I never even heard of MySpace until I started working as a public librarian. I must get a dozen request a day to override the filtering software on the public computers so the user can access MySpace. (Yes, you read that right. All social-networking sites are blocked by our filtering software, to prevent pedophiles from using them to troll for victims. At our library, you can only get the block overridden if you’re over 17, with ID. Issue discussed in [url=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=372328]this** GD thread.) Anyway, it makes me think I ought to try it, but can somebody tell me what to expect and what to look for?
Wait…you block social networking sites to prevent pedophiles from trolling…unless they can prove they’re over 17? 
How does being over 17 prove they’re not pedophiles? Aren’t most pedophiles adults?
More to the point, we keep the under-17s off the site to protect them from being trolled.
If they have computers at home, nothing we can do about that.
I think it’s a dumb policy too, but apparently it actually happens sometimes. Not as often as you’d think from watching Law & Order: SVU, but sometimes.
I think myspace is a pretty funny space.
While intentionaly not joining, I’ve heard many comments.
Some say: “it’s a good place to advertise your ideas to a younger audience!”
Others: “It made it too easy for my ex-girlfriends to find me”
And: “Wow, an easy way to make web-page to put on my card. Want to link to me?”
And: “just f—ing had to. God damn. after all the money i spent getting a web-designer. People would rather see a myspace profile.” :eek:
And this makes me weep for the Internet 
I only know about it from trying to find out about it myself because I was curious from the buzz. From my view, I am less than impressed but I am outside of their demographic. It seems like a version of what AOL used to be retooled for the young social demographic. That is, it is an kind of web within the web that makes it easy to do apparently what a lot of people want to do (meet friends, throw up retarded websites, click to find out about the latest music etc.) There is nothing new or even impressive about what they do from a technical perspective but it is hitting the right notes for younger people.
I shouldn’t talk. I often spend hours a week posting to an old-school message board devoted to a single weekly column that runs in some alternative newspapers only found in some cities.
Sounds like you’ve got a real problem there…a sickness, even.
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Oh wait! :smack:
Just how old is this “old-school” board? Does it date from 2000? 1999?
We’re now living in a state of perpetual future shock . . .
About 3% of the time, according to a recent article, which is quite high, when you think about it. It’s not so much the size of the threat, but the fact that teens a such dumbfucks when it comes to knowing what to do, and a lot of their parents are even worse, as a survey by Cox Communications of teens’ experience online this past May shows:
So let’s say a thousand 13-15 year olds go online.
90 of them will meet with someone they only know from online.
If 2-3 of them ran afoul of a pedophile, and it could be shown the contact was made on a computer at your library, how fast would the parents sue the library?
ummm…I think shagnasty is referring to a message board that used to be free, but now costs $14.85 a year, and apparently has something to do with non-crooked drugs or somethin’…
actually, what I don’t get about Myspace is why it suddenly zoomed into public awareness.
Teenagers have had personal web pages ever since Yahoo Geocities in 1995 or so. What’s the difference?
It allows you to network with your friends and then meet their friends’ friends and then their friends’ friends. I first heard about it as an alternative to Friendster, which is all about networking.
Myspace has become prominent because it has become popular, in the way that eBay, Google, Amazon etc. have done in the past. Why is has become so popular is a different question, although certainly it’s a valid one. IMO, it’s because it functions on a level which is both rigid and logical (and therefore clear), such as with the ‘friends’ system, and also flexible (within boundaries), hence the hideous pages which many people don’t actually have a problem with. You can make a Myspace page look like anything, but it will always primarily function as a place to contact people you know or don’t yet know.
I admit I’m a MySpacer. I originally joined because a band I liked made themselves a page there, and asked all of us from their message board to join and add them and get the word out. I think this particular band sort of started the whole MySpace music thing, as this was a few years ago.
I don’t use it much, just keep it around to keep in touch with people from high school that aren’t on Facebook, and to keep in touch with all the awesome people and bands I met through aforementioned band. I don’t add people I don’t know and don’t use it to chat with people I don’t know.
Unless you’re looking to meet people that post idiotic, pointless, misspelled bulletins for their friends, beg people to comment on their pictures, or feel the need to cram their pages with so much crap that it crashes your computer, don’t bother.
Some of us use it to find a lot of music we wouldn’t find any other way.
True.
I didn’t mention that because I am sick to death of bands messaging me and trying to add me EVERY DAY. And they obviously don’t look at my profile first because I clearly state the sort of music I like, and I have a note that says “Bands do not add me, if I like you, I’ll add you.” I get all kinds of bands that are nothing like any of the genres I like trying to add me, and when I do listen to them, they suck, IMO.
Understandable
[qutoe]And they obviously don’t look at my profile first
[/quote]
How else would they get 18000 friends?!
This is where we differ. I dislike seeing things like that in profiles - rather like my irrational irritation in seeing signs on peoples’ letterboxes saying “no free newspapers”. Anyway, if they’re not reading your profile, then surely there’s no point having such a message there?
(Actually, I wonder why I have so few requests from bands, especially given the friends I have listed)
How else would they get 18000 friends?!
This is where we differ. I dislike seeing things like that in profiles - rather like my irrational irritation in seeing signs on peoples’ letterboxes saying “no free newspapers”. Anyway, if they’re not reading your profile, then surely there’s no point having such a message there?
(Actually, I wonder why I have so few requests from bands, especially given the friends I have listed)
[/QUOTE]
I wrote that in hopes that some bands at least glance at the profile…but it hasn’t worked so far.
And I see nothing wrong with that message - if bands actually did read profiles, they could actually find people who might be open to their music and listen to it, rather than mass adding people and hoping they will be added. A lot of those people won’t end up being fans, so what is the point?
They lose nothing by firing out friends requests to everyone and everything, which they can do much faster than reading pages, looking for such messages.