How would you change MySpace?

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Blogging, Web services

How would you change MySpace?

by Victor Agreda, Jr. Dec 6th 2005

I've been trying out MySpace since last month. And yes, I know I'm late to the party, but what's all the fuss about? Granted, I've reconnected with some old friends and whatnot, but what is up with their system? A quick straw poll of everyone I know on MySpace indicates the interface is total garbage, never mind all the server issues they've been having. You'd think that buyout from News Corp. would have gained something for their troubles. And since "Tom" (if that is his real name) won't respond to my queries (probably out spending that $500+ million from Murdoch), I thought I'd share what I would change about MySpace. Please leave your own suggestions in the comments, and I'll forward them to the mysterious keeper of MySpace...

Start using Ajax. Seriously, what's with all the clicking and half-empty pages? Something tells me you'd be a lot nicer to your servers if you reduced the overhead by not having to load 3 distinct pages just to leave comments.
How about a control panel for customizing alerts and subscriptions? Each friend of yours could have a simple checkbox UI for issuing message alerts (which I don't need usually, and they often lag), or reading blog posts, etc. Again, this would help those server issues.
Speaking of server-side, is it wise to keep using ColdFusion? Not trying to start a flame war about backend tech, but I hear php can really keep up with the obvious scaling issues you're having.
Let's try some more consolidation of the interface. Do I want to view my comments or view my profile as others see it? Do I want to post a blog or a bulletin? Make these things clear please... And add some RSS feeds for Pete's sake.
Snippets of blog entries would be cool, as would scaling of images on comments. Nothing like scrolling, is there?
Maybe it's my browser, but cookies would help so I don't have to log in all the time. Gmail does a great job of this.

What exactly is so clunky about the interface? And where's Jakob Nielsen when you need him?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Xaos said 9:39AM on 12-06-2005

*First you can subscribe to others blogs via RSS, its in the top right corner of any users blog page. I dont know how well it works however because I havent used it before.

*You can help others from having to go through 3 pages to leave comments on your profile by putting a comment box right on your main profile, say in the "Who I'd like to meet" section for example, or anywhere you want really since extra tables can be added in (browse forums if you dont know how to do it). This also can help others from having to scroll forever just to get to the "add comment" button at the very bottom, which also could be moved somewhere else.

*Need to set options for the number of messages you want to view in your inbox on a given page (as in 50+ instead of 10 or whatever it is), as well as include check boxes beside each one to make it easier to move or delete unwanted messages. May not seem like a big deal, but let it build up to 60+ pages of messages in your inbox and then try to delete the ones you dont want and you'll see what Im talking about. The inbox will automatically jump back to page 1 if you go to another page and delete the messages.

*Whatever they are using to run and program their forums is CRAP. Its not organized at all and is very inefficient. In the "Customizing" Myspace board, there are pages upon pages of repeat questions from people on how to do various things with their profile. If the forums even had a simple search feature, this problem would be mostly eliminated. Of course, if half the users would actually take time to search through a few pages they could probably find an answer rather quickly instead of posting a new topic each time.

Xaos said 9:43AM on 12-06-2005

Er, my bad, they do have check boxes in the inbox, that slipped my mind.

Jared said 10:28AM on 12-06-2005

MySpace is okay. But I am sick of all the server problems and how slow the site is. Being a college student I use Facebook. They have done a wonderful job with that system. For as much as it does it remains very fast with a very high volume of traffic. It doesn't have an usless blog as I already have a Xanga. It shows me how people are connected to me, no just "In your extended network". You can upload unlimited photos, and tag them with names an link them to the appropriate facebook page. I can even pull up a visuization of how I am connected to all my friends at my school. I have a MySpace as many people do. I just don't use it very often. Many college students use Facebook and Facebook just added a High School service. MySpace needs to take some hints and ideas from Facebook. Then it would have a better product.

cheesetoe said 11:33AM on 12-06-2005

I don't use MySpace, but it seems like every MySpace site I have ever visited plays music that auto-starts when the page loads. I'm glad you want everyone to hear your favorite death metal song, but how about letting me click the play button BEFORE I hear it.

Berko said 11:35AM on 12-06-2005

What I hate about MySpace might be minor to a lot of people, but every (and I do mean EVERY) time I log on, I am bugged to enter my classes. This wouldn't be so bad except when I go to enter my classes, they don't have my department listed. So, I choose the closest one, but then I can't enter the course number because my school's courses are five digits and MS only allows four. So, I cancel out of it and then the next time I log in, there's that annoying jackass Tom telling me I haven't added any classes yet. OF COURSE I HAVEN'T, YOU IDIOT, BECAUSE YOUR SYSTEM IS DEFECTIVE~~~! I sent an email into the abyss that is MySpace tech support and didn't even hear it hit the bottom, so who knows where it is. It's probably in free fall right next to Bill, Ted, and Death.

The other thing I hate about MS is that when I go to someone's profile that has music (seriously, people, grow up) there isn't any way to suppress it. Nevermind if I'm listening to Mahler 1, I have to have that overlain with My Humps by The Black Eyed Peas. Nevermind if I'm in the library "studying," I have to disturb everyone around me with some Destiny's Child song I have never heard of. That whole feature should be disabled. Not that MS is where serious web design takes place, but if you have music in your profile (or a background full of tiled images that were never meant to be tiled that obfuscates the CONTENT of your profile) your page looks really lame and unprofessional and NO ONE will take you seriously.

Agius said 12:05PM on 12-06-2005

MySpace profiles generally seem as bad or worse than the old GeoCities pages. Tiled background images that make text unreadable, eye-searing colors and bad fonts, videos and music that lock your browser for a good minute just for linking to someone's page, and flashy banners and other animated crap really just make it a bad experience.

Honestly, I can't stand the site because it just has too much poorly-used crap.

I'm waiting for a good, Web 2.0 social networking site. 43people is headed that direction, Facebook is simple and nice, but Orkut, Friendster, MySpace and a bunch of others are the ones balancing out the bell curves, IMHO.

Jared said 12:46PM on 12-06-2005

Anybody notice the odd similarities in abbreviations..."MS". As in MicroSucks (aka Microsoft) and MySpace. Hmmm...wonder if that has anything todo with it. Just Kidding.

Xaos said 1:09PM on 12-06-2005

If you use Firefox (god forbid you don't) I have found the Flashblock extension to be very useful in supressing those stupid profile songs since the music player is flash based. That way you can have the option to play them if you really want, or just leave them be and be done with it.

norebonomis said 1:39PM on 12-06-2005

myspace is GOD, a god who is trying to kick a heroin habit.

i'm so glad someone else thinks myspace needs a makeover

Geoff said 1:55PM on 12-06-2005

A makeover is an understatement. MySpace needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

The current incarnation may have worked well ebfore it got big, but MySpace has close to 38million registered users. They need more/more powerful servers and they need their backend (hell, fontend too) streamlined.

I agree with the AJAX suggestion. That would greatly reduce server load, as well as streamline the whole process.

I mean, even pagination in the forums is crappy. If they allow 15 posts per page, once the 15th post is made, a link to a BLANK page 2 is created. Pagination should have been the last thing that was broken on that site.

Another thing that never has worked: the "extended network." I thought it'd be like a "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon" thing and tell you how closely related you were to the person whose profile you're viewing. Instead, it tells you that EVERYONE is in your extended network.

Tom needs to take the cash from the sales of the MySpace CD and all 500 Flash-enabled banner ads on each page and buy some servers, programmers, and tech support.

Jon said 1:56PM on 12-06-2005

Well...most people aren't graphic designers, so most people don't understand the concepts of readable text...or songs that auto-play..they're just happy that they can do it. "ooo animated gif's! they're sooooo cool!" But remember back in the day (like when computers only had 32 megs of RAM, and the internet was starting to come of age) when animated gif's were actually cool? Most of these people are just finding out about this kind of stuff. So I don't think that's a truely valid reason to put down myspace.

The real reasons are:

+ the ColdFusion system is runs off is complete crap and it wasn't made to handle as many people as there are.

+ It's really really really slow loading...

+ The interface is terrible in regards to information design as anyone who has ever read an Edward Tufte book could tell you.

The way I would suggest to improve it would be to implement Web 2.0, and give it an interface overhaul.

Rick said 1:56PM on 12-06-2005

The single worst thing with myspace is all that embedded media crap. I don't know how many times I've had browsing sessions with 10+ articles I was reading (not at the same time of course) crash because somebody just HAD to post Ashlee Simpson on their profile. Ugh. Now I just turn off all flash/plugins whenever I use that cursed site. Evidently, this complete freedom is one of the reasons Myspace has done so well. I'm all for online self-expression, but there's CLEARLY a need for frameworks and standards within which that expression takes place.

Kunal said 3:12PM on 12-06-2005

XHTML Strict validation. Transitional at least.

cDub said 4:07PM on 12-06-2005

0 errors is all i ask for

blue balloon said 4:30PM on 12-06-2005

myspace ruin my girlfriend. :(

OJ said 5:19PM on 12-06-2005

I saw mention of an RSS feed... and then i saw a comment saying that there is an RSS Feed, but you basically have to look for it. Which is a problem that should be fixed.

one of my many suggestions would be the ability to display your own rss feed. you know... for people with their own damn bloggers, hosted else where.

John B. said 5:41PM on 12-06-2005

I don't have to log in every time. I use Safari and instead of quitting it i just close the window. The next time I go to MySpace I just hit the "Home" link twice and I'm into my profile.

alec said 6:54PM on 12-06-2005

What I would change:
1. get them better servers or SOMETHING -- ANYTHING -- to get rid of their server problems.
2. a much more organized interface.
3. the option to search through your friends list.
4. the option to control what other users can and can't see (see, a majority of people are using html/css to cover up comments and friends lists, wouldn't it be easier if "Tom" gave the option to do so?)
5. calendar = crap. change that. :-)
6. and some other stuff I can't think of at the moment.

wooo.
:-D

Tubes said 7:17PM on 12-06-2005

ColdFusion can be used to develop a very scalable, high-capacity system, just as PHP or anything else. I have a feeling, though, that the code behind MySpace my be just as much a godawful abomination as the usability and appearance of the site are. Don't blame the tool, blame the carpenter.

Xaos said 9:58PM on 12-06-2005

Yeah that calendar is crap. If you want to add an event like a bands concert or something, first you must go to the bands page and add it, then go into your home page and THEN mark it so everyone can see it since its default setting is to make it private first, which I think is very backwards, gah. Someone should message bomb "Tom" with this article, probably me...or probably not since deleting him was the first thing I ever did on MySpace, heh..

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