OT: MySpace

[Black_Knyght]

My son has asked me about MySpace.com a number of times, so I just signed up to see what it's all about. Better to know first-hand than discover by accident, I guess.

[TurinTurambar]

It's got a lot of crap on it, but it's a useful tool for musicians to network and promote among other things. There are cliques there already... I prefer the "musicians clique."

[Black_Knyght]

Making a MySpace page is difficult at best if you don't have a mastery of HTML. And so far, pretty much just a waste of space.

On the other hand, I am suddenly getting a wave of young hotties e-mailing me and wanting to be my friend.....

[Renegade 13]

Yeah...and perhaps they want your credit card info as well?

[Black_Knyght]

BINGO !!!

While I may be self-deluded in the knowledge that I'm all that AND a bag of chips, I doubt THEY are....

[Atrocities]

Myspace is a joke. It is a place for sick *** people to hang out and hunt down kids. Right now it is mostly trolled by pedifiles and cops pretending to be 13 year old girls and boys.

I have received over 400 "friend" offers. Some are from kids, most are from what I fear to be gay white males. Sick I know, and that is why I do not advocate the site in any way. I have not responded to any emails and do not plan too.

I watched on Dateline NBC where they used Myspace to set up a [censored] load of dumb ****s to come try and have sex with 13 year old girls. IMHO it is intrapment when the person is pretending to be 13 and is not. Or when they actively lie to a dumb [censored] in order to coax him into coming. That is pure entrapment plain an simple and these yahoos fall for it all the time.

Sure they are sick SOB's to drive 200 miles to meet an alleged 13 year old girl or boy. YEs they should be casterated and have the ever lovin [censored] kicked out of them for being such sick *** perv's, but hey, when you entrap someone for the purpose of making a TV show, that is just not right. Entrapment is illegal and if these guys could get a lawyer with any degree of ability, would beat these cases cold.

What would poses a 50 year old man to drive 400 miles to have sex with an alleged 13 year old girl? You just have to ask yourself, WTF is wrong with someone like that. If some old fart or greesy sleeze ball ever showed his sick *** face around here looking to score with a 13 year old, he would get his fat *** kicked. I am sure that one day they would find his body, but given the condition it would be in, they would never be able to identify it.

Myspace is just evil... I would recommend that you keep your kids off of it. The internet is not the center of their social life, and even if it is, MySpace is just pure evil.

[Black_Knyght]

I'd have to say I agree with you completely, AT !!!

I've seen these news reports and heard things about MySpace.com, too. When my son approached me about it, my original thought was simply "NO !". Then, I decided to take a look for myself, with the thought in mind that I would see what it's like for myself.

I kept things simple, made no overtures to anyone, and left it alone. And have been bombarded by a plethora of women who are willing to pose, young teens offering to be my friend, gay older men wondering if I'm curious, and nearly everything else you can imagine.

There's not a chance in hell I'll ever let my son get anywhere near MySpace.com, and I'll immediately attempt to discourage anybody else who asks my opinion of it !!!

That place is nothing but trouble waiting for an opprotunity to ooze out into the lives of people.

[Slynky]

TurinTurambar said:
It's got a lot of crap on it, but it's a useful tool for musicians to network and promote among other things. There are cliques there already... I prefer the "musicians clique."

That's what it started out to be...a place for people trying to become successful at something (music, art, writing, etc.) but because the space is free, kids (always wanting to do "grown-up" thing) "discovered" it as a place to have their own little "space". So, the news of late tends to forget the original reason and focus on all that it has become.

It's now the second-most visited site in the world behind Yahoo (I think...or was it Google?)!!!

My wife's best friend's daughter just got her site taken away from her when her mother managed to get on it and find out she was spittin' out lie after lie on it (the most maddening of which was telling people her mother had had her when she was 16 and not married). Most kids, because it has a few levels of password protection, really let themselves "go" and you can see what they are like when they don't think Mommy and Daddy are "watching". For example, her language surprised the hell out of them!

Same goes for my wife's son (my stepson) who has his space, too. I don't get into his life a lot (another story ) but do give my wife a bit of advice about it. She had to search all over just to find his space and after that, couldn't see anything except the public stuff. Then she got a password or something from a friend of his and could see more. Didn't like some of the stuff that was on it and told him to take it off. But, she still can't see into all the blogs (if I understand correctly). I told her to tell him the I'net was a privilege and not a right and that if he wanted a space, he'd have to withstand total scrutiny. That's where it stands now at our house.

My daughter is 11. If she ever maneuvers me to get a space (hopefully, the 'fad' will be over by then), I'll have complete access to it or it won't happen. As it is, she gets on the PC outside our room and has to worry about being seen doing something she shouldn't. I don't let her have an email address and she hasn't sneaked one (yet). I don't allow IM. She just plays games right now.

But, we all remember school and peer pressure. These days, when you're hangin' around a group of kids and they all talk about their space and YOU are the only kid in the group that doesn't have one, you may be made fun of (etc.). So what will any child do to become socially accepted? Make their own space, of course.

As a parent, it seems to me to be something to be approached with (hopefully) the right answer and balance for everyone concerned.

[Ed Kolis]

Sorry to bring back this dead topic, but I thought I'd mention that I just started a Space Empires group on Myspace... I already invited Black Knyght to join since I know he has an account; anyone else want to join? Maybe we'll meet some new people there, you never know!

edit: linky winky, duh! http://groups.myspace.com/spaceempires

[Atrocities]

Sounds good.