Why I love SpaceHey

SpaceHey blogs have been wild af lately and it’s got me thinking about the nature of the website and why issues like this are coming up (homophob!a, dea+h threa+s, pedoph!l!a, n*zis etc etc)

SpaceHey is unique for a couple of reasons:

1. It defies normal algorithms compared to what we’ve grown accustomed to. It’s a brand new(ish) platform that doesn’t follow the cut & paste format of popular social media apps like Instagram, snapchat, twitter, etc

2. It isn’t marketed to any one demographic. There are literal children (under the age of 12) and gen x (40+) all on the same platform (kind of a controversial take but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, keep reading)

As such it’s hard to approach SpaceHey in the same way we’d approach other platforms.

It’s somewhat of a haven for ‘old heads’ attempting to relive their old myspace days and feel a sense of nostalgia from others in their generation.

It’s for the new generation who grew up in this age of technology and want to experience a platform they’ve heard so much of from various forms of pop culture like songs and movies.

It’s for the middle generation. The ones who grew up watching older siblings and parents experience myspace but grew into the age of apps and algorithms and watched the age of websites die out before they could experience it.

SpaceHey is unique because it’s a platform that can bring all these groups together. As such, it’s kind of hard to treat it like any of the platforms we’re used to

Persons more used to the old days of the internet are used to unfiltered chat rooms, saying what you want with little to no repercussions, lack of moderators. The internet used to be a very different place. Before people started groups and alliances to care for more marginalized groups, the internet could be pretty scary. If you’ve seen the movie ‘Cyberbully’ you’ll know just how toxic public chatrooms and websites could be. It was a rough space that glorified unhealthy body views, SH, r@cism, b!gotry and much more.

Now we have moderators and ai that’s capable of monitoring spaces to make sure it’s safe for all users. But because most of the world is on an app of some sort it’s a lot easier to keep track of user content and activity by flagging certain words, phrases or images. Since SpaceHey is unique in the way that it mirrors the internet of old it’s going to be really hard to commit to the same level of protection while giving users the experience that they crave.

I think it will be very interesting to see how the creators & mods deal with this issue as it could really make or break the future of the site.

For starters, I think age gapping users would be a helpful start. As much as I love the app, I’d really prefer not to interact with anyone 10+ years older (or younger) than me. A first step could be age verifications, so instead of kicking out a certain age group, we just make it harder for paths to cross. After verifying your age, certain content (like 18+ topics) are blocked off. As well as certain users would be inaccessible to children and vice versa. (that way it’s also easier to identify pedos and kick them out). Introducing an extra bit of tech that keeps age groups from interacting with each other could be the first step to solving things (idk what to say about the homophob!a & n@zis tbh…)

Idk, that’s just my suggestion, it might not be that practical but I really love this website and I want to see it thrive. I hope the mods & creator can overcome these issues soon.

Also, death threats are never ok! No matter how angry someone makes you please do not go around telling people to “kys”

<3

- J