MySpace Resurrection

MySpace Resurrection - Homepage
MySpace Resurrection - Profile

Inspiration

Remember when the internet was fun? When your profile had glitter text, autoplay music, and a Top 8 that caused actual drama? MySpace wasn't just a social network - it was digital self-expression at its peak. When I saw the "Resurrection" category for Kiroween 2025, I knew exactly what needed to come back. That's where Kiro came in - could I resurrect an entire social network through conversation alone?

What it does

MySpace Resurrection is a fully functional social media platform that recreates the iconic 2000s MySpace experience:

Custom Profile CSS/HTML: Full customization just like 2005 - users can add custom CSS and HTML to make their profiles uniquely chaotic
Top 8 Friends: The feature that defined a generation, with authentic one-way friend relationships
Profile Music: YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, and MP3 support with autoplay
Messaging System: Private messages with read receipts
Photo Albums: Create, organize, and share photo collections
Bulletins: Post updates to your network
Comments: Leave comments on friends' profiles
User Search: Find friends by name or location
Wild CSS Themes: 10 pre-made themes ranging from Emo to Vaporwave to Cyberpunk

All with enterprise-grade security (rate limiting, XSS protection, input sanitization) and deployed to production on Vercel.

How I built it

Entirely through conversation with Kiro AI. No traditional coding workflow - just natural language descriptions that became production code.

Tech Stack: Next.js 14, React, Tailwind CSS, Prisma, PostgreSQL (Neon), Vercel

Development Process:

Created project-standards.md steering document to establish patterns
Described features conversationally: "I want a music player that supports YouTube, Spotify, and SoundCloud"
Kiro generated complete implementations (components, API routes, database schemas)
Tested features and iterated through conversation
Kiro proactively ran security audits and performance optimizations

Most Impressive Moment: Asked for a multi-platform music player, got a 150-line component that intelligently detects URLs, renders platform-specific embeds, and handles tracks/albums/playlists - all from plain English.

The Power of Steering: The steering document ensured every component followed the same patterns automatically. When building the 15th feature, Kiro still followed the exact same standards as the 1st - consistency across 50+ files without repetition.

Challenges I ran into

The Deployment Crisis: Everything worked locally. On Vercel? "Loading..." forever. The error: Error [ERR_REQUIRE_ESM] - DOMPurify doesn't work in serverless environments. Told Kiro about the error, and within 10 minutes it identified the issue, replaced DOMPurify with a serverless-compatible regex-based sanitizer, and pushed the fix. What could have been hours of Stack Overflow searching was resolved through conversation.

String Comparison Hell: Authorization bugs from comparing strings vs numbers (userId === message.senderId when one was a string). Kiro caught and fixed these across multiple files once I mentioned one instance.

Performance Issues: Pages loading in 2-3 seconds after deployment. Mentioned it casually to Kiro, and it optimized at four layers (database indexes, API pagination, React memoization, build config) - pages went from 3 seconds to 0.5 seconds from one request.

Database Migration: Switching from SQLite (dev) to PostgreSQL (production) mid-project. Kiro guided the entire migration, created export/import scripts, and preserved all demo data.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

5,000+ lines of production-ready code in 4 days. What would take 2-3 weeks traditionally was completed in 4 days through conversational development.

10/10 Security Score: Kiro proactively identified and fixed 4 critical vulnerabilities I hadn't even asked about - information disclosure, missing authorization, input validation, and dangerous endpoints.

The Wild CSS Themes: From one request "create wild CSS themes for demo users," Kiro generated 10 complete themes with custom animations, gradients, and authentic 2000s styling. This showcased creative capabilities beyond pure logic.

3x Performance Improvement: From a casual mention of slow pages, Kiro optimized holistically across database, API, React, and build layers.

Zero Diagnostic Errors: Kiro used getDiagnostics to verify code quality throughout development.

Actually Having Fun: Building this felt like creating, not coding. I spent time on features and UX, not fighting syntax or searching docs.

What I learned

Conversational Development is Real: Describing features in plain English and getting production-ready code isn't just possible - it's faster and more intuitive than traditional coding.

AI Understands Context: When I asked for "Top 8 friends," Kiro implemented MySpace's unique one-way friend system without explanation. It understood the cultural context.

Steering Documents are Game-Changers: Writing standards once and having them followed automatically across 50+ files without repetition is incredibly powerful.

Trust the AI: When Kiro suggested security improvements I hadn't considered, following them resulted in production-ready code.

Iterative Development Works: Building incrementally with Kiro allowed rapid prototyping. Adding features to existing code was seamless.

Performance is Holistic: Optimization isn't one thing - it's database, API, React, and build all working together. Kiro understood this without me specifying.

What's next for MySpace Resurrection

Real-time Features: WebSocket-based live chat and notifications
Groups/Communities: Create and join interest-based groups
Events: Plan and RSVP to events (very 2000s)
More Wild Themes: User-submitted CSS themes gallery
Mobile App: React Native version for iOS/Android
MySpace Tom: An AI chatbot that welcomes new users and gives tips
Music Integration: Direct Spotify/SoundCloud API integration for better playback
Profile Visitors Tracker: See who's been checking out your profile
Customizable Layouts: Pre-made layout templates for non-coders

But honestly? The real "what's next" is applying this conversational development approach to every project. Kiro fundamentally changed how I think about building software.