MySpace

Lysander · Post by **Lysander** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 6:49 pm

So there's a movement, upon an email list that I frequently frequent, bitching about myspace. I can understand this. I hate myspace. The reasons for its sucking are many and varried, and I've probably listed them out before on this forum somewhere, probably more than once. Bitching is fine. It is our God-given AmeriKKKan right to bitch and goddamnit they will have to pry the keyboard from my cold, dead fingers if they think they can stop me (until I make fun of Pointy or something and RobB bans me out of pique). Unfortunately, all of the emails in question look something like this:

> Hi all, sorry for this post but I'm angry with the situation in myspace.
> I would like to write a petition regarding discrimination of blind users

Yes! All blind people should have as much of a right to post our favorite techno hit of the week along with drunk pictures of ourselves naked as everyone else! No, wait--you're wrong.

First, conventional wisdom is that myspace is a royal pain in the ass for everyone who didn't grow up using it. Let me state, for the record, that CAPTCHA aside myspace is entirely useable. It totally sucks, as I've said before, but you can do it without eyes.

Next, calling it it "descrimination" is ridiculous. I'm assuming that you aren't calling the website itself descriminating since... it's a website, and has no feelings. But who are you directing your ire at, exactly? The ones who designed the interface are only doign what they're told by marketing people. You can't blame them either because they're just following a current trend in the 12-21-year-old demographic that makes up the lion's share of their userbase. So where do you want to go with that? Rupert Merdoc?

Okay, now you have a target. Now you get to proove that Rupert Merdoc hates the blind. I can think of quite a few poparazi groups that would love to do just that and have nothing better to do than look for it. Trust me, 'snot gonna happen. Besides, do you people honestly think that the guy who owns the Wallstreet Journal is gonna move because a couple hundred people send him angry letters? Grow up.

It would also be quite helpful if you could come up with a specific, you know, list of grevences to complain about before you start the complaining. I would think. In the end it's all pretty academic though, because You don't have the right to tell free websites how to organize their content. You *do* have the right to use another service. So do that and stop whining. Please.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:09 pm

I never thought of making a list of all the positives of being blind, but "not having to use MySpace" has to be pretty high up on the list, doncha think? Also up there would be never having to see Rosie O'Donnell, never having to worry about accidentally looking directly into the sun, never being called a cheater during hide-and-seek, saving lots of money on contacts and glasses, and never being disappointed when your hamburger doesn't look like the one in the commercial.

Lysander · Post by **Lysander** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 10:03 pm

We are also not impressed by sleak product designs. Hm, on reflection, maybe *that's* why apple is always finding ways to piss me off. Iiinteresting...

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 10:29 am

From a tactile standpoint, I would think most visually impaired people would find Apple products boring. The Dell machine I have sitting next to me has ridges, ripples, curves, vents ... all kinds of interesting things. Apple products are all smooth and rounded and not very interesting to touch, I wouldn't think.

Also I forgot to mention, but MySpace's CAPTCHA is horrible. I have perfect vision and I have failed its checks many times. I wish I could find it now, but I just read a news article within the last week that gave statistics as to how many people completely avoid websites that use captcha.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Wed Apr 01, 2009 3:48 pm

Hell, you could make a great governor! All you need to do is spend lots of money you don't have!

THE
NO PROBLEM
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:20 pm

Flack wrote:I never thought of making a list of all the positives of being blind, but "not having to use MySpace" has to be pretty high up on the list, doncha think?

Seriously. The day my eyes are ripped out of my head from the fascist new government in like 2054 during the Third Warez Wars, the first fucking thing I'm gonna do is set my homepage to myspace.com. FOR THE EYE-RONY!!!!!!

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:13 am

The greatest thing Facebook did over MySpace is not allow users to change the layout. It's bad enough that my little cousins are on MySpace, sending me messages and telling me to check their page without having to see all the flashing banners and "glitz" they've pasted everywhere.

Just when I thought Facebook was going to get it right, they've added all these apps for doing quizzes and trading make believe bullshit. Who is that for?

Here's to hoping someday they will make a social networking site for grown ups.