February 1, 2011
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#XANGA
Last night I had a curious exchange with another blogger on Twitter. She tweeted that she had been writing, but she was unsure as to whether or not she should post on her blog. (At the time, I was under the assumption that she had two blogs, one on Xanga and the other on Tumblr.) She asked her followers to help her decide. The following discourse took place:manilajones: @callmequell Only if you post it on Xanga
callmequell: @manilajones Yeah, no. I definitely shut down everything there ever.
manilajones: @callmequell Are you saying that I have to single-handedly revive that site? Everyone is gone.
callmequell: @manilajones It’s kind of over. #sorryI was immediately struck with two feelings. One, I was surprised that she didn’t have a Xanga account anymore, and two, I was disappointed because she, who at one time was a very popular person on Xanga, had apparently left Xanga exclusively for Tumblr. I don’t know much about Tumblr, but I really don’t see why that site might be considered a more reputable blogging site than Xanga. I mean, it’s not even legitimate like Blogger or has the street cred of WordPress. My eyeball test tells me that Tumblr is simply a place for hipsters to post their witty Twitter updates, only in size 72 font that begs its reader to “READ ME!! READ ME!!” But what the hell do I know about eyeballs? I’m not an ophthalmologist.
Anyway, this conversation resonated the fact that people are leaving Xanga at an alarming rate. I’ve been on Xanga for almost five years and I’ve never seen a mass exodus such as the one that we’re witnessing right now. Readership is down, traffic is light, and Top Bloggers rarely get a hundred comments. The Xanga Team hasn’t even updated for three months. Xanga may be that flash-in-the-pan website that high school kids signed up for ten years ago and are now just getting on with their lives. It’s expected for things to change. That’s just how the world works.
Five years ago I started this blog on a night that was not unlike most nights back then. I was lamenting my life, crying uncontrollably and listening to shitty music by Andrew W.K. (I suspect that this is how most Xanga blogs started.) A lot has changed since then; I cry significantly less and I now listen to shitty music by Christina Perri. But one thing that will not change is the URL to my blog. I really don’t see myself leaving Xanga for as long as I write because I know that my uninteresting blog posts will be just as uninteresting as if I posted them on Tumblr. The host is never bigger than the blog itself. It’s never “kind of over.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Xanga apologist. The giant letters and the bright colors on the front page make it feel like it’s a website for six-year-olds learning how to read. There are a lot of dolts and curmudgeons on this site, and I’m actually glad that some people have left. But I’ll probably never leave. I might be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, but if this ship is going down, I’m going down with it.
#thankyouxanga
Comments (26)
Aw. Me too, chum!
same here
Yep…
I Won’t ever be leaving
Even though no one Reads
I Never had any Readership to Begin with…
While a lot of the themes / templates are interesting, some of them are just downright impossible to decipher. The fonts are tiny and the background colours blend in with the colours of the text. Some of the content is interesting but then again, I was looking only at some of the ex Xangans.
I don’t necessarily want to blog with a bunch of 16 year old kids. But I do want Xanga to be a bit more current. At the very least, I would like the Xanga team or John to update more frequently.
That sucks because its such an amazing site
sorry, but to me, tumblr>xanga. and you broke the #1 tumblr rule. just saying
@sydney_raeann - AND WHAT RULE WOULD THAT BE
circa 2004 :/
I have been on Xanga since 2003 and it’s become my online journal since my friends stopped using xanga and since I burned my diaries at 17 when my parents read them hahahah but now i have made friends through Xanga. I just can’t leave it behind, it’s where all my thoughts are for the past 8 years. I can’t leave that, even if another site is better. It’s where my thoughts are.
I hate hipsters.
Everyone is going to tumblr.
Tumblr is a photoblog for people uninterested in actually writing. It doesn’t even have a built in comment feature! I love Xanga
Well I love my Tumblr but I also love my Xanga. They’re different, but it’s a matter of opinion which one people like better.
I use tumblr. Depending on your theme, it may or may not be a good blogging platform. Some are better for just blurbs (hence it’s title as a MicroBlogger)… I post full blogs on mine tho. My theme has comments, and pages etc… and the font is norm. sized. I’ve been on tumblr awhile and only recently discovered Xanga. They aren’t super comparable really. If you ever go there, my domain is godisinthewind.com .
tumblr…sucks.
I created a blog there because a friend asked me to. I figured, okay…I’ll use it to follow her and just copy my posts from Xanga to there when I do bother posting. Fairly often, there are technical difficulties. What really makes tumblr suck, however, is that it isn’t so easy to come across blogs written with any real substance. What I found was countless “bloggers” posting some sort of nonsense, some crazy picture, and a sentence or two. That can be okay from time to time, but all the time? Tumblr, in my opinion, isn’t a decent place for anyone who wants to do some serious blogging, or even half way serious.
I wish Xanga would really take back off because, in my experience, it’s one of the best places to blog. It’s easy enough to keep up with everyone, the site rarely ever has issues, and there are some very good bloggers here with blogs worth reading. Oh and it being totally customizable is another bonus. Unless the site completely vanishes, I’m here to stay. Years of my life are recorded here, and hopefully this will continue for many more.
@PunkRockCowboy - I can’t look at a triangle the same anymore because of them darn hipsters =.=’
Just so you know, I used to have a Tumblr, but I cheated on it with Xanga, and I must say, my Tumblr is out of my life now.
Tumblr is just a bigger breeding ground for people to make others feel a little more “left out.” There are so many friggin’ inside jokes, it makes me feel like the weird little new kid in school all over again.
Xanga is amazing, because the words are normal sized, and they actually have some sort of meaning behind them. I can find intelligent articles on here about issues that would make a hardcore Tumblr’s brain explode. And I like that feeling.
xo’
I’ve only been on Xanga since November, but I couldn’t imagine ever leaving. I love it here and since I joined I’ve gotten back into writing on a regular basis. I signed up for other places when I first getting started, and Xanga was the only one that appealed to me.
its a word concept, writing for art’s sake and it happens here.
I will not leave Xanga for good, but tend to try other blog sites out.
amen!
i just made a xanga…4 days ago i think, i’ve lost track of time really…im using as a personal journal…its so therapeutic. oh wells.
tumblr is alright…
@NightCometh - Agreed! Tumblr isn’t for serious writers, really.
In two days my blog will be seven-years-old. That being said, I’ve recently made a Tumblr. I found three jobs as a web-editor, and their applications REQUIRED I had been a long-time used of both Twitter and Tumblr. The problem with anga, I think, is the same thing that small towns have. There isn’t a pull for people to come here. The mass migration is taking away our user-generated appeal, and as you wrote the Xanga team (from what we see) isn’t doing much to help, either. I’m never going to leave Xanga. This blog will always be my blog.
I came, I saw, I wrote, I got attacked, I got trolled, I got threatened, I lost interest.
That is Xanga. That is why people leave. Tumblr has actual oversight, and people pulling the crap that is pulled here are not tolerated. It’s safer, full stop.
@manilajones - that your not supposed to talk about tumlbr outside of tumblr.
Personally, I’m ok with a smaller, more dedicated Xanga community. If there are fewer people on the site, those that read and interact regularly are those who actually care enough of the integrity of the site and their own blog. As far as attacks go, if you aren’t willing to take a little offense, then they shouldnt be blogging. If you have something to say, say it, if you are quieted by fear of safety, then don’t.