Eagles on Myspace!

[Freypower]

Now I have an iPod I wouldn't be without it, but I don't take it everywhere I go.

My point about the Eagles having a mySpace page is that it will only be effective if someone in the organisation maintains it and does something with it. If there are no blog entries the page can have all the 'friends' it likes. It hasn't achieved anything unless there is something blindingly obvious which I am missing.

[sodascouts]

If anyone's interested, here's the lowdown on MySpace from my perspective as a 31-year-old. And yes, it's LOOOOOOOOOONG.

I understand the reluctance to join MySpace. I don't think you should do so just for this, certainly, but many younger people adore it. I was persuaded to join by one of my friends who is REALLY into MySpace - checks it daily. She always chides me for not posting more often or posting comments on her MySpace. It certainly doesn't play a large role in my life. I blog using LiveJournal (or used to, not so much anymore), so I don't need the MySpace blogs, but lots of kids love to use those and in fact count on them for a great deal of social networking. In addition to the blogs, there is the ability to send friends "bulletins" of various important events (or many times 'forwards' of the latest top ten lists or internet quizzes, ugh.)

Many young people pride themselves on the number of "friends" they can amass. Often you'll get invitations to be "friended" by people you don't even know. I've gotten some from random people who happen to live in the same town as I do, or happen to be the same age - then there's always the desperate men hoping you're desperate, too (many times these guys send photos of some hot guy and try to convince you that's their photo. Girls do it too, of course). MySpace encourages this kind of "friending" in that it asks you to disclose details like if you're in a relationship or looking for one, your age/body type, if you want kids, if you're straight/gay/bisexual... like a big personals ad. You don't HAVE to put in those details, but still. Many parents cringe at the idea of their kids being involved with something that has that kind of info.

A security measure that one can take is setting one's MySpace to private, so that only the people you have "friended" can view it. This is especially encouraged for younger people. Many parents block MySpace on their home computers to make sure the kids never get into any trouble through it. However, whether or not that keeps the kids off of MySpace once they leave the house is not as certain! Plus, there are workaounds if a kid is determined to get on MySpace in the comfort of his/her own home.

In my opinion, the thing to do is to pound it into these kids' heads that under no circumstances are they ever to meet a stranger alone just because they've had some nice interactions with them via MySpace. Here in West Lafayette, a young man drove off to meet someone who had presented themselves on MySpace as a sexy girl looking to "hook up"... and they found his body in a field two weeks later. That's the kind of thing that gives parents nightmares and has made MySpace very controversial.

On a lighter note, something about MySpace that annoys me terribly but that younger folks seem to love is putting tons of videos, slide shows, sparklie photos and the like on their MySpace pages. I dislike web clutter a lot, and when I go on friends' pages and see their videos that many times automatically come on, their flashing graphics, etc., it does make me shake my head. Hordes of them! Additionally, the truth is that almost all MySpace layouts are hideous. Many have patterns that are hard to read the text over and some are just downright tacky. The lopsidedness of the page - one column of comments hugely long, the other column filled with essentials, then nothing but space - ugh! Whose bright idea was it to make that the default MySpace structure? You can buy services that design your MySpace for you, which many people use. Some are good, some aren't. I designed my own MySpace and fixed the alignment issues as well as contained the comments in a scrolling box, but it wasn't easy.

However, there are good things about MySpace too. It really is great way for people to keep current with each other, no matter where they are; you can find friends all over the world. In my case, I have been "found" on MySpace by some people I haven't heard from in ages. Last year, one of my best friends in high school sent me a message through MySpace. We hadn't talked since my undergrad days at Texas A&M. My cousin Erin, who I've gotten out of touch with, found me on there as well. It also is a good place for people who share common interests to network (not unlike this message board). People who like the same music you do, or books, or TV shows, or whatever, can friend you (these things are put in your "interests").

It is so often used by musicians to promote their bands that they have a special "MySpace music" segment that is different from normal MySpaces in its ability to provide MP3s for people to add to their profiles. This is what the Eagles use. (Many new bands shamelessly send out thousands of friends requests to people they don't know in order to get some folks to take a look at their band's MySpace). It's advertising for almost nothing - having people "friend" them and therefore display their picture in their "friends" list is like pasting up tons of posters advertising your band on virtual bulletin boards all across the world. My cousin Robin, an amazingly talented guitarist who actually played a gig with Matchbox 20 one time, uses one for her band.

MySpace is one of the top three most popular sites in the United States. It's a force to be reckoned with for better or for worse, especially if you have kids. I daresay any Eagle with a teenage kid is familiar with the phenomenon. Their decision to hire someone to make a MySpace for them is a good one, even if it is largely a duplicate of the website.

[sodascouts]

As for the iPod, I used to shrug them off, too. I have CDs, I can listen to MP3s on the computer - what do I need an iPod for? I only bought one when I had to take a 17-hour flight to Saudi Arabia and realized taking along a small iPod with all that music would be a heck of a lot easier than hauling a portable CD player and a dozen CDs with me. Since then, I've found it fun to use in the car using an "iPod road trip" gadget. Now I never have to bring CDs in the car again - I have 8 gigs of music for any trip I take. Heck, I have the whole Eagles catalog on that thing and it doesn't even take up 1 gig. I have the equivalent of around 100 CDs on that thing. Talk about convenient when it comes to the car!

[Freypower]

Your mySpace page is very cool Soda. But all I can think about is what if I set a page up and nobody came?

[Molly]

My kids bought me an iPod for Christmas this past year, and I love it. I love having it with me when I'm doing mundane tasks such as watering my flowerbeds and garden. Hubby finally broke down and decided he wanted his own (I'm not good about sharing mine with him ), and I got him one for his birthday last week.

As for myspace -I'm pretty ignorant about it, is it possible that Eagles's Inc. set it up linked to their official web page to discourage "fake" pages set up by fans?

I mostly have only heard of the negative side of myspace, and if my kids were younger -I think I'd be pretty nervous about their participation. The evening news always seems to be running stories about pervs who meet their victims through their Myspace page. I know that's an unfair representation , but truly it is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word.

[sodascouts]

But all I can think about is what if I set a page up and nobody came?

Well, FP, that would be kind of depressing I guess! I went in there with ready-made friends from my BN.net page. I ran a message board there and lots of people on there were into MySpace. I guess in your case it would probably be people from this board. Honestly most of my peers at grad school do not have MySpace and indeed, it's not exactly a necessity to life! If it weren't for my friend Tiff I'd never have gotten one, although I do like to stay current on internet trends so in that sense it's good to have one.

[sodascouts]

As for myspace -I'm pretty ignorant about it, is it possible that Eagles's Inc. set it up linked to their official web page to discourage "fake" pages set up by fans?

That could very well be an element. They were quite diligent about taking down unauthorized music pages offering Eagles songs to be added to profiles by people calling themselves "Eagles." Most of the time it was very obvious these were fakers, but still, it was a problem. I know they were diligent because, fakers or not, those pages offered Eagles music to add to one's profile and I often made use of it, only to come back later and find it gone!

I mostly have only heard of the negative side of myspace, and if my kids were younger -I think I'd be pretty nervous about their participation. The evening news always seems to be running stories about pervs who meet their victims through their Myspace page. I know that's an unfair representation , but truly it is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word.

You're not the only one. As popular as it is with kids, those horror stories are what the adults pay more attention to. While MySpace is a venue for these pervs, sadly any place on the internet allows people to pass themselves off as something they're not.

As you know, one of our Terms of Service here is that a person can't impersonate someone from the band or anyone that's related to or associated with them. The reason I had to make that rule is because on my Buckingham Nicks board, a mentally unstable girl came online and pretended to be Lindsey Buckingham's wife, going so far as to "prove" she was real by telling us what medication he took for epilepsy. Being an epileptic myself, I knew she was lying when she misidentifed his meds - although honestly I needed no such proof to find her suspect. I mean, what are the odds the man's WIFE would join the message board? It's sad and scary, but as much as the internet offers us in way of positives, that's definitely an all-too-common negative.

[sodascouts]

BTW, I still can't get that "add" on their music to work. Looks like they've got some kinks to work out!

[Brooke]

Thanks for all the info Soda. That has definitely helped me understand what it's all about.

[sodascouts]

Just a note to folks who want to make fan pages, don't put them on MySpace Music, put them on regular MySpace pages. Here is their policy:

"MySpace Music accounts are for MUSICIANS, not fans. Uploading music you did not create is a violation of MySpace's Terms of Use and may be against the law. If you are not the musician who created the song or that musician's agent, do not upload it. Even if you lawfully own a copy of the music (for example, you bought the CD or downloaded it from an internet service), this does not give you permission to upload the music to MySpace. If you violate this rule, your account may be deleted.

If you would like to show support for a musical group or artist, create a fan club in our GROUP section here."