Have you heard? The old Myspace is back. Sort of.
Completely coded by an 18-year-old German named An, Spacehey is close to the carbon copy of the OG social network design in the early 2000s. According to Vice, the new network, which is completely similar to the old network, launched last November and has so far attracted about 55,000 users worldwide.
A vice said he wanted to create a social network that offered better privacy and allowed users to be more creative.
“Thanks to my oldest friends and the Internet, I’ve heard a lot [Myspace]. I came to the conclusion that such a thing cannot be found today, ”said An.
He spent his free time during his forties scouring Internet files to make Spacehey look as authentic as possible from the classic version of Myspace.
And he nailed it.
Myspace has been restarted before, but never with the look of the original. That’s what made it appealing and Spacehey recreates it almost perfectly.
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Spacehey offers some features that Myspace didn’t have original, such as the option to add links to other Twitter social media profiles and other platforms that didn’t exist then. You can embed Spotify and YouTube content, which didn’t exist then either. There is even a section with user-created designs if you don’t feel like coding it all from scratch, though that’s half the fun of having a Myspace, hey, Spacehey.
But there are all the basics of the classic Myspace. Friendly space. Blocks. Interests. Comments. Even the small “online now” tag. If you feel a little inspired, use Spacehey corentin has an ongoing list from other users who have completed their profiles with fun fonts, bright neon colors, and animations almost too nostalgic to handle.
An says that Spacehey is more than just a clone of Myspace. He is very active on the platform, responds directly to user complaints and is not afraid to push the hammer against anyone who spreads hate speech and harassment on the net. This is not only a welcome change of pace in the overall social media landscape, but also contrasts directly with the approach that Facebook and Twitter have taken over the years when it comes to disinformation and hate groups.
Myspace taught me many things in my college. He taught me how to use HTML and that overloading the page with flashy text and automatically played music resulted in a poor user experience. He taught me how to treat creepers that slide into my DMs. But most of all, it was a much-needed refuge for bully parents who liked to scour my text messages and listen to my phone calls when all I wanted was privacy. I’ve been looking for an alternative to Facebook for years and Spacehey has potential.
Of course, there are concerns about the feasibility of a setback to an old social network once the novelty of nostalgia fades. For example, there is no Spacehey app, so if you want to access your phone, you’ll need to use your browser. But I like that. I miss the early days of cell phones not being able to connect to the internet, which made it so easy to disconnect from social commitments for days, even weeks. Spacehey could end up being a niche social networking platform for a very specific user (e.g., a millennial older), but that’s okay.
My Spacehey page needs a lot of work. But I had a great time going through my old Photobucket account, where I saved all the menus and background images I made for my old Myspace. It is a unique temporary capsule of the interests of my younger self: my obsession with CSI, Zach Braff a State Garden (my adult self no longer understands), small icons I made for some of my favorite albums from Icon of Coil, A Perfect Circle and Don Hertzfeldt’s short film Rejected. Somehow, I’m still my teenage self, but I’ve obviously grown enormously since then.
It may not shoot up to the heights of TikTok’s popularity, but Spacehey is a shocker when it comes to curing a social media profile was fun and creative. And I have a great time.