mistrustmusic's posterous http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com Most recent posts at mistrustmusic's posterous posterous.com Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:55:59 -0700 Zen and the art of Myspace pimping http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/zen-and-the-art-of-myspace-pimping http://mistrustmusic.posterous.com/zen-and-the-art-of-myspace-pimping
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image: Big chill night view by Neil Cocker (copyright 2005) (link to Neil Cocker's Flickr page) I tried it once. That was all it took to put me off it forever. Everyone else was doing it, so why should I miss out? That was what I thought at the time. The whole world except me was joining in and I was the only one not doing it. I finally plucked up the courage to have ago...... I'm talking about "Pimping" my Myspace. The art of changing your profile page to make it look funky, smart, catchy, and anything else you can think of.  Back to my first time..... .......Well, that was painless, wasn't it? Let someone else take control and do everything for me. Never again! Not ever! Never will I do that again. What a horrible experience. It looked like something my three year old would do in Photoshop or the like. I copied the code from one of the many thousands of so-called "Myspace editors", looked at my profile page, and then tried to decipher where my bio had gone, how people could add me, and why all my friends had vanished! Had I done it wrong, I thought. Well, the code hadn't changed, so it must be like that. Don't forget that nice floating advert, that pointed everyone in the direction of possible smiley/trojan hell. I must say, I've yet to come across a Myspace profile that has been tastefully decorated or that's not a navigation nightmare. Instead of "Add to friends", it's always "Be my fwend" or something just as wacky. Backgrounds that don't scroll and are repeated across the page are worse - you end up not being able to see what people have taken ages to write.  I'm sure I know a few things about webpage design - I may not have made the most interesting websites - and most people know when something looks right,  so why are people allowed to to have a free rein over of pimping their space? Myspace should start introducing some guidelines about what you can and can't do. Don't forget, too, that Myspacers who have loads of images, videos, banners, and all the other clutter, are just slowing down the page load time. We all know that a lot of users give up afer a few seconds if a page doesn't load for ages. I'm quite sure it's a lot of fun pimping your myspace. It's not for me, though. I hate it. I'll never do it again. If you're a Myspace pimper and disagree with what I've written, leave a comment and show me your myspace page. Maybe I'll change my mind, but in the meantime, I'll stick with a plain, boring, profile. Thanks to Neil Cocker from the Big Chill Forum for use of  photo.

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