I got an email the other day. It was from a guy who I haven't seen for quite a while. I met him through Jamie, my friend from grad school. As you can see, it was
kind of from him. It was actually from him via MySpace, requesting me to join.
(click all images for larger version)I have a MySpace account, but I never use it at all. I keep it so I can look at other pages, usually bands' sites. And I avoid going there at all. Why? This is why.
The email above was sent to my personal email account. I used my junk email address for my MySpace account. Anyway, I followed the link sent in the email. The following page came up on my browser:
OK, see the
Click Here to Log In link? I clicked it because, as I just mentioned, I am already a member. It took me to this page:
So, as usual, it recognizes that I am a member (Hi, ____) and my login info is already filled in (probably from my browser, I suppose, but maybe from the site?). Here's where it gets a little maddening. I click the login button and it takes me to this page:
So... I Must Be Logged-In to do That? I have to be logged in to log in??? Nice. I click the login button again. I get this:
OK, great. It's my page. It's a freaking huge mess of words and ads and links and whatever. There is no order; it's chaotic and ridiculous. Kind of like 99% of the MySpace pages I've ever seen. And if you look, you can see that I'm in my own extended network! Brilliant.
So back to the original reason I'm there at all. I understand that it's way too much to ask that somehow I would be able to find a way to get to the guy's page who sent me the original email and acknowledge that he contacted me. Oh, wait. No, I don't understand that at all.
So, I'll just send him a request. Am I wrong in thinking that maybe I'd have something somewhere that indicates how I might request to add a friend? Isn't that what you do on MySpace? Add as many friends as you can? I have one. It's Tom. He's everybody's buddy. If I click on
Friend Requests I can see that Vera wants to be my friend. But I know she's just like the rest: a cold-hearted vixen who just wants my money. Her profile will be deleted soon enough.
But that seems to be where I receive the requests. I can't figure out how I send them.
I know how to get to his page. If the elusive friend request button is there, I can't see it.
So if anyone has the few seconds it would probably take to educate me on simple MySpace usage, I guess it might be kind of nice information to have. I mean, if every 12-year-old on the planet can figure it out, it can't be that hard, right?
I had hoped that when Google NewsCorp purchased MySpace, it would clean it up and make it more user-friendly. So far, it's still the same, horrible, ugly, completely unnavigable chaotic mess that it always was. And I hate it.Labels: internets
