June 28, 2013
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More Thoughts About Xanga and Its Situation
I spent some time listening to @roadlesstaken and his radio show last night. I don’t interact with him much on here, but first let me say, he’s so cute! His radio show was great. I forget sometimes that many people in the larger Xanga community (is there a larger Xanga community??) think of Xanga fondly as a place they first found in middle school. Naturally this means that quite a bit of the community are a lot younger than me.
hahahaha. I mean, a lot.
I was in middle school in 1980, before Al Gore invented the internets. Before Michael J Fox went Back to the Future, even. I didn’t have no Xanga in middle school. You know what I had? Spiral notebooks I hid under my bed. Not kidding.
Anyway.
I heard two of the shows, with four guests total, @firetyger, @GodlessLiberal, @christao408 and @super_rob_of_the_sky. It was fascinating to hear people’s voices in real life, and also to hear the wide variety of perspectives and feelings about Xanga, its history, its latest debacle and its future. I sort of expected to hear five people chatting amongst themselves about having the same basic experience connected with the same basic Xanga community and brainstorming about how to convince more people to give more money. Instead, I heard five people talking about a Xanga that meant something slightly different to each of them and expressing support, ambivalence, skepticism, determination…a whole range of feelings about the fundraising drive.
Very helpful, as I have a whole range of feelings about the fundraising drive myself.
@roadlesstaken says John from the Xanga Team will be on his radio show Sunday night.
It’s almost like the season finale of Game of Thrones. I mean, I’ve been blogging right here about every personal thing that ever happened to me for the past eight years…Xanga has been my Notebook Under My Bed since 2003 or 2004…and if Xanga has a God, it’s Absent John From the Xanga Team.
So many questions! Why did you bring us here? What purpose do we serve? If we sacrifice our firstborn lambs (i.e., pledge our credit and our future for your drive), will you show yourself?
I’m just kidding, of course, with that last thing. I get a little carried away with the biblical metaphors sometimes.
I don’t interact much with any of the guests, but Xanga is a small town, and just like in a small town, you know everyone. I know all four of the people I heard talking to @roadlesstaken. Funny, they were all exactly as I would have expected, from reading their blogs and their comments. That’s reassuring, because you feel like you really do know your community. But it’s odd to think of giving money to someone you don’t know at all, you don’t ever see, i.e., the Xanga Team, for the sake of a community you know inside and out. It’s not a question of saving the community, in my mind. It’s a question of saving the Xanga business for the Xanga Team. There’s a disconnect there.
I mean, if you’re in a club, and the club meets at a community center, and the community center burns down, is your club disbanded? No, your club is not disbanded. Your club just needs to find a new place to meet.
On the other hand, if you’re in a club with fluid members, and its meetings take place Flash Mob style with no notice in advance about time, place or who will show up on a particular day, and everyone just knows, by tradition, to show up at the community center…and then the community center burns down…yeah, you’re going to take some hits in re: attendance if you try to start meeting somewhere else. I guess all you can do is post signs on the burned-down building telling people where you will be, and hope they follow. And assume other splinter groups are doing the same.
If you want to switch gears and read my confessional hiking piece, here it is: LINK.
Comments (41)
hahahahaha @ the questions!
will you have a compartment for blogs about xanga? not that I would skip them. not even those.
In response to the last point you make, I guess it is a question of whether you feel you are giving money to a community of people you don’t really know, or a community of people you really DO know.
Since I’ve met dozens of Xangans in real life and have become close friends with many of them, I feel like the money I pledge is going to something very concrete.
@christao408 - yes, I’m sorry, I meant to say that I *do* feel I know a lot of bloggers on Xanga, the Xanga community. I don’t feel like I know the Xanga Team at all. Not even a tiny little bit. I feel like the Xanga Team could live right next door to me and I wouldn’t know it. That’s what I mean about giving money to people I don’t know. You know what would be helpful? A resume. Or something. A radio show is a good start, haha.
@ordinarybutloud - Totally with you on that point. As I said on Alex’s show, I didn’t realize there was actually a “team” at Xanga. Thought it was just one person!
@Aloysius_son -
@distractedbyzombies - well, I guess I do have a compartment for blogs about Xanga. You’re in it. Thanks for not skipping them. Also, I changed this post a little bit. I hope it’s clearer. @christao408 - I see where my last point wasn’t that clear. I hope I’ve clarified it now. Thanks for your comment!
I think it has been interesting how there have been many responses to the fundraising drive. I think last night’s show with myself and @christao408 was interesting in that we both had very different ideas about the future of Xanga and whether or not it’s worth it to donate (I was even surprised that he is willing to put over $1000 of his own money into the drive). I’m now curious about what John will say, as even the biggest supporters of the drive seem to be critical of him and his decision making.
a. because anything anyone says anywhere is always about ME, my middle school years were about 10 years before yours
so. not older than God, but working on it 
b. really interesting to hear about tim’s radio show (since there is no chance for me to catch it, our here in the middle of the desert) and your thoughts. HappierHeathen did an interesting post on all of this, (over on WP) from a lovely educated point of view. as in, he built sites for clients and can read the writing on the wall, having seen this before. if i was any good with links and techy things, i would put it here, but i can’t show you my spiral notebook
i think we’re on the same page. there was a disconnect. big. disconnect.
@Bels_Kaylar - yes, I read and commented on that post.
I think in your comments you even said, “OBL was right……..” hahahahahahahaha.
@Super_Rob_of_the_Sky - Actually, I misread his offer and thought he was giving $240 for every $48 pledged. It’s still a big pledge, though, and it surprised me when he said it last night.
@Super_Rob_of_the_Sky - yes, it made the show more interesting because your points of view are so different. “Donate” is a word I have particular trouble with, in this situation. Everyone talks about “donating” to Xanga as if it’s the most normal thing in the world to prop up a failing business by asking its customers to throw money at it. It’s a little weird. I mean, I love my neighborhood pack and mail store, but not so much I would give them money if their business started failing. And even at that, I *might* give them money, because I know the owner personally and trust her and think highly of her and would be happy to sit down with her and discuss her plans for the future, her financial needs and how she intends to make it up to me for donating money to her to save her business. Whereas I’ve been blogging on Xanga for eight or nine years, and I can count on one hand the number of interactions I’ve had with the alleged Xanga Team.
@ordinarybutloud - Hadn’t really thought about that point. I guess it’s more of a purchase than a donation as this point, since donating would imply that we could still blog on Xanga even if we don’t pay. And yeah, I agree that the Xanga Team seems to want our money despite being absent over the years. I think I can count on one finger the number of times I’ve been able to interact with them myself.
I think there is a lot of disconnect for people, especially those who haven’t been here for years and years. To me, my donation is a purchase. I am pledging to buy my first year membership at the new site. But I know many others feel it is simply throwing money at a failing business. Which, to be frank, it is a failing business. I am hoping though to be an investor, if you will, in the ‘new’ Xanga. For me, I am afraid that trying to use blogger or regular WP sites just won’t cut it for keeping people connected. You don’t have the same community there – you get lost in the sea of blogs. It isn’t really designed to keep people tight knit like Xanga has been. But that is just my perspective. Glad you enjoyed the radio show!
lessee.
roadlesstaken = cute.
you = comparatively old (did you really go to middle school? wasn’t it junior high school? wasn’t it?)
people I don’t know on xanga = variably emotive
xanga team =shadowy
Game of Thrones = done for the summer
hope re: continuity of special interest groups
doubt re: cohesiveness of special interest groups
me = delightful smartass
those last three points are new.
Haha, Absent John.
I haven’t listened to any of the radio shows. I want to, but… I’d rather read a captioning or something, honestly. I read way faster than I… listen. Maybe I should just do it anyway.
I was in middle school in 1980.
Yeah, that’s right, play the old card. I hesitate to leave a comment now that I’m basically a visitor in these parts, but in 1980, I completed my graduate work and got married. Just sayin’.
I’m happy you’re enjoying the shows so far and all the different personalities/viewpoints we are getting. That was the intent, as I wanted to show a range of our community. Curious, how do I sound cute on air? I mean I’ll take it haha, but just wondering.
@randaness - listen to the show in the background while doing other stuff! Can also download and listen during a long drive.
Haha, you’re scarily accurate with the spiritual/supernatural reference to “XangaTeam”- a force which no one has seen directly save a “chosen few”. That would make @edlives a prophet bringing the message to the unwashed masses.
I think the disconnect is plans were made to “save” the community, but the “community” was never brought in to offer their viewpoints on it or other alternative plans. It feels like the community is to be “seen” and not heard while still being called upon to make financial commitments.
It would be so sad to see Xanga go.
@Roadlesstaken - I have a train ride coming up, so I had considered doing that.
While I’ve had enough interaction with John over the years to feel like I know a tiny bit about him, I agree wholeheartedly about the “Team’s” absences. I also agree with feeling like there is now a divide of sorts…the great unwashed masses, and those who can see the white lights of the new Utopia that Xanga plans to be.
All those things other people are saying and surmising are great..except we have yet to see EXACTLY what all the ‘new’ features are to be, shown by the missing “Team” headed by John the Absent. Myself…I think it’ll be WordPress just as it is now…with added links simply to connect ‘Xanga 2.0′ together. I don’t expect my socks to be rocked. In fact, after watching how Xanga has operated all these years, with big promises made that are quickly forgotten, or ignored, I expect very little improvements in that basic WordPress account that everyone could use for free. Even if John promises the moon, I’ve seen enough broken promises to be skeptical.
Throwing cash at all of this seems sketchy. Sure, if we give enough cash, we will get…something. But till I see what that something is supposed to be, I’m keeping my cash, because frankly, they haven’t given me full value for the cash ($100.00) I gave them last year…the broken promise of “Lifetime” Premium, and an additional Protected Posting list…which *I* have been waiting for since it was promised the first time…about 7 YEARS ago. Now…if they can’t make two lists of names for different levels of an action, something that is apparently so easy 7 year old kids can make it happen on pages they build…how can I believe the rest?
Xanga has been my blogging home since 2003 and I don’t want to go anywhere else. However, this doesn’t feel like a “fundraiser”, it feels like extortion. It’s the bloggers that made Xanga such a great community. The “team” didn’t do much of anything, except to sit back and watch the company fail. They know how special Xanga is to so many and they’re using that to drive us into paying for the service. The whole thing makes me feel icky. I don’t blog here because of the bells and whistles of the site, let’s face it most of them don’t work anyway. I blog here because of the people. I don’t want to lose the community, but on principle I haven’t been able to justify paying the “team”.
Your dog in your profile pic is really cute. what is the breed??
middle school in 1980? when i went to school it was called “jr. high” and as for age? i am sure that i am older than twice the average age of the xangan. lol
xanga started for me in 2005
@Super_Rob_of_the_Sky – Yeah, not $1000! That is a bit more than I am ready to do.
@ordinarybutloud – Fair points, all. We do get something in return for the money, though, so it isn’t donating so much as paying in advance.
I won’t tell you what I was doing in 1980, it will probably depress you. But it does make me feel young again, so at least I’m not depressed. I sometimes feel like I’m way older than anyone else here, and other times way younger. I guess that speaks to the diversity of the community.
I haven’t listened to any of the radio shows yet. Like @randaness I’d rather read a transcript than listen, I get easily distracted with listening and that’s why I can’t do audiobooks without great difficulty. I read faster than most people speak, especially book readers. But I do intend to at some point, if only for the curiosity of hearing what these people sound like! It definitely is a small town, where even if I don’t interact with every blogger, I see them around enough to know who they are and a little about them. Reminds me a bit of school, actually, since I went to a very small school. I knew everyone in my grade and went to school with some of them from kindergarten through senior year.
I don’t have a problem with paying for Xanga, generally speaking. I’ve been doing it free since 2007 and I don’t think it’s too much to ask me to pay, since I’ve basically been freeloading for almost 6 years now. And I get that it takes money to run a business. But I also get the ambivalence about the “Team.” I remember one time having some sort of trouble with my site and I was unable to access Xanga (I forget why). I emailed for “help” and got no response, not even an automated “thank you for your interest” email or anything like that. Eventually I was able to work around the problem myself, but the fact that there was no response from ANYONE was kind of frustrating. It does seem like the “team” has been absent the last few years or so. I vaguely remember them doing updates more often but maybe it only seems “often” in retrospect. Hmm. But anyway, I feel like if I’m going to throw 48$ a year or more at the place, there should be more of an effort to listen to me (the collective me) and our concerns or wishes. I get that they have personal lives, etc, but still. If we’re paying, it better be a damned good service. At least, if it is wordpress based, we know the software, etc. is a bit more stable than the homegrown site we’re used to.
@Super_Rob_of_the_Sky - yes, originally I thought of it as a purchase too. But everyone refers to it as a donation. And I think the reason they refer to it as a donation is because no one is quite certain what it is, exactly, they’re purchasing. @firetyger - I understand 100% why you want to save Xanga. I’ve been here a long time too, and my Xanga friends are an indispensable part of my life. @distractedbyzombies - you are so delightful! That was quite a summary, too. @randaness - that’s why I only listened to two shows. I’m going to try to do more of them tonight. But I have to carry the laptop around with me and….eh, I kept having to rewind and restart because I’d start reading something else and miss part of the conversation. I’m best at listening when I’m in the car. But right now the entertainment in my car is Kung Fu Panda, starring Jack Black. My kids would freak out if I tried to listen to a roadlesstaken Xanga radio show instead. @doahsdeer - I’m a visitor too. You can leave comments whenever you like. And if I haven’t told you personally, thank you so much for joining me at wordpress.
I’m always glad to see your posts pop up!!! @Roadlesstaken - first, in my part of Texas, “cute” is a compliment. Just imagine it coming from a group of women in tennis skirts, mom-aged, with strong Texas accents, like this: “y’all! He was sooooooo CUTE!” But second, you have an amiable and even self-deprecating air about you, and your sense of humor coupled with your tendency to lose track of the show here and there to check on the chat room…it’s cute. 
I thought you were very respectful with your guests. I enjoyed listening to you. @SoullFire - I find the @edlives prophet angle quite fascinating in this whole business. Like, immediately after the Xanga Team post, when he was fielding questions and whatnot, it seemed like he was culling the answers from the Xanga Team post!! It made me think of a pastor or a prophet. Very amusing. 
@cceerpp - yes. 
@moniet - the more I get to know wordpress, the more I realize how similar the two sites have been *all along*. It’s a little weird, frankly. People post a lot about the lack of community at wordpress and getting lost in the crowd, etcetera, but with the “freshly pressed” page and the ability to find other posts, I don’t know, it doesn’t really seem that different to me. But maybe that’s because I was never terribly popular as a blogger on Xanga?? I don’t know. It’s a mystery. @Melissa___Dawn - there are definitely times when I’ve thought about the fundraiser and it’s made me feel…”icky.” It just doesn’t seem legit to me. I can’t explain why. It just makes me feel icky! Great explanation. @nepenthium - thanks!! Our dog is a soft-coated wheaten terrier. He is awesome!!! @buddy71 - well, yes, that’s one interesting thing about Xanga…the “dominant” voices or the “average” age doesn’t interfere with all of us finding our own section of Xanga community to love. I just always laugh when I hear or read someone say they found Xanga in “middle school.”
Radio show? I have no idea what you’re talking about. You are quite the Xanga social butterfly. So connected, you are. Plugged in, even.
@ordinarybutloud - Ima hella summer.
@christao408 - yes, true. I wish I knew what, EXACTLY, we were getting in return for the money, but you’re right, it is a purchase of sorts. @leaflesstree - no, I also have no problem with paying to blog. I pay for Duotrope, for example. @turningreen - I read the first page. I do. Often. It’s what I do when I’m procrastinating, which is nearly always.
lol I missed the scandal forever onwards disallowing pet blogs from xanga because we got sued and huge lost. I’m curious why blog rings were cool then useless just as metros exist but large too have been way-sided. I’ve been here since 2004. I laugh at all the jr high talk I was always curious why the middleschool model was kept two years five and six interact with hormones then seven through nine can hate life together and ten eleven and twelve can figure it out the only demarkation I see is algebra is for highschoolers so put ‘em together… dumb enough reason but moving along with the rest of this run on paragraph
it’s been fun, I would rather a t-shirt because it is tangible one way or another 3 tshirts is a membership people can donate a dollar why cant I get a tshirt lol I was here when people were shamed off the thrown of popularity I was here when it all happened I missed most of it lol I guess my sign says word press and a x2.0 membership sure is tasty considering it’s cheaper and gives something but in truth why cant I just buy the t-shirts and if we survive yay but otherwise I got proof …so far just a stupid loane screenshot i was for 15 minutes thee most popular writer of the cday woot. shh I did not have to bribe theo dan to take a nap lol. I guess that’s my bitch really I have to pay to be on a list with no garuntees either way. it’s worth it but I’d rather a tangible object and not one I have to pay a local dude to forge.
There’s a bunch of us Xangans who went to Jr. Hi school in the 1950′s. I started Xanga in 2005 and have met so many nice people here. I know they are nice because I feel I know them better than people I’ve gone to church with for 40 years. I’ve also met several of them in person and they are just like I expected them to be. I haven’t listened to the radio programs because I don’t know how to. I’ve never had any interactions with the Xanga team. I did contribute for a year, and hope it will not fail, but I’m sure it will change. People my age don’t like change.
Uh is that a wheaten terrier in your profile pic? Fellow Wheaten mom right here.
I’m so glad I kept the journals under my bed in junior high and high school. I ended up deleting my old Xangas and don’t have my stupid immature kid thoughts from online anymore. Thankfully, I have them on paper in a box at my moms.
It is really weird hearing voices of Xangans, it’s even freakier when you meet them in person!
I think paying for Xanga would be ok in a way but is something I am not able to do because of my bills. I am sure that some kind of alternate Xanga thing will appear. I do know of a few groups on facebook that are only for Xanga members so it could start there. I have never heard that xangan’s broadcast though but I hope to one day
Yes, Yes! I want to sacrifice lamb for a viewing of our king – Xanga God, John.
I think the point you made towards the end is something that I kind of keep trying to point out to everyone and no one ever seems to respond to it – if you have a club, and the community center where you meet burns down, you still have a club, you just meet somewhere else. The proponents of Xanga 2.0 keep touting the “community feel” it will have that other places won’t – which I feel is BS. If the community center burns down, and the club decides to meet at the library down the road, the library has a “community feel” too, because that’s where the club is, and they’re enjoying it. If the community center is asking you to pony up $50 for use of the future community center that they’re going to rebuild (but won’t even show you a blueprint for) and insisting it will have this great “community feel” on the ASSUMPTION that once it exists, the club will immediately abandon the library and come back to the community center, even though they would have to pay while the library is still free to use, that seems sketchy to me. The community feel is where the community goes, and there is NO ONE here that can promise that Xanga 2.0 will actually have the support of the community as a whole, because from what I’ve seen, for every person who has donated, 2 or 3 have sent me a message with their wordpress or blogger or tumblr address. It just seems sketchy and dishonest to use the community as a selling point for the new platform when no one knows if the community will remain, or how much of it will remain.
I also want to say that your remarks about the “absent” Xanga Team are perfectly accurate, as one glance at their page can tell you. Their last pulse was in 2011, their last photo album went up in 2008. Before things went down in May, their last post had been from January. In the months before that, they were posting maybe once a month (sometimes less), often talking about features in the making, to be introduced, that never actually showed up. They still have not posted any mock ups or given any indication about what features Xanga 2.0 will have in a CONCRETE, SPECIFIC way, they just continue reminding us to pay up. They plan to transfer over blogs only of paid members, ignoring the fact that there is such a thing as the “True” badge for members who have proven their loyalty over the years, but who either haven’t, or don’t at the moment, pay for their account. Not to mention the fact that they’ve got a solid number of “Lifetime” members who thought they had already paid their dues. I would argue that the “Lifetime” and “True” badge bearing members are the most loyal userbase they’ve had over the years, and they were the first to get shit on with this new deal.
That’s not the kind of leadership that I am giving a single penny to, sorry guys.
@starmanjones - t-shirt = great idea! I’d buy a $48 t-shirt before I’d buy a promise about a future product I’m not sure I completely understand. @ata_grandma - yes, I know there are a lot of older members too. From time to time I’ve felt like my own age cohort…right in the middle…is the smallest group. But that’s one of the things I’ve enjoyed about Xanga, reading perspectives from people of all ages. @istephaniemarie2 - love the wheatens!! Wish I’d met more xangans in person. @okitapieds - you can follow the link to roadlesstaken and the radio show is super easy to click and listen. @TheGhioniFiles - All Hail, Absent John!! (but let me just say, I’ve mentioned before, I saw a photo of John and his super-cute wife and baby on Xanga a few years ago. John may be legitimately absent and busy.
) @Lost_In_Reverie - yes, I agree with much of what you said, obviously. I am less certain. I am ambivalent.
@ordinarybutloud - that is my only grievance heck make up an x2.0 with the 2 in chemical notation’s subscript like it’s h2O
and everyone that got a REAL xanga shirt now has a collecter’s item lol it isn’t like any longtimer here hasn’t learned we cant live rightly without the xanga of life 