the Meet Group
myYearbook is an Internet Social network service similar to Friendster, Facebook, and MySpace. It is a free service.
History
myYearbook was first created by three high school students, who are only known as Catherine, Dave, and Geoff, during Spring Break of 2005. It was inspired by the typical yearbooks sold in high schools, but was intended to not only keep records of students but also allow them to keep in contact with one another. The site slowly grew to have a userbase numbering in the thousands. The sites layout is very similar to MySpace, myYearbook attempts to be an "improved version of MySpace and Friendster", although this point has been widely debated. As with other sites, it is free to register and there are no fees for users.
In November of 2005, zenhex.com merged with myYearbook, adding several thousand members and more than doubling the traffic it received. Since then, myYearbook has been growing at a very rapid rate. It grew 44% from December to November among high school and college students according to a recent Media Metrix report. [1]
The site has added a number of successful features like Bully, Flirt, Secretly Admire, Gold Stars, and High-Fives as well as providing every user with a Locker where they can upload video and study documents.
The site Zenhex has remained as the forum pool for MyYearbookers & Hexxors (original members of the site The Mystery of the Zenhex), with varying topics and forum areas.
Zenhex, though, is still its own site, and prefers to be separate from myYearbook. The two sites merged when Zen, the creator of Zenhex, was running low on funds and could not support Zenhex's rapidly growing member base. This jump in members caused the site's servers to overload and create a series of notifications known as Database Connection Errors, or DBCEs . In order to keep Zenhex alive, Zen (admin and partial creator of the site) merged with myYearbook.
Many People Disagreed with this new arrangement, and created 'Zenhex spin-offs' to cope with their old site being under new managment.
Features
myYearbook includes features that are not found on MySpace or Facebook, such as a "Flirt" feature that allows a user to flirt with another member of the site. However Facebook has a similar feature known as "poking," in which a user pokes another user to draw attention. There's also a secret admirer function that will keep track of users' crushes. If two members tell the site they secretely admire each other, the site will notify them both, otherwise the secret is hidden.
myYearbook has other features such as "digital locker" for music, "U2U" (User to User) instant messaging for the Zenhex area of the site, "PM" (Private Messaging) instant messaging in the myYearbook section, and a global forum. These features, however, are not as unique as one would believe; they are merely the same services found on similar sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, with different names.
Areas of Dispute
myYearbook has claimed on several levels to be new and different from MySpace and Facebook. However, the layout of myYearbook appears to be heavily influenced by MySpace, at times seeming plagiarized. Certain other areas seem to be directly copied from Facebook, a similar social-network site. For instance, under basic information a user has the option to list what they are looking for when searching for potential friends or contacts. Facebook uses terms like "Random Play," "Whatever I can Get" etc, some of which myYearbook seems to have directly copied. Other features seemingly taken from Facebook would be "Groupies" and "Poking," called "fans."
myYearbook also claims to be ad free. While this remains true for registered users, guests are shown ads from Google and Yahoo, among others.
myYearbook also has had several disputes on the message board as to the actual creators. Many have said it is impossible for Dave, Catherine, and Geoff to actually created most of the site, citing that they could not have the skill or knowledge necessary to maintain and program the needed databases. Users show proof that they actually have hired programmers by linking to sites where myYearbook is actually requesting knowledgable programmers. [http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:kGbRukh4-jIJ:ca.hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobs/PA/New-Hope/Internet-New-Media/JSK3NC3IK%3B_ylt%3DA0LaVPpJ3FlE8jcAwALzaqIX+myyearbook+programmer&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2 2
myYearbook also has been attacked by MySpace users who claim that on several occasions myYearbook users (possibly staff) post viral bulletins, meaning that clicking these within MySpace causes a button to be placed within that users profile linking to myYearbook without the user's consent.[citation needed]
However, the Zenhex forum areas were never "attacked" before the merge and have rarely been under attacks since the merge (via virus links, DDoS, and account hacking). It has never directly been proven that MySpace, or other conglomerate sites were responsible.
The Mystery of Zenhex
Zenhex, though, is still its own site, and likes to stand away from myYearbook. They reason the merger took place is that the creator of Zenhex was running low on funds and could not support Zenhex's rapidly growing member base. This jump in members caused the site's servers to overload and create a series of annoying notifications known as Database Connection Errors, or DBCEs (. So in order to keep Zenhex alive, Zen (admin and partial creator of the site) merged with myYearbook. Although not enjoyed at first, members have come to thank Zen for keeping the hex alive. "We are not myYearbook. We are Zenhex. No connection should be made between the two other than the fact we are running off their power." — quote from a passionate Zenhex member. Most "hexxors", as the posters on Zenhex are called, do not really liked to be linked to myYearbook, and many disliked the change, though once the inital shock was over, most hexxors got over it and began to post again as before, mainly ignoring the myYearbook part of the site.
Some Averages from Zenhex
24,701.84 posts per forum, 9.86 replies per thread, 2,513.44 posts per day, 314.96 new members per day,
Legend of the DBCEs
Database connection errors are cause when the server can no longer support the amount of people using the forum and shuts it down. This sends the user to a page which, many times, has been edited by the admin to just tell the hexxor to refresh over and over. On average, DBCE refresh sessions occur over 10 consecutive F5 hits. One hexxor even claimed to reach 126 refreshes, although it is disputed whether someone would actually sit there and hit refresh.