I now fully regret my earlier [ambivalence](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2006/myambivalence) about MySpace. As it turns out, the site is only lame when you have 600 or 700 friends. Having crossed the magic threshold of [1,000 MySpace pals](http://myspace.com/johnaugust), I truly understand what all the fuss is about.
The difference is [MySpace Advanced](http://collect.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=disallowed), and you can only access it when you have more than 1,000 friends. It’s beta, and I guess I clicked on some sort of non-disclosure button when I accepted. But it’s too great a secret to keep to myself.
Here are just some of the improvements you get with MySpace Advanced:
* __Full CSS styling.__ No longer do you have to hide formatting in weird text boxes.
* __AJAX-y goodness.__ You can delete rogue comments in-place, or drag-and-drop elements on the page.
* __HTML tag destroyers.__ Not only can you turn off HTML graphics in comments, you can automatically delete any comment that tries to use them.
* __Lameness filters.__ Sick of people leaving ASCII graphics as comments? Just click the checkbox and they’re history.
* __Smarter ads.__ Even though it says “gay” in your “orientation” field, the system knows you might be interested in something other than a shirtless guy for Gay.com.
* __Education screening.__ The system parses every message, comment and profile blurb a user writes, generating an estimated education level for the user. I have my threshold set to “College Grad,” which effectively silences the stupid people.
The new version is terrific. Unfortunately, it doesn’t exist.
Even with a thousand so-called friends, the system is just as lame and frustrating as it was when it was just me and [Tom](http://myspace.com/tom).