April 22, 2008
MySpace Deleted My Profile, MySpace Profile Banned, Warning!
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Warning: Run, don’t walk, away from Myspace. Myspace didn’t just ban my profile, they deleted it - for no reason at all.
Have you heard all the hype about Web 2.0? How you have to have profiles on social websites. About all your friends doing it? Perhaps about Marketing on Myspace? Well, forget about it! Forget about it all.
So, that’s my warning, with regards to Myspace. That’s right, you heard it here first. Why? Well, I used to have a profile on MySpace. I didn’t use it for Marketing really. More to make friends, and find dance partners from around the world as I travelled. I had added thousands of friends, all by hand (never used automated software or anything else like that…). We’re talking hours upon hours, upon hours of my time. Days in fact, spent on that site. I was addicted (a little). 
I was in dozens of real discussions with real people, about danacing and such. I had a massive blog, that I had spent countless hours creating, with unique posts, and heartfelt memories. I had picutres, and videos. They were all unique. They were my life! I used Myspace as it was intended… it was indeed, MY SPACE. Until the unthinkable happend. The unbelievable took place…
Imagine my surprise, when I wake up one morning and can’t login to Myspace? In fact, I’m abroad, in Eastern Europe, and have been corresponding with local people about places to go dance, eat, drink, etc… and all of a sudden I can’t login. What’s wrong with my Myspace Profile?
It says there’s been too many login attempts, and asks me to wait 15 minutes to try again. No stress right? But after 15 minutes, after 2 hours, after 2 days, I still can’t login. I have friends waiting for my replies, I have blog posts to write, I have pictures and video to upload, and I can’t login.
So, I write a letter to support, and get back a vague answer of problems. Things like, clear your cache and try again. However, in the bottom of this lists of possible problems, it says something to the effect of "We may have deleted your Myspace profile, so go check if it’s still there".
Well, that’s when I got worried! Why would Myspace delete my profile. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I’d followed there TOS, and I was using the site as it was intended. So, when I went to find my profile, I found that I couldn’t find it online at all. When I went to find my videos, they were all gone.
My blog, my friends, everything had simply been deleted. What a total invasion! I couldn’t believe it. I was actually totally stunned. My first instinct was just to ask them to restore it, as there had been some mistake, but my requests went unanswered. I kept sending them until I got some vauge answer as to what happened.
They still don’t actually SAY they deleted it! They just say IF we deleted it, it was PROBABLY because of Terms of Service Violation. What the hell is that? They go on to say that if we deleted it, we can’t restore it, and all your information is gone.
Oh my god?! Can you say shock? Can you say indignant? All the people I’m in contact with, many of whom I simply don’t have emails for, and can’t even FIND again, are now getting their emails bounced. I’ve been REMOVED from Myspace.
Even worse, there’s no answer as to why. No one can tell me what really happened. It’s all vague hypothesis coming from their "so-called" support team. They just re-iterate you were deleted IF you can’t see your profile online any more. Since all my videos and blog posts are gone, yes, I was deleted. They then go further to note that IF a profile has been deleted, they can NOT get it back, and you can never retrieve your lost information.
There were NO warning emails of anything wrong. There was no way to know what was going to happen. I’m sure their rules and TOS says they have the right to do this, but with no notice? It should be illegal, and there should be a class action against them.
Sure, I’ve heard this happening to SO many other people! I just can’t believe it happened to me. So I wanted to share my feelings of violation, both as a form of cathartic writing, and also as a warning to all those whom have profiles on MySpace or spend any serious time on that site. This can happen to you (no, I didn’t think it could happen to me either).
You can’t get yourself off of it fast enough. No notice? No possibility of reinstatement (no review process)? No support? Now, I want to address in my next post MySpace marketing, which I’ve been hearing so much about lately, and why that’s simply a joke (compared to other forms of marketing). I feel similarly about MySpace advertising, where we were a one time prospect.
In short, with limited time, money, and investment, we deserve to be treated better than this, and as a business decision, there is none to be made. Facebook is better in every sense of the term, so Myspace will get their due, regardless of my deleted profile. Not just Facebook, but the Myriad other social Web2.0 platforms out there that simpy don’t delete profiles and "online lives" with no notice. That being said, FaceBook actually notifies you before deleting any profiles!
Honestly hopes this helps people! It’s quite a shock. Imagine, just imagine, if you were using the site for business purposes, and had devoted any (any) significant resources or time to it? Regardless, yes, I’m still in Eastern Europe, unable to find so many of my prospective friends and dance partners because Myspace arbitrarily decided to delete my online life. Bummer! Guess I’ll have to head out to the coffee shops… 
