familiar faces

this is more of a reference post for myself, but lately i've been poking around at myspace reinvention... clones? not sure if that's really the right word for them, but they all have the same intention. this is just an overview of the similarities and differences. all that. yeah. 

this is a long one.

actually, first up, i'm going to address friendproject, as it's been around the longest. at least, it has been to my knowledge. it's from 2011 and you can sorta tell, based on how they make users define themselves / their activities and interests and how it's structured and styled overall (it's hard to explain, but it does have a more authentic retro feel). but it seems to have a sizable user base right now, which is nice. when i was first learning about myspace in middle school, i saw it. one of my friends (hi selkie!) shifted gears over there, n it seems that the element names are exactly like myspace, which makes (or made........) using layouts from createblog easy. so that's super cool~

it's the only site out of all the ones i'm covering here that has ads, but so did the original myspace, so i guess you could use that as extra authenticity points. it also has blogs, status streams, and groups. but aside from that, i can't look too deep into other functions without signing up for an account. there's also something i noticed in the faq called premium users. financial supporters, maybe? or for popular folks?

second is what most (if not all) of us here should be familiar with: spacehey. the most popular of the ones listed here, has a wider interest range of users. started during the pandemic. i want to say it's quieter now than it was before, but at the same time, i'm beginning to think that you could never really be sure just how many users were active at once due to the inflation from inactive accounts. i suppose that goes for most services like these, that they're seen as gimmicks to play around with for a short time, but still. blogs, forums, groups, bulletins, (formerly layouts as well).

some memories are sweet, and i've made wonderful friends from it. but the poor moderation (i remember the raids) and leadership is something that can't be ignored. even though it touts such a large user base, it's never had the proper support for even a fraction of it, which left a lot of disgusting people run unchecked and had the community making report lists every time a raid happened. this should go without saying, but users of a service should not have to be banging on metaphorical doors in order for moderation to go into effect for the sake of everyone's safety. and users shouldn't have to demand answers for why they're experiencing such horrible conditions seemingly without care from those who are supposed to protect them.

third is napoleonite. i said i would only keep a distant eye on it, but i set up an account for 2 days, to check out what it was like. i respect having more competition into the myspace-clone arena, and making moves to counter the lack of moderation and overall safety on spacehey seems good. the rules were also well-defined. perhaps i just peeked in too early, but it seems about the same as the others. the forums are arranged differently though, as well as the blog sorting, which seems to foster more interaction. 

but there's also something somewhat... cynical? edgy? about it, that sort of rubs me the wrong way. and though i share the frustration (that's why i'm limiting my time on spacehey though still keeping an eye on the situation), the petty arguing and posts some folks engaged in didn't do them a lot of good. and i've always found it sort of ironic that they chose to use napoleon to draw their name from. unless the creators themselves are being ironic, and that flew over my head.

fourth is friendrewind. this is the most recent one i've stumbled across. it's frameworks are a lot more... modern? than the other ones listed here. you can sign in with google. you can... cross-post blog posts to twitter and reddit??? it has support for youtube-based playlists. similar to friendproject, it also has a system where you can choose to add / display(?) your age and location. according to the rules, only adults can send friend requests and messages to adults. it seems like something that can be easily moved around, but it does state in the tos that lying about your age is grounds for expulsion, so. i dunno.

you can only send a friend request once-- if you are declined, you can never send one again. but if you accidentally declined the request, you can send one back. so if it was accidental, it can just be returned. blogs and bulletin posts have auto-save. there are voice chats(?), including for groups. layout builder, both public and private. you can also share videos and have a photo gallery...?

what i'm trying to show is that it seems very ambitious. there's not a clear indicator of just how many people are working behind the scenes on it, and all the integration with modern social media platforms makes me feel weird. perhaps this is just my view on it, but the role that current social media platforms are playing in the world goes against... like. most views of the indie web? but this isn't claiming to be part of the indie web. it's claiming to be modern myspace. it's about a year old from what i understand, so i guess we'll see what happens there. i think this will be the one i keep the closest eye on, because of all the features. maybe i'll use a throwaway email to see what it's like for myself briefly.

what are your guys' thoughts on these platforms? i don't know if i'm coming off as scathing or not, but i have a lot of respect for all the effort put into these projects. building up these recreations out of love of the original and what it represents in the web now is admirable. and i appreciate-- as someone who couldn't experience it-- how these spaces open up the world of html and css customization to others who may not be familiar. i just wanted to ramble about their execution.