MySpace actually *does* suck.

So, I always like to be devil's advocate, so every time someone says "MySpace sucks!" I ask if they use it. In my social circle, the answer is usually "hell, no!".

But here's the thing. I got a nice comment on a picture from someone I haven't really talked to since high school. So I figured I'd try to reply. I can't reply in context on the photo's comments. I can't go into my messages list and reply there. I even went into what MySpace calls "mail", which is actually their proprietary private internal messaging system, and I genuinely cannot find a way to compose a message.

They have a non-email "mail" system with an Inbox and a Sent box, but no way to write messages.

And then, like all web communities, they reveal their weaknesses through their help system. I looked at the FAQ to try to figure out how to write a message. Here are the categories of answers:

• I'm a band, and want to promote myself. (Yes, that's the first section.) Includes a section saying "What's a copyright?"
  
• My group is dysfunctional, because that's what MySpace encourages. (How do I block people? What do I do about people pretending to be a teacher?)
• We're press, and we want to talk about shitty things that happen on MySpace.
• I'm a parent -- how do I get my kid the hell off of MySpace?
• My profile is ugly, but not the ugly I prefer -- what to do?
• Two dozen questions about members abusing other members.
• Your site is broken. Again.
• I forgot my password.

So, the main help page has nothing about actually using the communications features of the site. Seriously. None. The sidebar of top questions? Is it really free? And then there's a question that seems like it's saying "what do I do about funky formatting on my profile?" but the answer is actually "this means your profile was hacked by someone who guessed your password". That's one of their top five questions.

Guess what MySpace? Ha ha fuck you.