Why I don’t access hi5 anymore

There was a time when hi5 was actually cool, it was unique, it was great.

3 years ago I joined hi5 because all my friends were on it, it was my first social network, after some time I discovered Facebook and I found it better because of the applications and the status updates, but I still used hi5 because it was different!

Now hi5 copies almost everything that Facebook does; first came the status updates, then the applications, now there’s even chat!! What’s the use of joining two social networks when they are nearly the same??? That’s why 2 months ago I changed my hi5 status to “Saajid is tired of hi5, prefers facebook now”. I haven’t accessed hi5 since that.

Some reasons I prefer Facebook over hi5:

1. Too many UFRs

UFRs (Unidentified Friend Requests) are the requests you recieve from people you don’t know and you probably don’t want to know. (BTW “UFR” is a term I picked from a mashable article, but I don’t remember which one).

UFRs are easily recognizable:

1. They normally have profile pictures with actors/actresses/sportsmen/celebrities
2. Their profiles are rarely updated
3. They don’t reply to your messages and chats

I have about 120 friends on hi5, and I don’t even know half of them!! On the contrary, I have 230 friends on Facebook and I know most of them. I have a rule: since a month ago, when I get an UFR on Facebook, I look at the profile of the sender and if no info is provided, I send him/her/it (there are indeed some animals on Facebook, I even have some chimps in my friend list TVR!) a message. If they don’t reply after some weeks, I remove them from my friend list.

2. hi5 applications suck!!

I find most hi5 applications pale copies of Facebook applications. There are indeed many useless Facebook applications, but some apps are really cool!! There’s also a lot more apps on Facebook than hi5.

3. Not compatible with many services

hi5 is not compatible with many web services. For example, if I want to sync my Facebook status with twitter (which I’ve been using a lot lately) or vice versa, I have the twitter’s own Facebook application which will sync my Twitter status to Facebook and FriendFeed which will sync my Facebook status with twitter. hi5 isn’t even supported by FriendFeed.

4. I don’t like the hi5 themes

I find Facebook themes much better as they put emphasis on the content rather on the design.

The reasons above are why I don’t access hi5 anymore. The only 2 advantages I find with hi5 are:

1.They allow “vanity URLs”. e.g. http://sjdvda.hi5.com instead of http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=526038179. Currently Facebook doen’t support this but it’s coming sometime soon according to the help page.
2.Custom HTML is allowed.

I know it’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post and the reason is that I took a lot of time to adapt to the new school schedule after the holidays :( But hopefully I’ll get some more time with the school hours back to normal…

Looking forward to seeing you guys again and don’t forget to comment if you liked this post :D