Flaming Ninja Zombie Monkeys

From Windows Live Spaces: "Too Much Space, Even with Spaces"
May 01

It's a shame that I started using Spaces at the same time as Pownce. Pownce is so good it may well have wiped out my need for Jaiku, Spaces, Pageflakes, and many other sites like Last.Fm which many use, and I was beginning to, as a blog/social network even though its purpose is mainly for music tracking, internet radio, and as a music database. Pownce and Spaces are very different but ultimately serve the same purposes.

Spaces isn't exactly your typical social network, but it does serve to help connect you with your Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail contacts. It's not impossible or improbable that someone could create an account with Windows Live just for Spaces, which then would be the same as creating an account at Pownce or any other social network service except in this case they would coincidentally happen to have a messenger and email account automatically as a side effect. The line is blurring as to what service Windows Live Spaces is providing as all of the different Microsoft services are interconnected.

Spaces also works as a blog, like Pownce (although generally shorter posts on Pownce), Jaiku (very short posts, a mini-blog it's called), and Last.Fm has Journals. I'll explain. The atmosphere on Spaces comes from many small details. For example how large the box is by default for the Spaces blog entry form I am typing in now. It points to an expectation that people who use it will be typing messages on the longer side, a page or more. Jaiku actually has a limit of 140 characters, which is very short. The character limit of Jaiku lends itself to use as extended status messages, a summary. I haven't hit a character limit on Pownce yet with any of my posts there but again, from the default size of the box you compose your messages in, and the length of messages I have seen other Pownce users post, I conclude that it was designed with the expectation of messages length-wise somewhere between Jaiku and Spaces. However, there is nothing stopping anyone from using the Spaces blog to write short messages like you would at Jaiku. The ability to change the theme of Spaces is mirrored in Pownce, to a lesser degree Jaiku, and even on YouTube. Spaces isn't so different after all.

Here is the problem, it is no small task staying active and posting on the 15+ web sites I use. Much of what I write on the blog/social network sites I could have written on some of the forums I use as well. Yes, I know, I could copy and paste my posts on multiple sites. I do that sometimes, and will with this post as well. It's still not easy to copy that many times. I also feel guilty, I feel like I should be writing separate exclusive content on some of the sites. Also I feel like "why bother" since very few people actually look at all my profiles or read my blog posts (if any heh). I do try, but I realize that at some point I should cull the sites that I don't really use or don't need and focus on a smaller handful.

I don't have a lack of places to write in. I have too much space, even with Spaces.

As I said, it's a shame I started using Spaces at the same time that I started using Pownce. It is also a shame I started using both of them at about the same time I started taking a class in web design using Dreamweaver at school. My final project for that class will be a replacement of my current personal web site I made 5+ years ago and is so outdated in both design and content I am ashamed to look at it. My new web site that uses CSS extensively, will partly be a blog (RSS included, manually updated). So you see, a site I design myself with my own name on it, customized precisely how I want, and updated how I want (even its layout if I wanted) would always be strongly proffered over any other blog/home page/social network site out there.

So as much as I am now in love with Pownce and recommending it to as many people as will listen, its time, and that of Jaiku, Pageflakes, Spaces, and others is now cut short. I will not say definitively I will not be using any of them at all, but my use of them will be significantly reduced. I will still use Jaiku for it's ability to bring together all RSS feeds into one feed, but for the most part I will no longer be posting there. Pownce is still new. As I said in my last blog entry, one of it's leaders is Kevin Rose, whom I respect and trust will lead it in the right direction, so I know Pownce will grow and add features. I will stick around, or in the least, lurk around, until it matures and I can judge it more fairly if it is something that I will want to keep using.

I never had enough time to customize my Pageflakes page the way I would have liked and not enough time to remember to even go there. I don't think I will have any reason to keep using it. The jury is in session for the other sites I use, including Spaces.

My new personal site should be finished and live in less than a month. Stay tuned for updates on its release!