Myspace 1.0 to 2.0

[toxiclover1]

A few months ago, I tried changing my 2.0 profile back to a 1.0 profile and had no luck even though according to myspace you can change it back.  Not sure if it was just me or if you really cannot change it back.  I was wondering... Could it be possible that sometime in the near future maybe MS will automatically change ALL PROFILES to 2.0?  If they did that, it would open up quite a few target profiles.  Just wondering if anyone thinks it's possible. 

[swytch]

You may have already seen this but:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=6221&blogID=447772043

However, I wouldn't rule the thought out entirely...


Swytch~~   

[angelfire]

At first, Myspace allowed 90 days to switch back to 1.0 from 2.0, but at some point they shortened that window of time from 90 days to only 7 days, which is what it is currently. I read that on their help blog yesterday, but now I can't find that entry. If I can find it again, I'll post it. But that's why you can't change it back, because of the time limit. All profiles made after April 1, 2009 are automatically 2.0 as well.


This is a rather late edit, but here's a link to the 7-day limit:

http://faq.myspace.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/184/kw/friend%20request/r_id/100061

[angelfire]

Another thing about 1.0 vs 2.0 -- as of now, in 1.0 you can no longer see another user's status and mood.

Both my real myspace and my fakespace were created in 1.0, and I never changed them. Last night, I signed into my fakespace to view others' status and mood histories, and I couldn't see them! Not even the current ones on the users' pages, they just weren't there. It didn't matter if the person I was viewing was a friend or not. I tried HITS, and they didn't show up there, either. Tried going to others' pages without being signed in, same thing. On most of the profiles, the "view more" button to see status & mood history was gone, too. I couldn't even see MY OWN status & mood on my page while signed in!!! I still had a "view more" button, but when clicked it said there was nothing to display (even though there is).

I went to the help section to see what was going on, and that's where I found the news that you now have to be in 2.0 to see status & mood. Also found the help blog post about the 90-day switching period being shortened to 7 days.

I upgraded my fakespace to 2.0, and sure enough -- I could see them all again from there.

This change must have gone into effect yesterday, as I had no problem seeing others' status & mood in the morning before I left for work, but I had to upgrade to 2.0 to see them by the evening.

HITS now shows them again too, so the effect there was only temporary, thank goodness!

[toxiclover1]

I appreciate the feedback about the time limit to switch back and all that, but I would also like your opinions on the second part of my post.  Do you think at some point myspace will automatically change all 1.0 profiles to 2.0 profiles and be done with 1.0 entirely? 

[angelfire]

I think they might at some point, but not for some time.

In the myspace blog post that Swytch linked to, announcing the launch of 2.0 back in November of 2008, it said

You can switch back and forth between 2.0 and 1.0 whenever you want.

Well, we know that the term "whenever you want" didn't last, as there is now a 7-day limit on switching back. So I'm skeptical of this further claim in that same post:

P.S. No, we are not forcing people to switch to this profile, and don't intend to.

It's evident that they prefer their users to have 2.0, and if it's easier for them to have only that one type of profile available, I think they'll impose that on their users whenever they can.

However, when they could feasibly do this is the question. One more thing from that initial 2008 blog post was this:

Unfortunately, 2.0 is not available to IE6 users. The advanced features of the editor just can't work with IE6. It's also not yet available for musician, filmmaker or comedian profiles.

IE6 is still widely in use -- as of Dec. 2009, it still had a market share of 18.93%.

http://www.statowl.com/web_browser_usage_by_version.php?1=1&timeframe=last_6&interval=month&chart_id=4&fltr_br=&fltr_os=&fltr_se=&fltr_cn=&limit[]=ie&timeframe=last_month

That's a lot of IE6 users, and most likely includes a fair number of Myspace members. Until the number of IE6 users drops to much less than nearly 20% of the market, Myspace can't mandate a switch or do it automatically without effectively making their site suddenly inaccessible to all members who still have 1.0 and IE6. That would cause quite an outcry and a PR problem. Not to mention the musician, filmmaker, and comedian profiles that would suddenly be unable to use the site too (unless that issue has since been fixed, I don't know if it has or not).

So my opinion is that yes, Myspace would love to mandate that switch, and probably will someday, but it won't be until IE6 is out of circulation (or close to it) and they've fixed the issue with artists' profiles (if they haven't already). Does anyone have any guesses as to how long it will take for the remaining fifth of IE6 users to upgrade to something else? Some folks really don't like change...