Dal Times: Myspace e Second Life eletti come siti peggiori

MySpace.com
It's by far the most popular social network, and one of the top ten online destinations overall. And, yes, Time.com named MySpace one of our 50 Coolest Websites of 2006. But since then, things have taken an ugly turn, and we're not just talking about poor page design. It seems the community has become infested with marketers and other opportunists who create false profiles and essentially spam other users, all under the guise of "making friends." Of course, there have always been loads of MySpace profiles of fictional characters, created to help market a movie or promote some other brand. But it's the bait-and-switch tactics from these leeches (Want to be my friend? Buy a ring tone! Fill out this survey!) that have taken things to a whole new—and sad—level.


SecondLife.com
We're sure that somebody out there is enjoying Second Life, but why? Visually, this vast virtual world can be quite impressive, but it's notoriously slow to load (it runs on free software you have to download) and difficult to navigate, even with a broadband connection. You interact in the space through an avatar, but creating and personalizing this animated representation of yourself is tedious. Movements feel clunky and there can be a terrible lag. As on many sites, there's a learning curve for novices, but Second Life's is simply too steep. And there are crazy people around every corner — disruptive types that spread graffiti and get in your way and throw you off your groove. Fans praise Second Life as a virtual hangout where you can meet and chat and buy sneakers and real estate (that's fake stuff for real money) and dance and go bowling and have sex — suggesting that "virtual humans" doing "human things" online in Second Life is somehow less pathetic than, say, cooking Kaldorei spider kabobs or making magic pantaloons in World of Warcraft. The corporate world's embrace of the place as a venue for staff meetings and training sessions does seem to lend Second Life a layer of legitimacy. But maybe it's a case of some CEOs trying too hard to be hip.