also, if you're using Firefox in Windows and MySpace asks you to download a file named "exp.wmf", DON'T! It's a virus. Thank you MySpace!