I quit

SpaceHey today is nothing more than TikTok or Twitter with an old UI slapped onto it. 

And it’s not An’s fault. It’s your fault.

The main reason I joined spacehey was because I wanted to live the old web. My mom had told me about myspace and how annoying using old computers was and yadayadayada, but i wanted to live it myself. By now, many of u may have realised that I am not a millennial lol :'P i only lived the very end of the "old web"; i had internet access at a young age, but it was extremely supervised. I lived through old youtube, old mac and windows OS, flash games, memes/vine compilations, etc, but never really the actual social media. i was like. 4-5 years old haha.

I found spacehey through sifting through sites under "myspace alternatives" on google in 2023. shame i didnt find it earlier; maybe I could have had a better experience.

old web is usually defined as the design and algorithms of the website itself. people have more freedom to customise. people have the freedom to post and see other posts without getting AI recommendations and complicated algorithms pushing things to them; its supposed to be a kinda free for all. you have to remember that the internet was relatively new, as in, it was not as readily available to the public as it had been before.

while other sites like six degrees and livejournal had already been a thing earlier, they did not have the wide global spread that sites like myspace, facebook, and friendster had.

the original purpose of many of these "social networking" sites was literally to make connections. make friends. find people in your area, find people out of your area (even around the world), stay connected with said individuals.

now, i will say that spacehey has captured the 2000s design aspect. it is pretty cool. but, the real problem is something that is out of An's control. It's the userbase. And it's just the state of today's internet in general.

Even though I wasn’t alive for the majority of the actual 2000s web, in my free time, I love to emulate old software and OSs, browse wayback machine, find YouTube videos from 2 decades ago with little to no views, and mess around with old tech my family has lying around.

I can’t say that I know for sure what the feeling of a social platform from that time would feel like in real time, but based on looking back, it seems very different than the majority of social media usage today.

when I first joined spacehey, it happened to be a month or two before being "scene" became popular again on tiktok. so, I got to meet some awesome ppl on here and get to know ppl in this community before the flood of a shit ton of new ppl. before the influx, stuff was already extremely active, at least in my circle of friends.

The influx of ppl from tiktok made the platform grow even more, and by far the biggest mistake in my opinion was the creation of the spacehey app following that influx.

Now, it’s good that more publicity was given to spacehey, but with that publicity came the issue of the people it’s being publicised to. With more people having access to the app, more people may have been inclined to download it. TikTok makes anything a trend. People would come to the platform just for the customisation and leave.

After a while, it also became popular on twitter.

In the midst of this, I became pretty popular on here. You can actually go back onto wayback machine and check top blogs if you’d like. A lot of my posts were up there a lot :’D (this is also when my friends list grew. a LOT. and i still have like 200 pending requests from that time haha)

Some users would come here, bring in a shit ton of drama from offsite, and then just leave. Doesn’t it seem a bit weird that we’re nearing 1.5mil users, yet spacehey isn’t at that level of activity? Doesn’t it seem weird that half the people I have added have been inactive for a year?

With TikTok users flooding into spacehey, not only did we have people turning old web revival into a “trend”, we also got the tcc issue and the gore account makers. these people think that the old web was a Wild West in the sense that anything could be posted without repercussions and that with using the internet comes the price of having to see things you shouldn’t, whether it be people planning to kill their loved ones or posting shock content. While shock content was prominent on the old web, it’s wasn’t *as* prominent as these people made it out to be. Animal abuse, child gore, suicide videos, all the sorts, with blog titles and account names to lure in unsuspecting children. that’s where spacehey as an old web revival began to die for me.

And it’s only continues to die as people keep expecting it to be a site like TikTok or twitter. People would post fiery opinions and when people would try to respectfully disagree with an opinion, it got so far as to even where people would post doxxes of people or witch hunt them. 

In fact, I wanted to post this blog months ago, but I didn’t due to the fear of being doxxed or getting authorities sent to my home. That is not a fear you should have on a site that aims to harbour nostalgia and making friends. 

It’s gotten even worse recently. You can’t ever have a week on top blogs without ragebait, extremely negative posts, or individuals who cannot take any ounce of criticism or opposition to their opinions. Or even a respectful response to simple question. Like I recently just asked someone a question on a blog, and I had two individuals screaming at me in the replies. for crying out loud, I just asked a simple 3 word question. 😭

And don’t even get me started on people who exploit the blog algorithm. I’ve been calling you out, and you know it /dir. you can block me, but you’re never gonna escape the fact that it’s all fake. I’ve proven how flawed spacehey’s blog algorithm is already, but it seems that people forgot in the span of a month or two. (Gengar. Iykyk.)

The fact that multiple people even go to such great lengths to exploit the simple algorithms that are central to old web shows to me that this is a userbase of people who use this platform for popularity. To advertise their off platform shit. Your “friends” list? No, that’s a followers list to you. The fact that you go to such great lengths to hide that 5 digit number screams clout chaser to me.

“Well, I’m popular, so it’s okay for me to do it.”

That’s not the mentality you should have. I’m popular on here. Have been for a while; longer than you have. And I used to embrace it, but now I don’t want to.

That popularity came from me posting shit I was interested about. Books, TV shows, music, art. Me posting shit about my life and how i found this cool old computer in my grandpa’s attic or how my cat was being stupid or how I cut emo bangs by myself and got grounded but idc because I have an energy drink and Danny phantom to get me through it.

It wasn’t me spouting off about how i wish every man on earth would die because i got cheated on by one, or that i believe that *insert country* citizens are all idiots, or that conservatives can’t be scene bc scene is a “leftist” subculture. (For the record, 2000s scene is not a politically based subculture. And I’m saying this as someone who is literally not conservative. A simple wayback machine search on Kiki kannibal, the widespread racism and homophobia in the 2000s, or a look into your beloved millionaires band can really tell you a lot. Cancel me. I dare you).

Anyways. My main point is, this has become a place that we were trying to avoid.

I used to see so many posts on here about how much ppl loved spacehey. How it was a breath of fresh air from other platforms. But now, it really feels indistinguishable from the rest of social medias. Again, it’s just got that old UI, but when you peel that away, it’s literally the same cesspool of hate.

I feel sorry for An. He could not have expected spacehey to become as big as it did. He made this site with good intentions and to foster nostalgia and an old web experience. For people TO MAKE FRIENDS. SPACEHEY! A SPACE FOR FRIENDS!

People complaining about lagging, people complaining about inactivity, people complaining about immaturity, people complaining about maturity and sexual jokes, people complaining about low site moderation, then people complaining about too much moderation, censorship and “dumb bans”, man. Pick a side.

Idc if I’m adding to the “complaining”, it’s time that somebody complained about you all. Maybe, if you guys didn’t keep expecting this site to be instantly gratifying like your other precious socials, you would actually find new friends and nice people to talk to.

I’m sorry you dont have endless videos to scroll through on here. I’m sorry it takes you a couple minutes just to upload an image. You wanted old web design? Well, you’ve got it!!! Stop trying to “modernise” spacehey. 

You guys screech “anti censorship”, yet if someone tries to argue their position respectfully* against your opinion, you spam insults into their notifications and reports at the moderators. Reasons being: this guy is an idiot and made me angry.

*to the arguments: may I add, non-harmfully, because there are some people on this platform who *do* have really horrible views, ie. Nazis, tccs, pedos, and racists. Those people do fall against the ToS. And their censorship *is* valid as again, ITS LITERALLY AGAINST THE TOS. So don’t be so surprised when you get banned for the billionth time for having hate symbols in ur bio or fuckin Dylan klebold in your heroes.

However, someone disagreeing with you on a political view or opinion on religion or a conflict though does not necessarily go against the guidelines.

Maybe I’m just like. Too detached from modern socials to understand how you all see things. Ik this comes off as a very “pick me” or “I’m not like the other ppls 🥀” statement, but I don’t know how else to phrase it. 

I don’t get how people can be this closed minded and quite frankly, hypocritical.

“Erm you’re being the hypocrite for making this post 🫩🥀⛓️”

What, for trying to make a last ditch effort into expressing my own opinion? sorry, sorry I’ll go back into my comfortable bed and have a nice rest while you doomscroll on TikTok for the next 4 hours.

An, if you’re reading this (which you probably aren’t, knowing that you’re busy with your own life off social media, unlike the majority of the users on this platform), I am sorry for what this platform has become. I probably have contributed to its downward spiral as a more popular user, so it is true that I am a hypocrite in some ways. But, either way, it’s amazing that spacehey is still up and that it has surpassed the amount of people you expected to use it.

It’s just not the site that it used to be and I don’t feel welcome or safe here anymore.

- I'm applying to college/uni. I dont have as much time to post stuff, and I want to avoid any unnecessary negativity. im already stressed out with my applications, and after those are done, then i'll be stressed over whether or not i will be accepted to any of the places that I have applied to. aka, im pooped.

- i want to talk to more people irl. this summer, i made some amazing friends at a summer camp. Up until now, i've been very reluctant to talk to ppl irl that surround me, because people tend to judge me for my music taste, appearance, interests, etc., and I was scared I'd never ever find anyone who would want to be friends irl with me for well. being me. but, that was disproven this summer, and it's giving me hope that maybe once this year is over, I will finally be able to surround myself with people who bring out the best in me. not people who manipulate me for their own gain and then use me as a punching bag afterwards.

- ive found better sites. again. I'm someone who is trying to live that 2000s web culture in the userbase style. I've found rly niche platforms with userbases that respect me and ppl who know how to have a casual debate. it's refreshing. also, I run my own 2000s revival community now off platform, and I'd like to maintain it. 

- i want to make more art. ive always wanted to make animations and art stuff, so now that I have access to good animation and art software, I can finally make things I've dreamed of making! :D and i'm gonna have the time now that i will be graduating soon! so yeah.

- tcc. not putting this under the first tab because this is more of a personal reason. I originally hated these people because they just tried to make everyone's experience on this site hell. it was just annoying and unhealthy to constantly have to block gore accounts and stalkers who were angry at me for calling them out. but recently, its had another turn for me. ive had a couple long distance friends who have been in active shooter situations recently with the shooters having ties to the tumblr tcc. i dont feel comfortable being on a site that has such a prominent userbase of these people. "let mentally ill kids have their interests." no. not when that interest is taking inspiration from past killers to devise a way to kill as many more innocent children as possible. i just dont feel comfortable. they are like a hydra--i can block 400 of them, but 200 more will pop up every week. they need help, but they refuse to accept it or get it. it pointless for me to try and shield myself from them when there are so many of them. its just easier for me to leave.

two people specifically have had a rlly big impact on me here on spacehey; ik i dont interact with them much, but I feel it is necessary for me to thank them personally.

R0ckinR3agan/vintage vixen - u were my first spacehey friend!! :D it was awesome to interact w you about music and to have that as my first glimpse into spacehey. even if u are inactive now, I hope all is well !! ^_^

Vixa Vogue - the first scene kid i met on this platform; theyve since deleted their account, but u were a huge inspiration to me in how unique ur DIYs were + your personality was!! I rly looked up to u when I first joined, and all of your advice on fashion, life, etc. was really helpful to me :) i hope youre doing okay now, wherever u may be!

others who have inspired me a lot/have been amazing friends to me [i dont have enough space to write something personal to everyone; soz]: birby, lala, lizzie lunacy, lauren, rusty, Lizzz, (gruesome) gwen, miauk17, soup, egg, koltin, louis/eden, birby, bloodshed bunny, jaypursume, stonmann, felix (both felixes lol), lemonade hyena, nova, purple starz, liam, asher, frank, flowersaredecaying, baize, tori, phoenix, garfield, stella, tobsterfire, alex, ray, lilayy [#RT /ref], fatethecannibal, sporkzz, jaco jawbreaker, rebellious emma, dart, lolzer, amelika, mars, cora/toby, nastya, aleks/jan, merel extraterrestrial, benny, XxXd4Ma9EdLuV3rXxX, mel, maya, kittiestitchez, bluemoon raccoon, and Foxlore.