International Delete Your Myspace Account Day is here!
The day has finally arrived. Last Sunday I declared January 30th to be International Delete Your Myspace Account Day. The idea quickly caught fire, being linked to on hundreds of websites spanning from Digg to Fark to MSNBC. Several journalists interviewed me about the day, including live radio and television interviews. I was also interviewed by a journalist at the Washington Post. A Myspace spokeswoman even responded to the event.
Many of the people who linked and commented on my post agreed with me whole-heartedly: Myspace sucks. And to drive that message home, we’re finally disposing of our useless profile pages all together on one day.
So if you’ve deleted your Myspace page today, tell us about your experience in the comments section. Several people have emailed me over the last few days to tell me that they tried to delete their profiles only for the confirmation email never to be sent. If this happens to you, it’s a serious issue that Myspace needs to address. Please let us know about it.
If anyone needs to contact me about this day, you can email me at simon.bloggasm@gmail.com for more information.
Below is a list of steps for you to delete your profile. I already tried them on my own myspace page. Supposedly Myspace is supposed to delete it within 48 hours. We’ll see if that happens.
Now, the steps:
1. Log in at Myspace.com
2. Click on “account settings” next to your profile picture
3. Click on the “cancel account” link at the bottom of the screen
4. On this screen it tells you to confirm your cancellation. It also provides you a box to explain why you’re canceling your account. To really drive home the message, you should put “Because it’s International Delete Your Myspace Account Day” as your reason. That will let them know that you’re deleting the account because of the cause.
5. You should receive an email that will allow you to “confirm” (hey, didn’t I already “confirm” it like two clicks ago? Myspace sure doesn’t want me to leave) your cancellation. After you’ve once again confirmed it, it tells you to give it 48 hours to complete the cancellation.
6. If your profile doesn’t disappear in 48 hours, raise bloody hell.
Good luck everyone! Happy cancellation!
–Simon
UPDATE: New Matilda has published a feature article about the event.
UPDATE 2: Here’s a video clip from one television news station that covered the event. Here is the story done by the Washington Post.
UPDATE 3: Another TV news station does a report about International Delete Your Myspace Account Day. (The video is on the righthand side)
UPDATE 4: News.com, the publication that had the response from the Myspace spokeswoman, has published a follow-up article after interviewing me. It includes an additional non-response from Myspace.
Permanent link to: International Delete Your Myspace Account Day is here!
astrogirl said,
January 29, 2008 @ 11:02 pm
well I just tried to delete mine (since it’s the 30th here). What an awful experience!
The first problem I had was that I actually had to go to myspace.com to do it. I feel tainted now. LOL
The other issue was with logging in. I haven’t used my account in a long time, and even then I only used it once or twice. So with this day in mind, I figured today was a good day to delete it. I logged in, and got a “you must be logged in to do that” message. Right. I must be logged in to log in apparently! Even though it said “hi *username*” it still told me I needed to log in. I tried to log in again. Same error message. OK I thought, perhaps it’s a glitch and I am actually logged in anyway. So I went to go to my profile… and discovered that it’s really hard to find your profile when you aren’t logged in properly. So I tried searching for myself using the name that was in the “hi *username*” section. Zero results. I tried searching by the email address I logged in with. Zero results. At this point I had been on the site ten minutes or so. Ten minutes too long!
Eventually I asked a friend that I knew had me listed as a “friend” on her account if she could link me to my profile (and told her about Delete Your Myspace.com account Day” at the same time). My profile page didn’t get me very far though because there were no account settings.
So I tried logging in again. Held my breath, crossed my fingers… And it worked! I cancelled my account with the reason that it was because of “delete your myspace accnt day” and congratulated myself on getting through the traumatic event.
I haven’t as yet received a cancellation confirmation email though.
Rachael said,
January 29, 2008 @ 11:14 pm
I jumped the gun and I already deleted mine. Hopefully my redundant cancellation email won’t be too long in coming.
SUCK IT, MYSPACE!
Hong Kong Phooey said,
January 30, 2008 @ 12:00 am
We support you all the way.
corrin said,
January 30, 2008 @ 12:04 am
i love to snoop too much to delete my account, but i’ve blogged about it for my readers…
http://delightfullydorky.com/?p=380
stargazercmc said,
January 30, 2008 @ 1:53 am
I deleted mine sometime last year for the very reason that it sucks rocks. What’s sad is I see most of my friends around me using it anyway.
I just don’t get it. It’s like making the choice to perform the 1812 Overture with Fisher Price musical instruments.
A Blackhat’s Diary said,
January 30, 2008 @ 2:54 am
today is the day - 30th january - what? - YOU HAVE TO FUCKIN’ DELETE YOUR FUCKIN’ MYSPACE ACCOUNT! - damnit!
DO IT! NOW! NOT ASAP! NOW!
if you forgot your password (like me), request a new one!
…and do it not later… DO IT NOW! GODDAMNIT!
if you want to know how to delete your already totally with spam and fake friend requests overfilled myspa…
A Blackhat’s Diary said,
January 30, 2008 @ 2:54 am
today is the day - 30th january - what? - YOU HAVE TO FUCKIN’ DELETE YOUR FUCKIN’ MYSPACE ACCOUNT! - damnit!
DO IT! NOW! NOT ASAP! NOW!
if you forgot your password (like me), request a new one!
…and do it not later… DO IT NOW! GODDAMNIT!
if you want to know how to delete your already totally with spam and fake friend requests overfilled myspa…
mrcsweb said,
January 30, 2008 @ 3:48 am
Heute ist der “International Delete Your Myspace Account Day”
Einem US-Blogger gefällt MySpace nicht mehr und deshalb rief er zum International Delete Your MySpace Account Day am 30. Januar 2008 auf, damit es die Betreiber von MySpace auch ordentlich spüren. Vermutlich würde es keinen interessieren, wenn nicht…
ronnie said,
January 30, 2008 @ 4:18 am
Jumped the gun as well, no regrets!
rhi said,
January 30, 2008 @ 4:53 am
I just tried to delete mine, just waiting for the confirmation email. We’ll see what happens ‘eh.
Kenray said,
January 30, 2008 @ 6:04 am
Nice instructions.. any musicians out there thinking about joining the fun should have a look at part 2 of this article:
http://www.veronicablood.com/blog/2008/01/25/30jan08-international-delete-your-myspace-account-day/#more-18
Cope said,
January 30, 2008 @ 6:09 am
I’m out and it feels great! I was one of those people who loved to snoop as well, and I will miss all the WebCam girls who wanted to be my friend, but I feel a rush of productivity coming on (or massive quantities of time being burnt of Facebook).
Great idea. Thanks for pushing me to get the monkey off my back.
Flint said,
January 30, 2008 @ 7:44 am
I attempted to Digg your article, but Digg says “This link does not appear to be a working link. Please check the URL and try again.” Weird. =/ Do you normally have trouble with Digging articles from your site?
Anyway, I blogged it and I’m telling friends and coworkers.
Social Platform Journal said,
January 30, 2008 @ 8:27 am
Simon,
Thanks so much for posting those instructions. I actually did delete my myspace page about a month ago, and am still getting friend requests! I guess I never got that confirmation email
I’ll do another write up about this special day in web 2.0 history …
Olivia said,
January 30, 2008 @ 8:29 am
Hi Simon, thanks for your comments on the show - we talk about you again on tomorrow´s (Thursdays) show, so check it out if you can! http://dailybuzz.mobuzz.tv/
Anne Helmond said,
January 30, 2008 @ 9:44 am
International Delete Your Myspace Account Day: The Morning After is Elfriendo Day!
Deleting your MySpace page is painful. You had friends, too few or too many. It had taken over your life, or you wish it had. Was your profile stale? Were you too active? The morning after International Delete Your Myspace Account Day elfriendo gives y…
I'dDream.com said,
January 30, 2008 @ 10:23 am
January 30th: A Day of Deletion
I mentioned this nearly a week ago. In case you’ve forgotten. Today is the day.
In other news. There’s a new Social Networking site many people are adopting called Get a First Life. It already has 6.5 billion members (trust me, ALL of yo…
Ken said,
January 30, 2008 @ 11:32 am
Done. I actually created an account about a year ago just to get in touch with one person — who actually never replied. I never bothered to create a page. Perfect day to fully delete the account.
Here was my note to them: “Because it’s International Delete Your MySpace Account Day… AND, I have never used my account… BECAUSE - MySpace SUCKS!!! I hate your site and I hate what you are doing to people — turning everyone into these misfit social network nerds that have 5,000 “friends” online, but none in real life because they don’t know how to actually “socialize” with real human beings.
Not to mention the scumbags on your site that troll for young users.”
FYI: I work for a company that makes monitoring software (PC Pandora) and we are very very anti-MySpace… Visit my blog!
Ken said,
January 30, 2008 @ 11:33 am
p.s. I had no issues; it went smoothly…
Cinaedh said,
January 30, 2008 @ 12:55 pm
It won’t let me ‘cancel account’. There’s no such option on my screen. The best I can do is ‘deactivate’ my account, which will be reactivated if I ever sign in again.
What’s the point of this crap anyway, if you can’t actually delete your account?
I tried to really ‘cancel’ my account a long time ago and the staff told me no-one could ‘cancel’ an account, not even them. Not that I believed it… They just want to keep their numbers up.
This is all so pointless if you can’t actually get rid of the friggin thing!
Christian Manrique said,
January 30, 2008 @ 12:57 pm
Totally agree with you. I’m promoting the event here in Peru. I really hate MySpace…and Hi5 too.
sean said,
January 30, 2008 @ 1:01 pm
Did it, but I really don’t want to go back in 48 hours to make sure….
I must say that I tried a couple of months ago, and could not figure it out, so thanks for your tutorial!!
Stephen Ward said,
January 30, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
Bah-leted!
Hoo Hoo Nick said,
January 30, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
Done!
I deleted my myspace, as per international delete your myspace page day.
My cancellation comments to myspace(which i nicely entered into the form)
I deleted my profile because myspace really sucks donkeyballs. The only reason I signed up in the first …
Mike Lewis said,
January 30, 2008 @ 2:04 pm
I FAILED.
(myspace did actually)
So my old email address has been out of service fro years that my myspace account was registered to. Hey, you can’t change your email address without clicking on a link sent to your old email address. Great idea, right? Also, you can’t delete your accoun without clicking on a link sent to your email address.
So I look in the help and you actually have to email them to change your email address. Fail.
Anyways, it shall be deleted by the end of the day, hopefully.
Cylithria said,
January 30, 2008 @ 2:04 pm
w00t, I did it and blogged it in words AND pictures here : http://www.whynotright.com/?p=551 Thanks so much for this liberation !!!!
Mike Lewis said,
January 30, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
Oh, also, I told my friend about this and he doesn’t do myspace, but he said he’d create an account, just to delete it
Ray said,
January 30, 2008 @ 2:10 pm
Canceled account!
rhi said,
January 30, 2008 @ 4:16 pm
And the account is gone!! Yay.
PhoenixRedux said,
January 30, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
Oh, god, that felt SO GOOD. Why haven’t I done that sooner? It’s just been sitting there unused for a long time. Everyone should do it! It’s so liberating!
PhoenixRedux said,
January 30, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
Oh, god, that felt SO GOOD. Why did’t I done that sooner? It’s just been sitting there unused for a long time. Everyone should do it! It’s so liberating!
stilist said,
January 30, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
Worth noting that when I tried to delete my account last month I wasn’t sent a confirmation e-mail until I reset my localisation settings. If the e-mail fails to arrive, it’s something to check.
Edward O'Connor said,
January 30, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
That felt great.
jvan said,
January 30, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
myspace is mydeleted
kdmurray said,
January 30, 2008 @ 5:43 pm
It should also be noted that you need to be in “Classic Mode” to see the link called “Account Settings”… or at least I couldn’t find it in the “New Mode”.
Cougar said,
January 30, 2008 @ 6:12 pm
I just quit myspace….oh how good it feels…
Mark said,
January 30, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
I cancelled my account. Myspace’s user interface is horrible. I love how every profile page says that person is in your “extended network” even when you are not logged in. It feels like Web -2.0.
You must follow the instructions in that email to complete cancellation of your account. Thank you.
Nick said,
January 30, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
buhleeeeted - heard about this from wired, and thought it was time to destroy it.
MrTeaBelly said,
January 30, 2008 @ 7:27 pm
It’s gone! Finally! But bloody hell, what a chore getting rid of the think. Like the web version of removing dog shat from your boots with a small twig.
How many times did they want me to confirm that I wanted to get rid of the sodding thing? Even after clicking on the cancel email they still asked if I wanted to keep the damn thing!
I’ve got my 48 hour confirmation, fingers crossed they delete everything…
avenray said,
January 30, 2008 @ 7:41 pm
I’ve never signed up for a myspace account to begin with. I didn’t need a login to realize it sucks.
Props to all quitters!
Maz said,
January 30, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
Cancelled it at last. I’ve only ever used MySpace begrudgingly, and it’s a beautiful thing to see a mass exodus away from that monstrosity.
DJ Yoshiman said,
January 30, 2008 @ 9:22 pm
I basically believed that MySpace was actually preparing for this event by bringing up the “48-hour-wait” policy for cancelling one’s account. This can be proven false if that policy was implemented previously, but otherwise, I believe it was introduced specifically for this.
Either way, we shall see what happens.
sarie said,
January 30, 2008 @ 9:42 pm
mine’s gone. w00t
Sean said,
January 30, 2008 @ 11:21 pm
Yep It’s gone!!!!
Ben said,
January 31, 2008 @ 12:43 am
Ah, I feel cleansed.
Brinstar said,
January 31, 2008 @ 1:23 am
Confirmed cancellation. Waiting for final deletion in 48 hours.
lindyboi said,
January 31, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
Quitting with new interface - it’s called “Account “and it’s in the control panel under your picture in your profile! Yet another reason to leave - I had to go to the FAQs just to find Account Settings!
To their credit , there is a FAQ on deleting the account (even if it gives the link for “Account Settings” incorrectly…
http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.faq&Category=1&Question=16
Yay no more myspace! We’ll see how long my bulletin post guiding friends to Facebook lasts
Rahein said,
January 31, 2008 @ 2:04 pm
I canceled mine that I never used. Stick it to old Ruppert!
tyson crosbie said,
January 31, 2008 @ 3:38 pm
I deleted everything I could by hand because I made the mistake of trying to change all my information before deleting it– including using a fake email and changing the password. Then after trying to ‘cancel’ my account I found it impossible to access my fake email account (of course). Oh well. Maybe in the future they will delete the blank accounts??
Corky said,
January 31, 2008 @ 5:37 pm
When you register with an account at mailinator.com, it’s impossible to delete your account, because the system won’t send out any confirmation mails to this account. Is this legal?
Beady Eyed Anita said,
January 31, 2008 @ 8:54 pm
Yes, I really log on only like thrice a year? And I totally agree with all your points, marrage proposal, almost got traded for a camel, geddit? But, I’m like, friends with bands and stuff….
We always have crack-sorry Facebook
Anita
amanda said,
February 1, 2008 @ 1:05 am
They won’t even send me the damn email so that I can delete my account. I’ve been trying for ages and now have resorted to removing all blogs, photos, information, comments… well pretty much anything that gives away who I am and have changed the name to gone to facebook. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of it even tho they haven’t sent me the email?
Dave said,
February 4, 2008 @ 4:04 pm
I deleted my account before I heard about IDYMAD ,but I’ll create a MySpace account just to delete it next year!
Smoofy said,
February 6, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
Cancelled today (sorry I was moving to another country and so it was hard to cancel on the 30th). Yay to all the belated cancelations!!!! Remember, it’s never too late to run run run run screaming from endless bombardments by advertisers who are making a buck off of you keeping in touch with your friends. You are betta than that sistas & bruthas!!!! Suck it, Myspace!
chewy said,
February 7, 2008 @ 4:11 am
From one social network to another….
If yallz were to claim myspace sucks… (I saw Simon Owens is in Facebook. And I do admit that the birthday reminder is annoying.) then what makes facebook rocks? To receive application requests everyday from Facebook, isn’t it just as annoying chore>? Just curious.
Is anti-”something” some sort of emerging pop trend culture now on this virtual world? Someone kindly fill me please.
Thrash said,
February 20, 2008 @ 9:06 am
Usually when you do a search (you can do this without logging in) on an email address, if they are NOT a member, you get “no results found”. If they ARE a member, a box pops up with some of their info, that you can then click.
Now, do an email search of a known deletee, and this comes up:
“Search results for xxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx”
But with no information whatsoever (no clickability) - the email used to create the myspace account APPEARS to remain active, giving the impression that the person is still a member.
James said,
March 22, 2008 @ 7:57 pm
I deleted mine long before ‘’delete your myspace page'’ day. I thought I was the only one who could take a stand against the childish drama and dysfunctional behavior it aids in normalizing. For everyone who tries to defend myspace or facebook:
1.) Why DO you need to keep in contact with everyone from your past? People didn’t in the decades before myspace and they somehow survived and were more than happy.
2.) Do you really think you have that many friends? Do you really need X number of friends to virtual chat with and comment all day with in order to validate yourself?
3.) Just because there are 40 zillion users on the damn site doesn’t mean there aren’t 40 zillion users who don’t have a personality disorder.
4.) Chill out ladies and gentlemen. Live your f’ing life! You will get a lot more out of it your life getting off of the computer and remembering who you are and being happy with the friends who you do keep in contact with. It’s a beautiful life and a beautiful world and it was long before myspace and will be long after myspace.
Marie-Lynn said,
April 26, 2008 @ 1:52 pm
I have made it a point to never get a MySpace account. It has always been clear from the onset that this site is unreadable and useless. Luckily it did not take long for useful professional sites to come along like Facebook and LinkedIn. Thanks for the funny article on what I have been “missing”.