Near as I can tell, what you’re supposed to do on MySpace is set up your space, build your profile, and then go find friends. If you squint, it’s like you’re fixing up your bedroom, and then inviting “friends” over to your room to check it out. They can see the posters on the walls, your pics, sniff through your record collection, or watch TV (the MySpace Movies).
If you leave your page, you basically go out and look for other people, leave comments on their pages, add them as “friends,” if there’s some reason to do so. You might check out the groups. You might click a few things here and there.
But what is there to DO?
MySpace is Boring
Really. Truly. You might be using MySpace to meet up with like-minded folks, but can you issue a rallying cry and reach them all? No. You can send “bulletins,” which in my case, seem lost in a flood of other bulletins, some of them spammy stuff. Hell, even when *I* want to send spammy stuff, I know you’re not watching me on MySpace.
And what is there to DO on MySpace? I haven’t found it. I’ve yet to find something engaging that makes me go on. In fact, the only thing I ever do there is approve friend requests, answer emails, and send the occasional email.
How Flickr Works Better
There are profiles in Flickr. There are friends in Flickr. There are groups where you can contribute your work into projects. There are challenges, projects, inspirations that can travel virally along group and friend lines.
There’s PLENTY to do in Flickr.
And you can share. Flickr encourages you sending your snaps offsite (but please link back to them for reference). They make it easy to publish streams, feeds, photo buttons, and all kinds of other widgety goodness. They have an in-line mail system (which I usually think is silly, but adds to the overall sense of “sharing).
In MySpace, I clean up my room, invite you to look around at how I’ve decorated, and then its just some messages back and forth. In Flickr, I’ve got challenges, groups, new experiences, things to move it back and forth and get people motivated. There are actions. I can tag other people’s work. I can add notes to their snaps. Plenty.
And yet, MySpace is all the rage, has way more users, and captures the attention of tons of press.
Why?
I’ll leave that answer to you.