You're just a clique away from MySpace's "Top 8"

In the online world of MySpace, her best friend kept messaging a boy that Jasmine Gervais didn't like. Before long, the two friends argued.

Then her friend did the unthinkable: In the "Heroes" portion of her MySpace profile, she replaced Jasmine's photo with, as Jasmine puts it, "a picture of this stupid boy." With that, Jasmine, a 16-year-old student at Seattle's Center School, moved her friend from the No. 1 spot in her Top 8 MySpace friends to No. 8. Barely clinging to honored status! But then her friend did the same.

What next? "I deleted her," Jasmine says. "I thought it was hilarious. She called me up, screaming, 'What are you thinking? That's so bitchy.' And then she hung up on me."

Fitting in online

In MySpace, everyone can hear you scream. And amid the self-conscious and peer-pressured terrain that is teendom, MySpace — and the "Top 8" friends shown on one's main profile page — can broadcast your place in the hierarchy more bluntly and publicly than ever.

"For some people, the Top 8 is like a ranking scale of who you like the most to who you somewhat sort of like," says Franklin High student Joanne Nguyen, 16. "It's just like high school."

The social-networking site popular with youths lets users create their own profile pages, including an invitation-only gallery of their friends' profile photos. The top friends get the top space. But being put there, or being left out, can be taken as a public statement about where one stands, making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside — or like you totally want to throw a hissy fit.

"Some people are, like, 'Can I be in your Top 8?,' " says Center School student Kallyn Bosch, 17. "And I'm, like, 'I don't even really know you.' "

One big community

MySpace dominates among networking sites; according to Nielsen/NetRatings, it boasted 38.4 million monthly users and a 367 percent jump in visitors for the year-long period ending in April.

UW communications professor Malcolm Parks doubts MySpace has more sway on social standing than existing ranking systems — for example, test scores, team selections or party invitations. "MySpace merely provides a venue for a most common human behavior," he says via e-mail.

And while some youths scorn it as approval-seeking geekdom, it's a nifty networking tool and contact-making source, a visual way to keep up with pals who have moved away.

But mostly it's a way to connect with the people you see every day.

Let's say you and your friend have just spent a day at the mall. You have so much in common. Top 8 material, definitely. And, of course, you're going to be in theirs. But when you check out their MySpace page a couple days later, you're not there. What's up with that?

"The unwritten rule is that if I'm in your Top 8, you should be in mine," says Bosch, of the Center School.

But Top-8ing someone can be a delicate matter. Say you're just getting to know somebody. You like them, but ... would they think it was weird if you put them in your Top 8? It's a judgment call. A Top 8 pronouncement could jeopardize the whole friendship.

"You feel self-conscious putting someone in your Top 8 if you feel like you like them more than they like you," says recent Garfield graduate Dana Wu.

You're in — no, you're out

Some users keep their Top 8 constant to honor longtime pals or to avoid bruising anyone's feelings. Not Seattle-based Web blogger Ariel Meadow Stallings. Stallings makes her almost-weekly changes by grouping clusters of friends by random commonalities.

One week's Top 8 might feature people she knew from West Coast rave scenes years ago; another's might be Bainbridge Island residents, or people who've seen her napping in odd places.

Borrowing the idea from another MySpace user, she realized she belonged to many definable communities whose members maybe didn't know each other. Her ever-changing Top 8s electronically "introduce" them to each other on her page. The curious can then link to others' profiles and make contact if they want to.

"For me it's a way of calling out and honoring particular people," Stallings says. "I'm not going to go so far as to say they're getting to know each other, but they're seeing who else is in their particular group ... It's a fun way to encourage dialogue."

She'll get e-mails from friends who tell her: I just added you to my Top 8. Don't screw it up.

"They're kidding, of course," she says, "but it's almost this honor — like, here are the most important people in my life."

But, of course, friendships can fall away over time, and before anyone realizes it or cares, two pals are out of each other's Top 8. As Garfield student Claire Thompson says, "Maybe it's time to move on."

Or maybe not, because then the e-mail comes: Hey, what's up? We haven't talked in a while. We should hang out more. And then you hang out, and there you are, treading Top-8 territory all over again.

Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com