Dear Myspace, please hire me. I'll make you be like Facebook. | Hacker News Reader

Dear Myspace, please hire me. I'll make you be like Facebook.

myspacehire.me

26 pointskrtl30 comments

Clear example of frontend designer not understanding the primary uses of the site he is redesigning. Myspace users don't want Myspace to look like Facebook, otherwise they would just use Facebook.

Hey Guys, it's the creator Nouman here.

I think one of the ideas I wanted to bring to the table was to firstly--refresh the site outside of profiles. I know the design on pages like music, settings, blogs, and so on could use an update and should first be targeted.

Secondly, it shouldn't have to 'look' like facebook. The main idea is to leave profiles the way they are for users; however, provide much more simple users with visual tools to edit theme options like text color, and background color, but like I said-leave the hardcore users with their html.

Here's an example of what I mean:

http://myspacehire.me/settings/

http://myspacehire.me/settings/settings.png

I haven't linked this out much, but with the current heat I'm getting I think my intentions should be seen as not a facebook copy

The designer's concept is about customizable widgets, it's not about facebook. I think it may make sense: typical myspace users LOVE filling their page with glitter, photos, music and all sorts of customization, so his idea is in line with the Myspace concept.

I'll agree that the demo page is a bit bland in that respect though.

Myspace could hire anyone to make their site look like Facebook. It's not gonna save them.

He doesn't mention making myspace more like facebook anywhere on his page. His layout does look very facebook-ish, but I find the edited title on HN needlessly snarky and insulting in its use of the first person.

I guess what I meant was, they can hire anyone to simplify their layout, hiring this guy isn't gonna change anything. I'm sure there are dozens of people at Myspace who want to simplify things. Just click on the link to the dude's about page (which is his myspace link) and there are about 6 flash advertisements on top of all the other crap. Link: http://www.myspace.com/nouman

Facebook removes customization/control from users, and that is why it is so popular. The focus is on communication and connection, not customization and self-promotion.

The fundamental being of MySpace is what is flawed. Girls with glitter backgrounds and odd poses trying to show off their budding teenage breasts, guys trying to get some ass and scope out girls. Of course that happens everywhere, not just Myspace, but that's the kind of reputation that it holds. Most people's "pages" are difficult to look at. The only thing that Myspace is decent for is grabbing new music from bands, as that is what it originally set out to be.

It's doomed, time to jump ship. No facebook^H^H^H^H.... clean design is going to save it now. It's fostered a community that reflects it's design, a crappy one. Just like the startup I once worked for... the culture was shitty no matter how much emotion and passion you put into your work or saving it, it was useless. Certain things cannot be changed or fixed.

This reminds me a lot of Dustin Curtis' redesign of AA. I think the guy has talent and I don't mean to knock him at all, but you can't just expect to throw a fresh coat of paint on something and assume the people who use it and the stigma about it will suddenly change for the good. Heck, Facebook gets shit from users every single time it's redesigned. "1,000,000 strong to bring back the old Facebook!" - there have probably been 15 of those created every single time FB throws down a new design.

tl;dr - I digress... the problem with Myspace is not the design and UX, it's the people on top (Newscorp), the community that has been fostered around it, and the stigma that it has in society. There's no turning back from that. My mom, grandmother, cousins, friends, colleagues, high school buddies, you name it are all on Facebook. Friends that I made before we could text or IM each other, back when we had to call or go knock on the door to see if they wanted to hang out, are on Facebook with me. My myspace page is a joke, a place where my ex-girlfriend used to get jealous and flaunt photos of her tits to all her friends. It's an absolute joke.

Oh, I agree 100% with you on that. Sorry for making it sound like I was debating.

I just wanted people to know that the author didn't actually say what the title says, so there's actually nobody saying that myspace should be a facebook clone. We're preaching to the choir. Or being trolled exponentially, if I may say...

Dustin Curtis was definitely inspiration for this project. As well as the Big Noob's take on craigslist, and of course, "You're Killing Me Zappos" by Metaladdesign.

Not my idea, not even close. Inspired by designers who are much better than me,

I posted an update the page, please check it out. Would love any comments you have good or bad, they only help.

The page doesn't look bad, but it's not super impressive either because it's obviously heavily inspired by facebook. Just to give some credit where it is due, the real genius here is the guy who wrote blueprint.css, without which the OP could probably not have written that sample profile page in under an hour (emphasis his).

The truth there being my friend and I running web design competitions haha, I've adopted blueprint css as a quick and easy framework for these types of situations.

Just wondering why people think this deserves to be on the front page of hackernews. Although it is interesting I don't think every persons ideas of redesigning popular sites, is hardly news worthy. In my opinion he put forth a good effort, is no where near the quality needed.

"this is my job application"

This guy's resume and professional contact list together are shorter than this sentence, at least 1 in 10 people in this country can't find any suitable work, and he just landed a fantastic job interview -- completely bypassing any crumby HR dept -- for a position they might not have known they had open.

He successfully -- dare I say it -- hacked the job application process.

We spend our careers building stuff, we spent our free time building stuff, we spend our nights dreaming of building stuff. Then for job applications we write ten sentences on a piece of paper and call it a day. What is wrong with this picture?

I think every developer should have an interactive resume. Make it your next weekend app -- what can you do to show off your skills, demonstrate you have personality, and also make a cogent argument for hiring you?

I agree that if it does lead to a job interview its definitely great for him, but I hope this doesn't become common thing, with people buying a domain, putting up some html and css.. and self promoting themselves. With that said.. good luck to the author

It's already a common thing. That ship left port a long time ago: personal sites are very common. How is this fundamentally different, in terms of self-promotion, than a personal site with a resume on the front page?

sorry what I meant was I hope people posting resumes on hackernews showing up on the front page doesn't become a common thing.

I admire this guy's confidence, but that's just a clear cut imitation of facebook. As other people mentioned, the people who use myspace don't want myspace to look like facebook. They want it to look however they want it to (which could be tied back to the name of the site). Clearly what needs to be redesigned is the backend, not the frontend. As far as I know, customization of a myspace page (beyond setting a background image) is still only possible by referencing esoteric, undocumented css classes and id's. I can't even fathom the number of ridiculous hacks it takes to create a myspace page like this: http://www.myspace.com/attackattack

No, I don't listen to that band. However, I have a good feeling that everything on that page was created and tested extensively by someone from Vans Warped Tour. Most of the elements are shared among various bands who are all playing in Warped this year. And while a team of people probably took a week to make all of that work, one guy could have gotten it done in a day using straight html and css.

My band has a myspace page, and people have offered to customize our page for a modest $100. And I don't exaggerate when I say this: $100 is probably a deal. One of two things has to happen. Either the bugs allowing customization need to be fixed, or customization needs to be supported legitimately. It's as if the creators just threw the site into NewsCorp's lap, and it hasn't been touched since.

Certainly the sort of person who rearranges the world to fit his vision of it. I hope he goes far. Very creative job application, and he obviously is a myspace user and knows what his own experience is lacking. Unlike most myspace users he also seems to know how to fix it.

Nifty job application. The redesigned page looks much nicer too.

Of course Myspace's problems extend far beyond their UI to the fact that they're owned by Newscorp and are attempting to compete against internet startups while encumbered by a hefty corporate bureaucracy.

Makes me think back to the american airlines incident when the designer was like I have 6 on my own designs lying around which will never see the light of day. Corporate bureaucracy was part of the reason they got into the mess they are in, and with the recent CEO resignation this shows little signs of being changed.

Myspace's strength is the bands which use it, that's what they should be focusing on, the social networking side if it is largely dead.

Too bad he said he made it in "under an hour", which you can also see in the profile mockup: no hover on icons, awkward positioning. If he would've spent a day on it, it would probably look even better. Plus: it would signal a bigger commitment than this one.

could be a good thing. it shows that he gets stuff done over anything else. if the idea is good, they could iterate on it further.

totally, if were to get a position, I don't I'd rush into anything.And as I build, I would definitely have a place where I could show it and gather feedback.

I would say, "MySpace hiring paradox: we want reasonable people, but reasonable people wouldn't apply," but there are lots of people out there. Some like to help innovate, some like to help catch up -- and there's a lot of catching up to do.

His coded version crashed two of my web browsers (FF and IE)

Reminds me of the girl who applied to Twitter the same way.

I remember that. Curiously, did she ever get a job with them in the end?

Needs before and after screenshots, not just after. I have no idea what myspace looks like :-)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com