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Myspace (or MySpace) is a free service that uses the internet for online communication through an interactive network of photos, weblogs, user profiles, e-mail, web forums, groups, as well as many other communication devices. This all-inclusive service is sometimes called a social networking interface. It is an active site always updating or creating new features for their members. Myspace is also sometimes used to describe a user created webpage on the Myspace.com service.
Members are usually titled as Myspacers.
History of Myspace
Myspace.com was founded in 2003 by a couple of computer programmers in Southern California. The person mostly responsible for the creation and advertisement of the site is Tom Anderson.
Within months, the site's popularity exploded and the programmers were hurried to improve the site as much as possible. In early September, many changes were made just so that users could delete things.
On September 25, 2003, Myspace announced the addition of several major features to the site. Included were the first group profiles, the ability to empty the trash in the mailbox, a new look for the bulletin board, a mail indicator live anywhere on the system, unlimited friends, and the option to change an email and turn off reminders. Also, a number of bugs were fixed.
October 2003 brought new features such as leaving comments on people's profile pictures, hiding online status, having the ability to block friend requests, and approve comments before they could be posted. In November of 2003, Myspace added features such as Classifieds, picture ranking, and a way to find users by interest. The "Online Now" status was also added in more areas, and the Mailbox was vastly improved. At this time, users were starting to experiment with HTML, creating more elaborate profiles that attracted interest. Some users offered their help so that new and unexperienced users could learn to customize their profile also.
On December 18, 2003, Myspace introduced their Instant Messenger, however it has been strife with bugs and has never seen much practical use. As a solution, some Myspacers have created their own IRC chatrooms, and marketed them as unofficial.
In 2004, musical artists were allowed to create their own profiles and were given the option to post streaming MP3s of their songs to build up bigger fanbases. Some bands even allowed the MP3s to be downloaded. The concept has worked for some, and less so for others.
In early April 2004, new features such as forums, games, Advanced Browse, and a new Journal customization were introduced to the public. The games included the very popular Gold Miner.
On June 4, 2004, members were given the ability to create brand-new groups so that like-minded people could share a common bond. There are two ways for groups to add members. The moderator of any group can invite members individually, or members can join themselves by either word of mouth or by browsing the 'Groups' section of Myspace. However, some groups have gone under scrunity by the creators of the site, with some posting offensive photos, which was a direct violation of the site's rules. Attempts are being made everyday to deal with these types of groups, and in the end the hope is that it remains free of offensive material. Other threats that have emerged within groups and the site in general are spammers and trolls, however trolls tend to vandalize the forums with HTML.
Fall of 2004 brought another small feature to the blogs. Users could now give "props", later changed to "kudos", to their friends if they were in support of them, to praise them, or just to give respect. Another name change came to the journals; they were then called blogs
Towards the end of 2004, and into 2005, Myspace gave the option to "event invite". Many bands are now using this feature to invite fans to shows, and it can be used for many other purposes. Also at this time, rumors of a possible shutdown of the site were circulating and to resolve this, Tom posted on everyone's Mailbox, saying "Myspace is not shutting down, and it will never shut down".
On January 27, 2005, Myspace introduced another new feature that lets members see if their friends on AOL, Yahoo!, or MSN are members on Myspace. However, this feature was terribly flawed, giving those who wanted to use it an error, and never seemed to work.
Myspace implimented another new feature with member's schools, that previously people had to show that they were alumni or students of. On February 8, 2005, all those who had entered their schools into the system were automatically assembled into a homepage for each school or college that they were either an alumni or student of. Members could now search for classmates with much ease, and in the process the homepages replaced some thriving groups dedicated to schools. The new homepages displayed fifteen members at random; all were students of the school, plus recently added members were pushed to the left hand side of the page. The homepage also gave classified spaces for people to sell textbooks, and advertise open apartments and spaces for roommates. Also those looking for these items or positions could request in their own section. The homepage came with its own forums, thus rendering the original groups useless, however there was no ability to add pictures, and unlike the groups, there was no moderator.
Myspace has always had much trouble keeping up with new members, as thousands join daily, and the servers have undergone frequent maintenance to speed up the system. Ironically, all the maintenance had a tendency to slow down the site even more. Additionally, the creators of the site added a new feature nearly every month.
Tom and the other creators have also hosted many parties in Hollywood, Miami, New York City, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and Hawaii to support the site.
Stats
Some stats from the site (as of January 20, 2005):
- There are 20 forums.
- There are around 300,000 topics in the main site forums.
- A total of 3 million forum posts as of this typing.
- There are around 200,000 groups.
- There are around 60 million group forum posts.
- There are 5 new posts every second.
- There are almost 9 million profiles inside Myspace. (as of February 17. 2005)