Login : Register Home : Tags

MySpace

MySpace fucks up - again

Software

Perhaps I should start a dedicated blog to write about MySpace errors.. because once again the site it horribly broken and I can't visit Bif Naked's profile:

Found a cyclic link in http://www1.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=11152032

Fortunately my social life doesn't depend on MySpace and I've found (read: created) a much better social network, but I feel sorry for people who take MySpace's lack of quality for granted.

Put your gig calendar on your site!

Software

Cool: you can now put your gig calendar on your site! Just put this on your MySpace, blog or LiveJournal, but replace login with your login:

<a href="http://www.robertjohnkaper.com/users/login/"><img src="http://www.robertjohnkaper.com/syndicate/login/gigs/box.png" width="300" height="250" alt="My Gig Calendar" /></a>

The result?

http://www.robertjohnkaper.com/syndicate/rob/gigs/box/009m.png

Also available in signature version:

http://www.robertjohnkaper.com/syndicate/rob/gigs/sig/therasmus.png

(Replace 'box' with 'sig' in the code.)

Your image is generated the first time it is loaded. I will make a schedule job to delete the cache every night, which means your image will be updated daily. Kiki is growing up.

Update: this tool will let you preview images and generate code for any style available.

On-line safety through common sense

Software

Please put down that webcam for a while and while you're at it, put those boobs back where they belong as well. Profile sites such as MySpace are dangerous. Join any such network and you will soon end up in some pervert's basement. Raped and prostituted if you're lucky, dismembered in all other cases.

Or that's the impression one would get by reading The Dead Kids of Myspace for a while. It doesn't even matter whether you are the stereotypical 14-year-old inexperienced virgin (as if!) or not:

Two girls - 14- and 15-years-old - chatted on MySpace with a man for two weeks, claiming to be an 18-year-old named "Natalia." When the man showed up for a tryst at Natalia's supposed apartment, the two girls robbed him at gunpoint!

Scott Granneman's defense of social networks quotes heavily from the list of MySpace victims, but then fortunately makes the same point I've been making for the past eleven years, when I first started to meet people "from the Internet" in real life:

Look, I know there are really bad people using MySpace to do really bad things. If its criminal, they should be caught and punished. But I also know that there are really bad people in the grocery stores, at the movie theaters, in parks, and even on the other end of the phone.

Dead on. I'm also sick of the "Internet is dangerous" hype. The majority of MySpace's 87 million users know and apply the decades-old common sense rule to never meet in private and on your own, so why can't most policy makers, columnists and parents? Follow common sense and MySpace offers long weekends full of consensual sex yet void of dismemberment. No amount of parental guidance or law expansion necessary whatsoever.

Start popping comment cherries

Software

What do you get when you combine:

Profile pages where registered users can leave each other comments! I'll admit that I'm merely reinventing the wheel because this has of course already been done on countless profile and social networking sites. But I still like to tell Murdock to be afraid: be very afraid, Rupert. Not that I plan on getting bigger than MySpace (please no), but building something prettier and better shouldn't be too hard! (Feature suggestions for a next moment of boredom are welcome. And start popping, people!)

MySpace retention requirements

Anglosphere

Congress may be working to extend the record retention requirements to include social networking sites such as MySpace. And all that just when my users page starts to look so much like a social network.

Data retention legislation could follow one of two approaches, and it's not entirely clear which one U.S. politicians will choose.

One form could require Internet providers and social-networking sites to record for a fixed time, perhaps one or two years, which IP address is assigned to which user. The other would be far broader, requiring companies to record data such as the identities of e-mail correspondents, logs of who sent and received instant messages (but not the content of those communications), and the addresses of Web pages visited.

I suspect almost any web site with forum, comment or chat functionalities can be seen as a social network, so it is very well possible even a site like mine could somehow fall under this law (it is actually hosted in the US).

That said, the first option would be easy to comply with. I already store web server logs with IP addresses and rarily ever clean up and I know this is true for most people who maintain a web server

As for the second option, providing all pages accessed is also feasible: that's exactly what the logs show. Instant message transactions would however not be as easy to provide, even without data. I would either have to ensure most of the site's forms use GET instead of POST requests to get them into standard logs, or log all transactions manually.

Although both options are feasible, neither would be the most exciting use of resources, so I'm glad I'm not a company.

Cheap Thrills video

Gigs

Haarlem was quite a disappointment, no Cheap Thrills video shoot at Flinty's whatsoever. Should've checked MySpace and/or my e-mail this morning I suppose.

But that's no reason for a sad face: Amsterdam with Inge is fun as well. :)

Style updates - cleanup and Neon Rock

Software

Small site update: I removed the Kinki-II style because I no longer liked it and I removed a special HIM style because I no longer have any use for it. To make up for that, I also wrote a new style inspired by the layout of my MySpace page, called Neon Rock. It's a nifty black background with neon green and pink outbursts. Try it out from your preferences. If your style selection is set to load the default then you should already be enjoying (or loathing) it.

Back to MySpace..

Personal

I got MySpace in May, then got rid of it in September. For an entirely different reason than what I stated back then, but readers who know me even the slightest bit should have figured it out anyway for am I not a single-minded creature? Anyway, I'm not going to disclose why I'm back at MySpace. All I'll say here is that it's somewhat related to getting (and leaving) it in the first place.

Cryptic much, I realise. Chat me up if you want me to fess up.

Pulling out

Personal

Orkut used to be a fun community site, but it has been invaded by South America. And to be honest, I don't care much for having dozens of scraps, notes and friend requests from Brasilians who know approximately four words of English and no more. For the interested, those words would be "punk", "nice hair" and "kisses".

MySpace is no fun anymore either. It is being spammed by people pimping their friends all around. Don't people understand that when you have to see "add him/her, he/she's so cool" a few times a day, it gets a bit annoying?

As such, I have deleted my accounts on both sites. May it increase the time I spend on political musings, software development and missions of charity. Or at least decrease the amount of irritating nonsense in my life.

Your own avatar

Software

I've decided to post technical web site updates and ideas under "Software" because it bloody well is software that makes this site do its thing (in fact, it's Kiki CMS).

I am considering adding avatars to the site: registered users would have one displayed next to their comments, as happens on many forums. However, instead of using plain images, I will draw inspiration from Gaia Online. Users would compose their own character and add personality to their avatar by selecting the right clothing and accessories.

It will take time and a lot of work to create such a system, which ranges from drawing template figures and clothing layers to creating a workable market system to trade and purchase items that personalise an avatar. It might not even work too well on a site with two dozen registered users of which only a few are actually active.

So what's my motivation to do all that? Well, it would be fun. And more importantly: it could serve as a prototype for a community-based site I am considering to build, heavily focused on the rock scene and gig culture. MySpace meets Gaia meets Ticketmaster meets Mapquest, sort of. But that's a future plan, right now I'm just interested in personalised avatars.

Please leave a comment and tell me if you think I should waste some time on such a feature. I would need a few people to at least play with the system to have it can evolve properly, if that's not going to happen I might as well not bother with avatars at all.

Update: well, the profile site is here. No avatars yet, but there's progress..

© Copyright 1995-2009 Robert John Kaper. All rights reserved.

Tom has more friends but mine are prettier! (#1/1)