Gillmor

Trust

Dan Gillmor in his book, "We the Media", addresses the issue of trust and comes to the conclusion that it's essential for blogging and responsible journalism (Chapter 6 and 9). While journalistic standards don't apply to the activities onMyspace, trust is still of the utmost importance.

One of the main problems with the community is the lack of trust that many members have for each other. With a community as large as Myspace, individuals tend to become smaller and less important. And when musicians compete for exposure and acceptance on the site, the trust individuals have in these musicians falls greatly.

Recently, the community has been plagued by spam and friend requests from people interested in getting their name out to as many individuals as possible. Within a week of signing up on Myspace, I got 10 friend requests from unrelated bands in different states who I had no connection with. Bands clutter message boards and walls with self-promoting posts, hoping for any exposure they can get.

What this all means is the weakening of trust among the entire community. These weak ties can overwhelm the strong ones that exist. When people try to get as many friends as possible, the value of each friend diminishes. Though Myspace admins can't do anything about it, the community would greatly benefit from a reduction in these superfluous friendings.

Trolls and other nuisances

Gillmor quotes Ward Cunningham as saying, "A troll is deliberately crafted to provoke otherswith the intention of wasting their time and energy. A troll is a time thief. To troll is to steal from people. That is what makes trolling heinous," (183).

Like every good virtual community, Myspace has its share of trolls and other bad eggs. The message boards on each profile provide a space for people interested in tearing down bands because they don't like their music or just to create drama. The ability to delete comments greatly reduces the visibility of these actions, but it's still such a problem that the Frequently Asked Questions addresses it:

The best thing to do if and when you encounter such a situation is simply ignore them... 99.9% of the time they will soon leave you alone. Remember, you can always remove the person from your Friend List (they will then no longer be able to add Comments to your Profile page), delete any Comments they leave on your Profile page, and you can even delete any messages they send you via the MySpace Mail system without opening them. By NOT responding to offending user (i.e., NOT giving them any attention, NOT letting them get a "rise" out of you), most people will simply go away. You may also view their profile and click "Block User", which will prevent them from contacting you. Annoying people get bored very fast when you don't allow them to annoy you. If someone threatens you, contact law enforcement immediately. If you feel threatened, please also read our safety tips