Inside MySpace.com 250
lizzyben writes "Baseline is running a long piece about the inner workings of MySpace.com. The story chronicles how the social networking site has continuously upgraded its technology infrastructure — not entirely systematically — to accommodate more than 26 million accounts. It was a rocky road and there are still hiccups, several of which writer David F. Carr details here." From the story: "MySpace.com's continued growth flies in the face of much of what Web experts have told us for years about how to succeed on the Internet. It's buggy, often responding to basic user requests with the dreaded 'Unexpected Error' screen, and stocked with thousands of pages that violate all sorts of conventional Web design standards with their wild colors and confusing background images. And yet, it succeeds anyway."
Niche market... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Everyone uses it (Score:5, Insightful)
Who are you talking about? Teenagers and college students? You must be, because as an adult, I don't know anyone that says anything of the sort and if they did I would ignore them from that point on. Please note, I'm only slightly outside of the age range where that site is most popular.
Why is it so hard? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just fucking deal with it and stop pointing out that ==--~~L0N3rz1124~~--=='s blog does not validate. We know, and they don't give a shit.
Re:Google. (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe it is open now.
Do you really want the people on MySpace taking over Facebook?
Re:Why is it so hard? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why is it so hard? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why is it so hard? (Score:3, Insightful)
Google & 20% time (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why is it so hard? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's my take. Surely MySpace allows anyone to design their web pages in many ways, so the fact that *so many* of them suck twelve ways from Sunday is an indication that such "design" is a choice, and not a directive. I'm sure they have templates, and the templates cater to different "tastes", but I'd be surprised if MySpace doesn't let you create a simple page, regardless of whether or not it passes the W3C validator.
Blogo ergo sum, that's what these people like and enjoy.
The Semantic MySpace (Score:3, Insightful)
Professional wrestling is popular too... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I Would Have Signed Up... (Score:5, Insightful)
They really need to break the Javascript engine into a separate thread and avoid hinging all browser response on it. Or maybe that's just a flaw with the XUL way of doing things. Dunno.
Well, (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Everyone uses it (Score:1, Insightful)
I write web apps for a living. I know what a good app looks like. I could write a better MySpace clone in the space of a weekend. However, nobody would use it. Why? Because it's not "MySpace." For chrissakes: IT CAN'T REMEMBER THAT YOU WANT TO STAY LOGGED IN! That checkbox on the login page, as far as I can tell, DOES. NOTHING.
It's no wonder they had so much trouble keeping the system up and running, because they're obviously not professionals.
Re:I Would Have Signed Up... (Score:2, Insightful)
im out of the age range everyone is throwing around here and yet, i both depend on MySpace for a lot AND enjoy its nuances. i am an independent bass player with good credentials and i like freelancing my musical skills. i have had a HUGE number of contacts come through with higher paying gigs. i have met interesting women on MySpace, too. one of which i am now seeing.
MySpace is all about looking around. its a FUN place! i have found insane humor, interesting conspiracy nutcases, fine art, great music, and some incredible design workarounds to beat the default styles in place on MySpace.
Saying you found nothing of value after a couple profile views on MySpace is like saying you found nothing of interest in the Kennedy Assassination after reading page 1732 of the Warren Commission Report (OK, i love conspiracy theorists! the Illuminati are well represented on MySpace. so are the 9-11, holocaust, and kennedy folks.).
its sad when you see readers of slashdot trashing something so 'unmarketable', unpredictable, and out of the ordinary as MySpace. and isnt it cool that something so 'wrong' could make it. it baffles science! Sure, its a little buggy now and then (as is eslasher's wunderkind, Linux), but who hasnt had trouble with traffic doubling every 3 months? theyve done a great job.
give it a chance. go look around. check out some of my top friends. like Erin. she has an AMAZING site!
kip www.myspace.com/kipmartin
Re:Everyone uses it (Score:2, Insightful)
I used to have both clients installed on my home PC until an ad started AUTO-PLAYING sound. The ads also cycle. I refuse to allow anything to run on my PC that will puke sound out of my speakers all willy nilly.
On top of that, AOL's latest (Triton?) version is the most bug ridden piece of shit software I've ever used. Not only does it install some craptacular AOL browser (hijacked IE? Probably), but for several months it wouldn't show as I modified the text input area for chat (GUI redraw issue). The only option was to migrate to the prior version, which has a UI dating back to the early 90's.
MSN's service, by contrast, DOES have ads. These ads don't auto-play sound, and I seriously can't think of a real bug in the client itself. This is far less invasive than AOL's client, and accomplishes the purpose I intend to use it for; to bounce a message off of a friend of colleague.
Naturally, using gaim for either/both services nullifies any of these arguments and you only need to worry about the chat service itself holding water.
Re:Everyone uses it (Score:2, Insightful)
Myspace SHOULDN'T be successful. That's all you're saying.
The Bright Side of MySpace. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Everyone uses it (Score:5, Insightful)
It's fascinating to see such a comment modded up on Slashdot - which is normally the bastion of freedom and personal rights to do whatever the hell they want, when they want.
But here we see the truth - Slashdot who screams the loudest when $MEDIA_MEGACORP tramples on *their* (assumed) rights - bellows equally loudly when their own ox is gored.
The term you are looking for is sour grapes [wikipedia.org].
I beg to differ. (Score:3, Insightful)
If myspace were to prevent people from exhibiting their stupidity, how would I know who the stupid people are?
Re:And we know why they're there. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Why is it so hard? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Everyone uses it (Score:1, Insightful)
Is MySpace annoyingly unreliable and messy? Take it as a lesson. As a developer I have found it extremely enlightening to learn how much crap users will put up with -- if the purpose of the application is compelling enough for them.
Re:What were they thinking? (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess the problem is not much overlap between the 'internet startups' developers and the 'corporate megasite' developers. If the developer's whole career has been building and supporting sites where they think a few million page views a month is big, they are going to really struggle when that turns into millions per day or per hour.
Would a caching layer have solved myspace server problems without also implementing SANs for storage and clustering db servers? I've no idea, not having any experience with such large sites, but I sort of doubt it. Would love to see some comments from people who have... anyone?
Re:What were they thinking? (Score:2, Insightful)