OK, don’t get me wrong, here. I have my myspace. I’ve been there since it was cool, but what happened? Why isn’t it cool anymore? Granted, they have a bazillion users, but anyone who’s been there awhile knows that something happened for the worse some time ago. Was it NewsCorp? I don’t think so. I think it was started long before that giant acquisition. Two words: user control.

Again, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for user control. I’m a professed linux geek, and I hate not being in control of anything I set up or do. I love the fact that I can make my desktop as blingity-gaudy, or minimalist-speed-freak-empty as I see fit. Myspace was kind of like that, once. You could browse peoples pages and think, “Wow. That’s a sweet background.” Or, “Man, this chick must really love dolphins.” It was a simpler time, a time before slide-shows, videos, photo-albums, or… worst of all, the proliferation of myspace editors. Sure, there was the much loved Thomas’ Myspace Editor v. 1.0, but it was simply a substitute for actually knowing how to add a background and change colors or font sizes.

What has happened since that simple, “speedy”, “it only crashes once-in-a-while” days? When did “pimp your myspace” become internet jargon? Now we’re in the times of “God, I hate custom mouse cursors,” and “How many slide-shows have to load before I can hit my back button?” Oh, almost forgot, worst of all, “Two music videos, a page song, background noises, and a greeting card comment with sound? What glorious dissonance!” My ears drop blood just thinking about it.

Should we drop the user control? I don’t think so. Should we limit it a more modest level? Maybe. Did I just need a reason to bitch and moan? Yes. But, most importantly, will I ever start a facebook account? Yes, but after it’s cool.