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TechnographMass movement to dump MySpace
Blogger complains of pop-ups, spam
By Hannah Hess
Posted: 1/30/08 Section: Diversions
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The movement, conceived by "Bloggasm" author Simon Owens, has been gaining momentum on the Web since its dawn on Jan. 20. The blogger vented about MySpace, including intrusive banner ads, spam and technological glitches, hoping to encourage other frustrated users to join him in abandoning their accounts.
Another common complaint is screen-clogging pop-ups.
"Oh my gosh! They are so annoying," said Maura Urquiza, MySpace user and freshman in FAA.
"I'm against people trying to game social networks to market something. This has been quite common with MySpace - nude webcam girls, products, movies - advertising campaigns create fake profiles and friend you," Owens said in an e-mail.
The blog post featured a top 10 list of reasons your account may be in need of deletion.
Other media sights soon picked up on Owens' appeal. "Bloggasm's" comments rapidly expanded; in addition, hundreds of bloggers linked their pages to his post.
"News about the day has been spread far and wide - it made it onto the front pages of Digg and Fark and was even linked to on MSNBC's Web site," Owens said.
Notices have spread across the social networking world. The Facebook event, "International Delete Your MySpace Account Day," has nearly 1,500 confirmed guests, planning to drop the rival social network.
The popularity of the idea was enough to garner an official statement by a MySpace spokeswoman on BBC.
"This Delete-Your-MySpace day is just about being controversial," Rebekah Horne said in the official statement. Horne is the vice president of Fox Interactive Media and MySpace in Australia and New Zealand. "MySpace is still the biggest social networking site in the world."
For some, the immense and varied audience is exactly what is unappealing about the site.
"I think MySpace attracts so many people that you get really old people and really young people which means more strangers and crazy people," said Katie Motil. The senior in LAS only networks on Facebook.
Owens said he has received a lot of negative feedback online. The blog, "Mashable," questioned Owens' intentions.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
rkrause
Randall K
posted 1/30/08 @ 12:59 AM CST
I've had my share of misgivings about MySpace, but at least it is not nearly as convoluted as Facebook. I'm a veteran computer user, and I still find the user interface of Facebook to be ill conceived. (Continued…)
Drew
posted 1/30/08 @ 3:43 AM CST
I think most people who care already know this, but I feel like the article should have mentioned that Murdoch owns Fox News. Not that it's really important, but it does add context in light of the fact that MSNBC linked to the page, and the fact that Bloggasm tends to have a liberal slant. (Continued…)
Tool
posted 1/30/08 @ 8:05 AM CST
Everyone I know is moving to MYFACE.
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