Nowadays it isn’t uncommon for me to hear about the ‘amazing’ Microsoft Windows. Everybody has learned to work with Windows, and therefore doesn’t understand better methods. Microsoft has a monopoly and because everyone uses it, everyone uses it.

And that’s the reason Hyves is that big; just because ‘everyone’ is on it. Hyves is the most popular community website in The Netherlands. The problem with Hyves is that it just doesn’t work: it isn’t user-friendly. In the beginning, a big part of the site did only work with Internet Explorer. Above all, it just doesn’t make sense to measure your popularity with the number of so-called friends.

To make things short, the phrase ‘friend’ is just a really bad choice for Hyves. It can’t come into my mind a person can have 750 friends, or 1000 if you’re a gold member. Probably you’re talking about class mates of decades ago, or the bouncer of a club you come sometimes. Or that person that had a driving lesson right after you.

Seriously, if there’s something wrong with Hyves, it’s the fact that people show off with their 173 friends. Of course, add people you know, work with or study mates. Add people you go out with, but it doesn’t make sense to add all cash girls of your local super market or add everyone who likes the same disco as you do., and brag with it!

Did you know there’s a ‘delete’-feature at Hyves? So that you can remove someone you haven’t seen for two thousand years from your friends list? No, just wait – that will decrease your popularity!

Why didn’t I get the memo that says your popularity is directly connected to the number of Hyves-friends? Since when is everyone held in general esteem to have a profile at Hyves? And since when is Hyves user friendly, since when is it cool that they have Windows Live Messenger-sounds and since when is their color scheme okay?

Oh wait again… It’s the same Microsoft does… With the looks everyone seems to like and a system everyone uses, you are satisfied. No argue possible.

PS This isn’t a promotional talk to make Surf2me.nl more cool. Surf2me.nl isn’t user friendly at the moment and I do have a profile at Hyves. Just everyone can be found there, so… That’s my point, but try to find ten people under thirty who don’t have a profile at Hyves…

This post earlier appeared in Dutch on my previous weblog.