check out how MySpace.com used to look
 

in 2000 http://web.archive.org/web/200005102....com/Index.asp
and then a year later in 2001
http://web.archive.org/web/200110262...w.myspace.com/

Thats an inspiration to me that any site can be changed to be successful, even if it seems like a dud in the beginning.
Maybe theres a better lesson in there, but I cant think of one

Just like Twitter celebrities made MySpace popular..

Yep, their company, Intermix, was around for awhile before being bought out by NewsCorp. Thanks for the inspiring thread. The key lesson is to never give up and keep improving your game.

:2 cents:

that's all Twitter really has going for it in the broad scope of mass appeal.... my mother asked me to help her get on there because she heard some celebrity she likes is on there

I Just checked out some of my first websites.. pretty funny.

I don't get it. Myspace become popular because it was turned into a social networking site, those archives are just some online storage space shit called Myspace...

That site was a completely different site basically...I don't even know if it was owned by the same people, but I remember it back then. That's why at first when MySpace was getting popular I was confuzzled - like "why tf is an online storage site getting popular?" Then went to it and realized what the deal was.

wish myspace still paid $1.25/lead, haha

It's a combination of a decent idea, timing, and promotion/capital investment.

For example, classmates.com existed long before facebook came along. Very similar premise. Facebook just does it better and is free while classmates requires paid upgrade to contact former friends.

Plus classmates limits itself to well.. classmates. While the others are used to communicate with all friends in general.