The following is a bulletin I just posted (my first) on MySpace:

Dear MySpace Friends,

I'm writing, you see, because I kind of hate this place. MySpace feels less like "my space" than, perhaps, any other site on the internet. I'm not sure I can pick out what it is that I hate most about this website. The creators and maintainers are certainly at fault for its horribly ugly design, its buggy and sloppy interface, and the inane, often misspelled messages from Tom. AdBlock only serves to make this place a little less intolerable.

The general MySpace user, too, bears a large part of the burden of shame. In the 90s, there was a site called Geocities, whose purpose was to teach people that HTML can be used for evil as well as good. Somehow, though, the lesson wasn't learned. This is evidenced by looking at any random person's profile, though I don't recommend it. You'll subject yourself to: a five minute wait while the multimedia loads, the risk of an epileptic seizure from the animated .gif used as a repeating background image, and the inevitable slowdown of your computer as it tries to play at least five different sound or video files at the same time. I won't even get into the ridiculousness of the MySpace "wall," which is at best half of a public conversation, and at worst (and most commonly), a place for bands to post self-serving advertisements. My space indeed.

So, friends, here's my dilemma: I hate this place, but I don't hate you. I like you. I respect you. I even love you. You know, in a MySpace friend kind of way. I'd like to delete my profile here, but I thought that if anyone had a reason that could dissuade me, it would be you.

So feel free to sound off. You can write me a message here if you like, or you can reply publicly on my actual space. I've posted a copy of this letter there.

love -antares