Recently, I assumed responsibility for The Dears online stuff. This mini-renaissance we’re in is so intense and kind of extreme that we decided to tear everything down and rebuild it simply. The obvious sites to get a makeover were thedears.org and our MySpace. I know a bit of HTML so tearing down our website and building a discreet pageholder was easy. On the other hand, I’d never used MySpace before and it took me a while to figure it out. Am I alone in feeling that MySpace is a little counter-intuitive? How did this site get so popular? Anyway, after I replaced all the content, I was left wondering: Hrmmm…this is basically a glorified address book. Is there a point to randomly adding friend after friend? How is this increasing our online visibility exactly? And why is a band’s success measured by the number of friends they have, or by the number of times the site has been viewed? I concluded that maybe my archaic brain isn’t ready to understand it, so I soldier on, approving relevant comments (BTW…am I an asshole for not approving the random advertisements by other bands? Sometimes they can be so annoying…like telemarketers. I figure people don’t come to our site to read ads for other bands) and adding friends. I do appreciate the human aspect to it, though, which I guess is the appeal: a totally standardised, human-controlled interface with no hierarchical barrier between musician and listener.
I used to be on Friendster, and the pressure these days to get hooked into Facebook is enormous. Everybody I know is on Facebook, but I just don’t see a place in my life for a scavenger hunt into my past. Upon “surfing” the “net” I recently discovered an interesting music networking site called iLike (toward the end of the story), and further explorations revealed that The Dears are on Facebook. But of course I can’t view our profile because I don’t have the login and they keep the riff raff out that way. I wasn’t even sure how The Dears’ Facebook profile was created. But I’m into iLike, and I’m allowed to update our Facebook from there. So in your FACE…um, Facebook.
Natalia Yanchak 
I noticed the dears main page had been ‘simplified’ a bit.
I wonder if there are enough of us fans to do a fan-collaboration type website thingy. We’re any of us fans can contribute to the website content / layout / etc.
Of course, that was assuming you are going to change the website from what it is now. I figured, instead of paying someone else to do it, just let the fans do it on their free time. Then you guys can keep the money and make more music!
Just a thought…
goddammit yes. myspace is pointless despite the recent innovations. it’s counterintuitive and quite frankly a waste of time. it’s just more meaningless internet noise like the junk mail that arrives unsolicited to your mailbox & gets tossed into the bin without even a first glance.
facebook isn’t all that much better but it’s fun, which myspace most certainly is not. and if you’ve a common enough name (which i do-but you…ah…do not)…there’s not a chance in hell your past will catch up with you unless you want it to.
Dont get facebook natalia!! Takes up so much time….I think you should buy a Nord Wave instead…have you seen that sucker yet? wooot!
Myspace is actually making a bit of a comeback I think. It is counterintuitive but people use it anyway and, where people are so should you be I guess.
I do alot of that kind of stuff for various people so if you want advice or have questions feel free to give me a shout beach.justin at gmail.com
Oh..and if you ever get on facebook –
http://www.facebook.com/profile.phpid=676355194
There is always the option of making up a name, putting up a picture that isn’t you and adding the people you want to (so the ghosts of your past won’t be able to find you.)