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The true success of myspace comes from the fact there was no competition and it scaled well to reach its current size. Going forward myspace is going to get smaller as there are a lot of things working against them.
1. Sites are going to generalize and steal back traffic. ie dating sites, band specific sites etc. Myspace is currently everything to everyone.
2. The sites population is aging, and more then likely will feel at home with facebook or myyearbook
Users currently spend hours and hours on the site. The bulk of these users are under the age of 18. Once you get out of school then you no longer have hours and hours to waste. When you go online after 18 you have a job career etc and no longer have the 8 hours a day to waste on myspace. There will always be a big population of users over 18, but it can never approach the market penetration of the under 18 crowd.
This is the man who FOUNDED myspace.com, it was later bought by spam and spyware giant EUniverse and response base, which Tom Anderson owned. These were people with HUGE spam lists from xdrive.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction...
The CEO of the company is #6
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction...
I’ve had some email convo’s with him. He now uses perl and linux to code his social networking website and has mvo
On his blog recently he posted job opportunities for Perl and Linux developers only.
http://blog.flukiest.com/2006/01/hardcore_perl_...
“You are down with the open source cause. If you or anyone you know is a hardcore LINUX/Unix, PERL, MySQL, Apache, Template Toolkit, SMARTY, MVC, PHP, HTML, AJAX, TCP/IP, Object Oriented geek than please contact me. Flukiest is looking for talented engineers to help build cool solid next generation technologies.”
Interesting that he dropped windows and is now using Linux and open source to build his next gen social networking explosion????
They ran a SPAM website called responsebase.com and ran spyware networks.
“Intermix Management and other Insiders sold approximately $25 million of Intermix stock in full knowledge that the New York State Attorney General (NY-AG), Eliot Spitzer,would soon file a lawsuit against the company for
certain adware promotion activity.” (7.5 Million Settlement)
http://www.intermixedup.com/
“ResponseBase was booted from their ISP as an illicit spam organization– with Tom Anderson himself listed as their billing contact. And later still, ResponseBase would be renamed to MySpace.”
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Bloggers_investigat...
Who can’t get a huge base when they’re running one of the biggest spyware/spam operations in the us?
Then when they got on the news for child endangerment issues, that did the rest.
Unfortunately, MySpace's ease and the freedom's it allows are dangerous. There have already been several reports of girls between the ages of twelve and sixteen being abducted through MySpace. MySpace is the ultimate stalker tool; anyone can sign up, create an account with a fake name, and instantly know every detail of every high school student in the country.
My question is whether or not MySpace should have any responsibility for creating a potential dangerous environment for high school students; their personal information and every aspect of their daily lives and schedule now on public record. I don't know, but I am curious how are society plans to deal.
Server Error in '/' Application.
Cannot open database requested in login 'myspacesharedread'. Login fails.
Login failed for user 'AspAdoNet'.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Cannot open database requested in login 'myspacesharedread'. Login fails.
Login failed for user 'AspAdoNet'.
Stack Trace:
[SqlException (0x80131904): Cannot open database requested in login 'myspacesharedread'. Login fails.
Login failed for user 'AspAdoNet'.]
System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.GetConnection(DbConnection owningObject) +437
System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection) +82
System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory) +105
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.Open() +111
MySpace.Persistence.Dao.Profile.ProfileDao.GetSharedData(Int32[] idlist) in C:\My Documents\ReleaseBuild\Persistence\Dao\Profile\ProfileDao.cs:684
MySpace.Persistence.Dao.Profile.ProfileDao.ConstructUser(MySpaceUserReadOnly user, Boolean isFriend, DateTime eventEndDate) in C:\My Documents\ReleaseBuild\Persistence\Dao\Profile\ProfileDao.cs:40
MySpace.Persistence.Dao.Profile.ProfileDao.ConstructUser(MySpaceUserReadOnly user) in C:\My Documents\ReleaseBuild\Persistence\Dao\Profile\ProfileDao.cs:30
MySpace.RemoteCaching.Client.Transports.MySpaceBackendProvider.GetAndHydrateUser(Int32 userID) in C:\My Documents\ReleaseBuild\Persistence\DataProviders\MySpaceBackendProvider.cs:18
MySpace.Persistence.DataProviders.CachedUserProvider.GetAndHydrateUser(Int32 userID) in C:\My Documents\ReleaseBuild\Persistence\DataProviders\CachedUserProvider.cs:83
MySpace.Web.Classes.ProfileLoader.GetUser(Int32 friendID) +111
[DataMapperException: Unable to open connection to "".]
IBatisNet.DataMapper.SqlMapSession.OpenConnection(String connectionString) +291
IBatisNet.DataMapper.SqlMapSession.OpenConnection() +17
IBatisNet.DataMapper.SqlMapper.QueryForObject(String statementName, Object parameterObject) +82
MySpace.Persistence.Dao.Gateways.SharedGatewayDao.UserIdForUsername(String userName) in C:\My Documents\ReleaseBuild\Persistence\Dao\Gateways\SharedGatewayDao.cs:43
MySpace.Web.Classes.ContextualInfo.ProfileDisplayContext.get_ContextualFriendID() +169
MySpace.Web.Classes.ContextualInfo.ProfileDisplayContext.get_CurrentContextualUser() +19
MySpace.Web.UI.ProfileDisplayBasePage.Page_PreInit(Object sender, EventArgs e) +39
System.Web.Util.CalliHelper.EventArgFunctionCaller(IntPtr fp, Object o, Object t, EventArgs e) +15
System.Web.Util.CalliEventHandlerDelegateProxy.Callback(Object sender, EventArgs e) +34
System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e) +0
System.Web.UI.Page.OnPreInit(EventArgs e) +2009804
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +521
I have two small daughters and I would seriously consider their use on MySpace as it currently stands. Yes they will kick and scream that all their friends have a MySpace and its the cool place. But sitting in the shopping mall hanging out with other kids - some of which I do not know about - may seem equally cool but I would not let them.
Personally as a responsible parent we have lots of their friends around or they go to them. We therefore know - as much as we can without invading their privacy - who they are with and where they are. The world is dangerous. I trust my children and do not want to wrap them in cotton wool but equally I do not want some sick pervert on MySpace pretending to be a teenager and their new best friend just because there are no software controls.
1) They made sure Hollywood stars among the first users? Ummm, so? Marketing 101, but sure didn't work for the Xbox 360, slicking Paris Hilton and ilk with them, while hardcore fan pre-orders went without. Slapping celebrities is one but one small step, and it can also backfire.
2) They listen to their users and add features frequently? Again. Duh. Marketing 101. And unlike say a big software company, they deliver. But listening to those customers is pure chaos, rather that you poll the customers. Have a plan, and get feedback on directions, not eternal feedback that tar-pits you.
3) They let the users tell them what to do. Duh. Democracy in action, you'd rather complex EULAs like a certain software company?
4) The founder Tom friend. Oh big deal, might as well be a robot. Might as well be a IRC chat bot for all the good it does. Eliza is my friend too.
Nah, that's default basic sense...
Real reasons?
1) Sex, Popularity Games. Bandwagon conforming to the hot trend games. But today's hot-in-thing, it tomorrows cold winter (aka SuicideGirls).
2) It has no purpose. It doesn't force a theme. It's not a music site, it's not a personals site, it's not a social networking site, it's not a MLM social-networking site. It's not a "blog", connected to an IM client (aka MS Spaces). It has no high-minded idealized Valleywaggers flipping to conferences, yelping how it's the next big thing. It's nothing. It becomes what the users make it.
3) Easy to create, they don't force a design, granted it's all flashy horrid 1996 homepage styled. HTML purists wail cry and scream, but it always sticks. Goofy graphics, stupid stuff de jour, it's ole Web. Web .05, back when it was all a wonder. It's Geocities with people tracking. The only way to make "Web 2.0" work is to go back to Web .5
4) Unlike most social software things, it has a real offline component. When online directs your offline, it works better.
Friendster and all the other services were too high-minded geeky mash-up earnest, just let it flop to the base level and it catches on, for small scale demographics.
Interesting comment Chris, have you see these links?
"Seeing Through The MySpace Mirage"
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-6...
"Is MySpace.com Really That Popular?"
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=16502...
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id...
RESPONSEBASE, LLC
Number: 200113410087 Date Filed: 5/11/2001 Status: active
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Principal Address
10880 WILSHIRE BLVD.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90024
Agent for Service of Process
CHRISTOPHER DEWOLFE
http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.asp...
See http://www.annuairevocal.com
Erwan.
why would there be moral outrage against myspace?
anina
Unfortunately, kids were getting raped and assaulted, and some poor souls even murdered by way of using the myspace.com website and publishing personal information that they may not have otherwise, and people wanted it to stop.
Regardless of who's responsibility it was(most likely society's), it doesn't change what happened. In alot of people's minds it's going to be indefinately linked to the myspace name.
HOWEVER, as a parent I strongly agree with critics that Myspace, and Search, and the web community at large has a MUCH greater responsibility to "protect kids" than is currently fashionable.
Partly because many "in charge" don't have kids it's still considered "uncool" to suggest we are failing in this respect and have this responsibility and I'd like to see that change. I see NO evidence it is changing.
What about hate groups?
This is the type of thing you can find in a quick google
search. So porn is off limits but this these type of profiles are fine?
Is this something that people want their kids getting into online?
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction...
http://myspace.com/WHITEPOWERGIRL88
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction...
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction...
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction...
These profiles may ultimately be taken down, but the reality remains that because the content is user created, they can not moderate it effectively.
Interesting that you understand this, Robert, yet still continue your vitriolic crusade against Google.
I'm in Germany and my girlfriend has a 17 year old son. He and his clique are very computer and gaming-literate, and none of them have even heard of MySpace.
Once the popularity in the U.S. cools off, MySpace can perhaps still take off in the rest of the world.
Someone in this thread said all photos are reviewed by a person. Well, I see a lot of suggestive photos of minors in my zip code. Camera phones invite some interesting poses.
It was easy to document all the "heads" at the local high school, their circle of friends, where the weekend party is going to be, who's sneaking out, who's hooking up with who, etc. That was months ago, but I'm sure little has changed for the kids using it in my geography.
Most parents in my area are clueless about what a blog is, and how they are being used by the teens in my area. My teens are well versed on what is and is not allowed. That doesn't mean they won't test the fence, but they know I care. Taking an interest and education is key.
DECEMBER 12, 2005
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05...
"De Wolfe knew the Internet business. Anderson cajoled Hollywood friends -- musicians, models, actors -- to join his online community, and soon the news spread. A year later, everyone from Hollywood teen queen Hilary Duff to Plano (Tex.) teen queen Adams has an account."
...
"When new users join, Tom becomes their first friend and invites them to send him a message."
...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11328357/from/RL.1/
"Brad Greenspan, an early MySpace investor no longer affiliated with the site, said that after observing Friendster, "we just realized that to allow people more personalization and control would give people more attachment to their Web pages.""
Greenspan is now suing them for insider trading with Newscorp.
http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/ON/index.cfm?story...
They also mentioned that band profiles are the reason they were so much more popular than friendster. They won't mention the large scale spyware or the spam they ran as responsebase.com and other companies.
The point is that what Scoble got, and was completely satisfied with is the equivalent of a form letter response.
They give every one the same story and keep it straight amongst themselves. Scoble is not the type to digg deeper and get the real story.
The fact is Tom did not found myspace.com, and they have a very sordid, unpleasant history on the internet as a media company.
Chris,
I would agree, but if you really want to see something that one could consider a shameless rip off;
Go and check out some of the classifieds on CraigsList, then check out the classifieds on the myspace.com website.
Somebody shamelessly cloned the craigslist look & feel, and functionality pretty closely.
Exibit A.
http://www.craigslist.com/
http://classifieds.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseac...
Exibit B.
http://www.craigslist.com/sss/
http://classifieds.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseac...
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/03/c...
Here's an interesting link from yesterday addressing some of the safety concerns from the Connecticut Attorney General's perspective.
If their myspace.com blocking software is anything like their spyware from a couple years ago that got them sued by New York State, people are in for a nasty surprise.
Nine weeks ago I posted a lament here, wondering why the true story of MySpace's sordid spawning and hasty selling had not been told by the print or TV media; the withheld truth being that MySpace, its parent company, Intermix, and the venture firms associated with them were owned and controlled by Andrew and Tiffany Wiederhorn, Portland Ore, and Clarence Bud Coleman and HISwife Joan, San Leandro Cal, and that these worthies had kept their involvement secret to the general public because of their notorious misadventures in predatory banking, and that, most galling of all when you think about it, put up a coupla cabin boys and baldly told us they were the geniuses responsbile for MySpace's astoungind success. Well, it's taken some time but ValleyWag just annuonced that blogger Trent Lapinski's piece coming this week will blow a hole in the MySPace barge for good and several reasons. And now outlets, if I may use that expression, such as Forbes, the WSJ, the NYT, are suddenly showing an interest in the doings of MySpace, andwhile none have yet uttered the names of Wiederhorn and Coleman, the thing is all over the INternet and it will probably pop about the same time the fiecracker people get organized. Happy Fourth from Hallowell Maine, where our lobsters voluntarily leap into boilding pots so as to prevent any Hallowellians from being charged with cruelty to crustaceans.
I started googling this morning. Igoogled Christopher T. DeWolfe, I googled Andrew ALan Widerhorn, Clarence Bud Coleman, Tom Anderson, Tiffany Wiederhorn, Ted Wiederhorn, Joan Coleman.
All these folks have been involved in dodgy stuff and four months ago you would not have learened about their dodginess by googling; all above named are the vbeneficiaries of various internet tricks to stop you from reading any bad stuff about them.
Now, all you can read is bad stuff about these people and I think that is because the Internet rose up in revulstion over the weay it had been used. Or is it just because I am closely involved and notice things and want them to be what I want them to be. B ut is odd, and it is underlined by the fact that when you sneak on over to Yahoo, why that crackerjack search engine never heard of Christopher T. DeWolfe,and Andrewe ALand Wiederhorn draws a blank too. Aks Jeeves, why not ask your brother-in-law, the one that doesn't read much and doesn;t realize how the real Jeeves wou ld be turning over in his fictional grave at the shitty job Ask Jeeves does, although I think they dropped the Ask and have the people that run the place, I seem to suspect, don't quote me, were big buddines with the MySpace crew that made thedirty deal that sent MySpace to the arms of Murdoch, the one who hires fake Irishmen to skew all the news you can use. Scobie, I never get a response to alll these e0mails and submissions I* am sending here and there, but I would like toask you: Am I right or are the blogs rising up in disgust against the blatant deceiv ers in their nice places in the valley> al macleese from hallowell,where today its citizens grabbed h alf theop-ed page of the Kennebec Journal to tell the KJ to stop playing nanny. You gotta read it to find out, this is what we call a teaster...
I just wanted to boast to you about my taking part in the discourse over WTF we (and yes, I do have a turd in my pocket)should call the blogging reporter who, even as we speak,is coming into his or her own, the folks who will take centerstage from institutionalized reporters, those hampered by so many barriers between their typers and their readers that most of their best disappears into the ether around the water cooler. Or is it now the latte dispenser?
Anyhow, the way I get it, the term for the new perkless reporters seems to be either citizen journalists and networking journalists, and I know you know all this but I just wanted you to know I know all this and will stand by in case you need whatever it is I might be called on a Maine story. And thanks for letting me air my views on your blog, and, now that you mention the BBC and England, did I eery tell you about howe I got hired and fire by the UPI in London on the same evening? almacleese, the one who posted earlier about how the bloviation Station's chief gasbag, who presents himself as an Irish person, is oot an Irish person at all, and if the man will lie about his ancestry, to what levels wil he stoop. Almac from Hallowell across the Kennebec River from CHelsea.
I see by your blog that you are on a hiatus,but I have news of import and so intrude. My partner-in-virtue in investigatin MySpace, L.A. blogger Trent Lapinksi, e-mailed me Saturday last to say that his article on MySpace, an expose, which was all set for publication, was killed by his publisher (I do not know who publisher was) because of threats of a shitstorm of suits by Rupert Murdoch's minions. So now Trent has been paid in full by the affronted outlet, and has a bulletproof expose but no publisher. Trent, who just turned 20, took some of the money and ran to the Caribbean to regird his loins, but promises to return within the week and has talked with CNet, Wired and the L.A. Times about publication of his expose, and he doesn't know I am saying this but I mention it in honor of the transparency that seems to make this Internet thing work. Anyhow, movers and shakers on the web should know, I think, that a gallant young journo, perhaps a David, is being menaced by a Goliath, suppressed by a billionaire, if you will, which is ungood, PR-wise, one would think, but then thousandpoundgorillasprollydon'tgiveacare, Hallowellpenpal
L.A. blogger Trent Lapinski, 19 and a collegian, posted this dispatch on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2006 at 1:06 a.m. under the heading:
'WTF: Why doesn't anyone ask who actually runs MySpace?' And there was this subhede:
'After reading about a recent MySpace censorship ploy, it boggles my mind as to why no one asks who the heck actually runs this site.'
After noting that Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe are the nominal props of the place, Trent wrote:
"MySpace is now just over two years old and is one of the biggest websites on the Internet. Yet no one knows where or how it came to be. Isn't it of millions of people's concern to know who runs the website they confide in so much ..."
"(Updated) I just wish someone besides me, preferably with a newspaper or legal team behind them, would break the full story..."
So now, Trent has written the full story, but it was squelched at one publication after threats of suits for a month of Sundays by the estimable Australian, who may be a secret pommy. So today, eight months after Trent's initial plea, the MSM still hasn't deigned to notice the curious circumstances of the sale of Intermix and MySpace to the Murdoch interests, the handing off of a hot tater by shadowy folks named Wiederhorn and COleman, Portland Ore and San Leandro Cal, and the reason their names haven't hit the mainstream in connection with a site that boasts a hundred million members, many of them children of your children, no doubt, all romping about in a site that has provided plenty of sore eyes.
So, today the hede, is:
"WTF: Why doesn't anyone ask who actually runs MySpace?'
almac, hallowell, the jewel in the hook of the Kennebec.
except f the MSM
It's written by REAL players, who get REAL pussy on Myspace...and they show you step by step how to do it.
I don't know about you but Ross Jeffries sort of looks like a child molester, and David D looks like a pedo. Keep paying them thousands of dollars to give you dating advice...when's the last time you saw them with a hot babe? LOL.
When you've come to your senses, check out http://www.myspacepickupguide.com/ ...it's free for 30 days
peace
As the creator of http://www.myspacemastership.com/ and a legend on MySpace with thousands of friends from all over the world, I'll be the first one to admit the place has its risks... On the flip side, it can also be an incredibly beneficial tool with relatively low risk to use if you follow certain safety rules.
MySpace is the ultimate viral experiment and every day I am amazed at how this just keeps growing.
For those who want to reel it in and tone down the site, I would be very interested in seeing what kind of repercussions putting on some brakes on the site would have.
As someone who spends an obscene amount of time on MySpace, all I can say is catch up with this platform and learn to embrace it as I do not foresee it going anywhere soon.
For the best instructional guide and tool set on how to master MySpace, check out the best selling membership site http://www.myspacemastership.com
Your friend,
His Mastership
George Levy