Myspace is full of suck tonight. I can get into almost all of the associated accounts there, except for my main one. I have a note from Tom, saying they’re upgrading something, it’ll be back, wait it out. I can understand being locked out for an upgrade, but locked out for an upgrade on ONE account? Frustration… Not to mention, I believe they locked me out as I was posting (and lost!) an amazing post on the attitude of some Myspace users.

The gist of what was lost, and shall be re-posted later:

In the past few weeks I’ve been the recipient (as I’m sure we all have been at some point or other) of bulletins from more than one person stating they’re going to delete me IF I don’t go and subscribe to their blog. Five people, to be exact. Unless this is some new form of hacking into accounts (and I’m wondering now, considering I’m locked out and I did reply to one of these people), all of ‘em are going to be gone by tomorrow. I’ve seriously had it with the bullshit about increasing friend numbers and blah blah blah – a good half, if not most – of the people with these bulletins requested the friend-add from me, not me going to them. I don’t give a flying hoo-ha about my friend numbers.

I care about making sure I’ve got people: I respect, like their work, like their minds, like their personalities, that I’ve worked with, that I get along with, that I understand, on my list. If I’ve requested or added someone, that there explains the reason why. If all I cared for was numbers, I’d do a spam add like some of those authors, hitting everyone in every literary and movie group possible. Guess what? I don’t. Obviously – I’ve been on Myspace for three years I think – and my friends list hovers around 450 now. A year ago, it was at 250 (hehehe someone dropped off my list last October, and within a week I had 50 people asking for adds!). Some of those friends are people who’ve read my work and actually liked it. Now that says something for their mental state, but ya know what? I love ‘em for it. Out of every ten requests I get, I usually approve three. I actually go take a poke around their myspace page, maybe read a post or two, check out their stuff, look at their webpage (if there is one), etc. I’m interested in people. Not just words, not just numbers.

I’ve currently got 37 blog subscribers, and I bet only 15 of them actually read my posts. Do I care? No. If they subscribe and don’t find what I write to their tastes, by gods, that’s their right! If they don’t want to unsubscribe for whatever reason – again – their right! I certainly didn’t threaten, cajole, whine, cry, bully my way into those subscriptions. Well, Louise and David, sorta a bit. As far as I remember, the rest are there of their own free will.

I know there are numbers gatherers out there. If that’s the way they want it, so be it. I also know it’s everyone’s right to try and push someone into subscribing for fear of losing a ‘friend’. Personally, I don’t think everyone has to subscribe to every one of their friend’s blogs. Again – my right.

If the worth of my friendship is based on whether or not I read a blog, what does that say about the quality of the reciprocating friendship?

That’s what I thought. And that’s why I’ve lost respect for those people, and some of them had only recently regained it. I’d never had the chance yet to read or listen to their work. I’d been hoping to do so. What a wonderful way to win friends, keep friends and create a fanbase.

By the way, not one of those people is subscribed to my blog. Do I care? No – I just thought it humorous I’m (as are all their ‘friends’, apparently) expected to read their blog, but it won’t be reciprocated. See, there’s that word again, like on my links page.

Reciprocating. More than just a type of saw.