4 ms·

At one point the entire web was fun and quirky, then myspace came along and everyone stopped making their own webpages opting instead to customize their profile

At one point the entire web was fun and quirky, then myspace came along and everyone stopped making their own webpages opting instead to customize their profile in crazy ways, then facebook came along and only allowed rigid government like structure. Tumblr was a beacon of hope for a time, but then wild creativity moved to sanctioned playgrounds like minecraft, or to the personal web pages of highly skilled artists.

jasfi 5y ago
Not everyone knows how to, or even wants to create their own website. These platforms also make it easy to share and network across members. It was really only a matter of time.
creaghpatr 5y ago
Geocities comes to mind
0x0000000 5y ago
> then myspace came along and everyone stopped making their own webpages opting instead to customize their profile ... that's a weird re-writing of history. The vast majority of people on MySpace never made their own webpages, and MySpace wasn't the first "customize my profile hosted on someone's site", as LiveJournal, Xanga, and others came before it.
- prpl 5y ago
  not the first but definitely the largest, probably by two orders of magnitude
  - 0x0000000 5y ago
    I don't think myspace ever had an order of magnitude more users than LiveJournal. Do you have any data to the contrary?
    - evanelias 5y ago
      MySpace was massively larger than LiveJournal. In 2006, MySpace literally became the most visited website in the US, as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace (and I also recall it being mentioned quite a bit at the time). For another comparison: NewsCorp acquired MySpace in 2005 for $580 million. Six Apart acquired LiveJournal in 2005 for just a few million, and sold it to SUP in 2007 for somewhere around $25 million if I recall correctly. Disclosure: former Six Apart employee, although several years after the sale of LJ to SUP.
paulcole 5y ago
> At one point the entire web was fun and quirky I'm guessing this time was when you were ages 15-25 or thereabouts? I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary.
- dec0dedab0de 5y ago
  I'm guessing this time was when you were ages 15-25 or thereabouts? I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. Dammit, you got me. I was thinking of that age range exactly, and I'm always a sucker for a simpsons quote. Though it is undeniable that "web masters" in the mid to late 90s were more willing to try wacky things, even on corporate or political types of sites. There weren't frameworks to keep things reigned in, and it was rarely a full time job, so the fact that it worked at all was enough for most people.
Semaphor 5y ago
> facebook came along and only allowed rigid government like structure. And suddenly, I could comfortably read content again. For me, it was an amazing time, no more eye-hurting colors and fonts, but finally just nicely formatted text. Content was nice, ordered, and chronological. For me, MySpace and similar sites back then were like someone linking foone (sp?) twitter threads. I want the content, but I hate the presentation.
tomc1985 5y ago
I remember most of me and my friends breathing a collective sigh of relief at how clean Facebook was when it came out, compared to the chaos that was MySpace

jasfi 5y ago

Not everyone knows how to, or even wants to create their own website. These platforms also make it easy to share and network across members. It was really only a matter of time.

creaghpatr 5y ago

Geocities comes to mind

0x0000000 5y ago

> then myspace came along and everyone stopped making their own webpages opting instead to customize their profile ... that's a weird re-writing of history. The vast majority of people on MySpace never made their own webpages, and MySpace wasn't the first "customize my profile hosted on someone's site", as LiveJournal, Xanga, and others came before it.

prpl 5y ago
not the first but definitely the largest, probably by two orders of magnitude
- 0x0000000 5y ago
  I don't think myspace ever had an order of magnitude more users than LiveJournal. Do you have any data to the contrary?
  - evanelias 5y ago
    MySpace was massively larger than LiveJournal. In 2006, MySpace literally became the most visited website in the US, as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace (and I also recall it being mentioned quite a bit at the time). For another comparison: NewsCorp acquired MySpace in 2005 for $580 million. Six Apart acquired LiveJournal in 2005 for just a few million, and sold it to SUP in 2007 for somewhere around $25 million if I recall correctly. Disclosure: former Six Apart employee, although several years after the sale of LJ to SUP.

paulcole 5y ago

> At one point the entire web was fun and quirky I'm guessing this time was when you were ages 15-25 or thereabouts? I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary.

dec0dedab0de 5y ago
I'm guessing this time was when you were ages 15-25 or thereabouts? I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. Dammit, you got me. I was thinking of that age range exactly, and I'm always a sucker for a simpsons quote. Though it is undeniable that "web masters" in the mid to late 90s were more willing to try wacky things, even on corporate or political types of sites. There weren't frameworks to keep things reigned in, and it was rarely a full time job, so the fact that it worked at all was enough for most people.

Semaphor 5y ago

> facebook came along and only allowed rigid government like structure. And suddenly, I could comfortably read content again. For me, it was an amazing time, no more eye-hurting colors and fonts, but finally just nicely formatted text. Content was nice, ordered, and chronological. For me, MySpace and similar sites back then were like someone linking foone (sp?) twitter threads. I want the content, but I hate the presentation.

tomc1985 5y ago

I remember most of me and my friends breathing a collective sigh of relief at how clean Facebook was when it came out, compared to the chaos that was MySpace