Love, Love, is a Virb, Love is a doing word.

After my huge, plate-throwing big-row with MySpace (with no breakup sex, I'm glad to report), our on and off relationship is now officially ended. I've been looking for something to fill the void, and I think I might have found it just now whilst browsing websites that link to Yellow Shoes. This post mentioned a place called virb, which rang a bell - I was reading Computer Arts in WH Smith about a month ago, and thought I read something about it. Of course by the time I got back home, I'd completely forgotten the name of the website, and after a frantic search through the usual suspects, could find nothing of this amazing place hailed as a designer's dream.

A cursory glance through the site seems to confirm a fairly happy community, and they really do try and promote good design, which is really important to me - I won't lose sleep if I never saw another animated background proclaiming this profile to be "pimped" (which I've accrued enough knowledge by now in my life to know means it will look like a cat shite on it, and that the owner of said "pimped" profile will generally be at best illiterate, and at worst, a scally.)

I'll take a better look around the site when I am less tired and have more time, but it's already looking like Virb could have what I want in a social networking site: a friendly place that's still visionary, and that I can put my own mark on. At first glance it looks like Virb is a MySpace for the grown-up generation.

MySpace: The final crushing blow...

I awarded MySpace today with my coveted Tosspot of the Year Award. After spending many hours designing one of the few legible profiles on the site, and bringing more than a few visitors their way, I feel I can no-longer uphold this relationship built on spite, malice, and greed (and all that coming from MySpace's end of the bargain).

It all started when MySpace decreed it was to use a new "spammer blocking system", which did a grand total of fuck all to stop spammers using MySpace. What it did do though, was stop anyone creating links to legitimate sites in their profiles which even vaguely hinted at being in competition with MySpace. Therefore all links to my blog were in one fell swoop rendered completely and utterly useless.

Being the enterprising young chap that I am, within 10 minutes I'd found a way around their blatant censorship of legitimate users, and put the method onto the internet for others to be able to use. It took MySpace about a month, but eventually they found out what was going on, and blocked my workaround. I lost heart in finding another way around their Nazism, and lost interest in their site.

The final blow came today, when, after sending them an email complaining of their censorship I got this response:

Hi there,



Thank you for sharing your comments and suggestions. We consider them
important and will take them under advisement.



MySpace.com

Well golly, thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to reply to me personally there, MySpace! I sure do feel swell now, and can't wait to get on with using all those fancy new features you've been installing lately (or err... not), that everyone has been asking you for since... oh... the dawn of time. I'm really happy that you consider my comments so important that you'll do absolutely sod all about them.

I shall henceforth be reducing my myspace profile to a page that does nothing but slag myspace off. You're not the only crap social networking site out there MySpace, but you are the crappest, and therefore I crown thee Tosspot of the year. I shall be taking my social networking needs elsewhere, probably the pub, where I shall delight in chasing many monkeys, punching many boxers, and helping many things (amphibian and otherwise) to cross roads in the hope of winning a free ringtone, all the while laughing manically at your expense.

Tossers.