Myspace as a reporting tool

Don't use myspace as an end-all be all, of course not . I don't think anyone is that big of an idiot (maybe my former SE). I think its a glimpse into what the player wants to let be known about them.

I was doing a feature on a former HS volleyball star that was finishing up her college career. She was gorgeous and I thought she was flirting. I looked up her page on myspace and found out she was lesbian. I decided not to try and ask her out.

But that didn't stop my dreams about her, lol

 

Regardless of how you found out about it, is it even news that he's drinking and smoking weed, until it affects his athletic career or legal/academic standing?

 

You can't compare a myspace page to a diary. Posting on myspace is as private as standing naked at an intersection.

 

Fun with the Wayback Machine.

 

Ahhh, we were just fresh-faced kids with a new toy...

 

Kind of an interesting read. I don't think there's a whole lot of hesitation now to use information from *verified* Facebook and Twitter accounts these days.

How many outlets ran with "Shaquille O'Neal announced his retirement on Twitter" with no other sourcing?

Is "friending" on FB these days different than it was on MS?

 

This is like a time capsule. Amazing.

Reminds me of this segment from The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/video/internet-archaeologists-find-ruins-of-friendster-c,14389/

 

Well, there is that whole "against the law and team rules" thing.
Of course, you don't have to be the one to report it to the school or law officials, but you can mention it later in the story if the athlete is busted.

By the way, we had an athlete a couple years ago suspended from the team for awhile because of a picture on one of these sites. It was taken at a party at his home. The picture included him (a minor) and a bottle of beer. He didn't throw the party, his older brother did. He wasn't holding the bottle, he wasn't touching the bottle, he wasn't going for the bottle.
Still, school officials saw him and a bottle in the same photo, taken during a party at his own home, and suspended him.
There was talk of him fighting it, but the process would have lasted longer than the suspension, so he wound up taking the suspension.

 

Well, the kid is 22 now, so assuming he stayed out of trouble, it's probably not worth mentioning at his point.

 

Save it for the retrospective story on his career later.