Facebook got popular when I was still a freshman in high school, probably earlier, because I was a stubborn late adopter. I think my first Facebook update was trying to convince people to go back to Myspace. 🥲 Even back then I thought it was sterile and boring.
Part of me wonders how many people liked how Facebook catered to the “lowest common denominator” and didn’t allow for much else. I think of how Myspace allowed people to customize their profiles extensively with HTML. A common joke is how either Neopets or Myspace taught millennials the basics of web development through allowing custom HTML. I’m curious how many people on Myspace couldn’t figure HTML out and were envious of those who understood it/could make their profiles “look cool.” And viola! Here is Facebook! A social media platform where no one can make fancy customizations.
I know there’s plenty of other reasons Facebook succeeded, like “the feed”, which made it easy for people to stay up to date on everything going on with their friend group, which of course made it an excellent vector for the enshittification and propaganda generation observed later on.
I’m curious how many people on Myspace couldn’t figure HTML out and were envious of those who understood it/could make their profiles “look cool.”
Used to be websites that would have pre-made “themes” you could copy/paste into your myspace, most of those un-savvy people would just use one of those, slightly more savvy people would do that and then customize individual bits of it (to say change a color or two).
I’m honestly not too sure how Myspace and Neopets operate(d).
But in Denmark we have Arto, as the first “open” social media platform. Which featured custom HTML and all that jazz.
It was fun as a kid, it went out of fashion way before we all suddenly needed to get a Facebook. We had full on years, without that kind of social media. Like we all played flash games on kongregate and online MMOs like Mafia family and travian. But games like those, really spread through word of mouth.
I had two neopets homepages which I still can’t access, because everytime I try to get my account unfrozen, I end up talking to a bot named Blake who tells me that my original freaking sign up email with the exact date and time I created the account isn’t proof. Unfortunately, “can you put me through to a real human?” doesn’t work :(
Neopets was just plain html, but you weren’t allowed to say damn or hell and I think there may have been some tags you couldn’t use. A lot of pages had a GeoCities vibe, there were custom usermade templates that were very 2000s sparkly. You could customise your shop and put profiles as well I believe. Very garish.
They even had a Neodrive online storage in the early days, I don’t think I ever used it though.
Facebook got popular when I was still a freshman in high school, probably earlier, because I was a stubborn late adopter. I think my first Facebook update was trying to convince people to go back to Myspace. 🥲 Even back then I thought it was sterile and boring.
Part of me wonders how many people liked how Facebook catered to the “lowest common denominator” and didn’t allow for much else. I think of how Myspace allowed people to customize their profiles extensively with HTML. A common joke is how either Neopets or Myspace taught millennials the basics of web development through allowing custom HTML. I’m curious how many people on Myspace couldn’t figure HTML out and were envious of those who understood it/could make their profiles “look cool.” And viola! Here is Facebook! A social media platform where no one can make fancy customizations.
I know there’s plenty of other reasons Facebook succeeded, like “the feed”, which made it easy for people to stay up to date on everything going on with their friend group, which of course made it an excellent vector for the enshittification and propaganda generation observed later on.
Used to be websites that would have pre-made “themes” you could copy/paste into your myspace, most of those un-savvy people would just use one of those, slightly more savvy people would do that and then customize individual bits of it (to say change a color or two).
I’m honestly not too sure how Myspace and Neopets operate(d).
But in Denmark we have Arto, as the first “open” social media platform. Which featured custom HTML and all that jazz.
It was fun as a kid, it went out of fashion way before we all suddenly needed to get a Facebook. We had full on years, without that kind of social media. Like we all played flash games on kongregate and online MMOs like Mafia family and travian. But games like those, really spread through word of mouth.
I had two neopets homepages which I still can’t access, because everytime I try to get my account unfrozen, I end up talking to a bot named Blake who tells me that my original freaking sign up email with the exact date and time I created the account isn’t proof. Unfortunately, “can you put me through to a real human?” doesn’t work :(
Neopets was just plain html, but you weren’t allowed to say damn or hell and I think there may have been some tags you couldn’t use. A lot of pages had a GeoCities vibe, there were custom usermade templates that were very 2000s sparkly. You could customise your shop and put profiles as well I believe. Very garish.
They even had a Neodrive online storage in the early days, I don’t think I ever used it though.