June 30, 2013
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John, The CEO of Xanga Speaks!
After several weeks of hearing “prophet” @edlives talk to us about the words from the @XangaTeam we finally got an oppotunity to hear the direct “word” from the mountain top!
@roadlesstaken had the radio talk show today with @John, the CEO of Xanga. I’ve listened to a few of the prior shows with other Xangan’s but this one was a must see event since we would finally be hearing from “The Source”.
Based on who was speaking, I’m surprised there were so few people in the chatroom. I thought the turnout would be much bigger.
To be honest, part of me was holding out hope that he’d say he was ending the “pay only” model and keep free blogging alive, while another part of me was expecting nothing to change so I would give the “Final Nail in the Coffin” post about writing off Xanga.
So what was the outcome? Well, it’s a mixed result. There have been no changes to the “pay only” model, but what John said gives me hope that Xanga 2.0 may have a chance at survival as they work through their plans and obstacles.
Some new info was revealed during the show regarding which blogs will transfer- in addition to current premium members and those paying the $48 pledge, all those who have ever signed up for premium in the past will also be on the list. That’s right- if you bought only “one” month of premium in the past, your blog will be transferred over.
And as was stated in prior info posts, everyone’s subscription and friend list will transfer over.
I also brought up my proposed plan to charge blogs an annual fee to remain online – you know I wasn’t going to let that slip by, haha.
Surprisingly, @John was unfamiliar with it so the information never made it to him. Upon hearing it, he sounded intrigued and willing to look into it, so that was promising.My personal overall take from what I heard is this: I’m still not convinced to pay $48/yr for this service, but I now feel better about making a smaller contribution for the cause. I was originally planning to make a small contribution just for old times sake and to help the folks who are going gangbusters trying to save Xanga – it was to be my “parting gift”.
But now I realize that even folks who intend to blog elsewhere have a good reason to make a donation – so we can preserve our contact/sub/friend lists. The private messaging aspect is a nice feature to keep around with our contact lists intact since that’s not available on the more popular blogging sites. In addition, there are many folks who plan on not blogging anymore post Xanga 1.0, which is another reason to want to keep the current lists intact.
After hearing @John speak, I think Xanga 2.0 is still a work in progress that has potential. I don’t believe they’ve fully considered the problems with how they are implementing it, but I get the impression that they’d be open to changes once they see the issues that arise directly with using a “pay only” model. The problem is they are going to have to deal with it head on because their attention now is on funding and getting Xanga 2.0 out the door.
It looks like they are behind the eight ball in funding, but this is usually when funding picks up – since people who have been holding out finally make their move. The key to the health of a pledge drive is it should have 50% of the funds when 50% of the time has past, and that was the case.
So I will still be making plans to blog elsewhere, but now I’m genuinely curious about the potential of Xanga 2.0 being more community controlled and what might come of it.
Radio Show link to hear recorded event: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/roadlesstaken/2013/06/30/on-the-road-less-taken–john-from-the-xanga-team
Comments (15)
The attendance may have been low but I think it was the highest it ever was. It was at least the highest I had ever seen. Plus, there is a difference between how many people were in chat and how many people actually heard it.I thought it was motivating to hear John just talk through it. It leaves me encouraged.
“So I will still be making plans to blog elsewhere, but now I’m genuinely curious about the potential of Xanga 2.0 being more community controlled and what might come of it.” You’re curious about it… I’m ready for it.
Glad you were able to listen in and be a part of the chatroom.
Wouldn’t worry too much about attendance, it had my highest chat room attendance and the most live viewers so far (always more listeners than chat room participants). I anticipate the archived listens will be very high too.Overall I thought the show did a good job to give some assurance. I now feel that the team does have a true plan for the future and hopefully it works out.Regarding a free version of Xanga in the future, he did say that’s what he ideally would like if money works out. Hopefully that option can open up later.
I think a lot of people listen who don’t use the chatroom. Oh I guess Dan and Alex said that already!I was impressed by him and actually want to stay around to see what happens next. I also think it was just amazing he took the time on a Sunday night to do this. I feel positive about this now.
@TheTheologiansCafe - @Roadlesstaken - True, I’m sure many more were listening who weren’t in the chat room.@edlives - It was a good show!@WrappedinWishes2 - Haha, I think we switched positions – I was previously the more positive one!
@Roadlesstaken - You should post the totals of how many actually listened live. I think that number was probably pretty high.
@SoullFire - I didn’t listen to the show because I’ve been busy doing other things on my end. So, based on what I’m reading here in the comments, there is a possibility, that Xanga can have free users again, if the relaunch works out? What about if the relaunch doesn’t succeed? Are they still going to keep Xanga for those paid users or will they scrap Xangans completely? Sorry to sound pessimistic, but I’m about ready to leave Xanga, since I already settled onto Blogster. It really sucks. Most of the blogging/social networking sites, that I’ve experimented with this entire month, don’t have the same feel as Xanga even though I’ve only been on here 1/2 year. Before Xanga announced the shut down, I was already thinking about joining another blogging/social media site. Xanga turned into a ghost town. Well, at least on my end so to speak. Not only that, but also the only time my blogs get major views is whenever a topic is more controversial. That’s actually something I’ve noticed, since the time of being a Xangan. As long as the topics are controversial, the viewerships are high. This to me says that Xangans mostly care about controversial issues. With that being said, I don’t think I really need to belong on Xanga anymore after July 15th. Hardly anybody’s reading my blogs or anybody else’s, UNLESS it’s controversial and/creates hysteria.
well if you find a good blogging site, let me know so i’ll join & keep you updated haha. I like sites that easy to use. simple and not crowded. like Xanga. all I care about are the words and the site should just be about words.
If I can still interact for free with people here but just not post blogs, that’s fine. I can set up a free blog over at WP.com and continue to comment here. Essentially, the $48 are for hosting the blog. I think this clarification from John was good. I agree that the show was good and worth listening to as the information came right from the horse’s mouth rather than some interpreters. Not sure, if I am more convinced about paying for hosting a blog here, but we shall see.
what just happened? Hi btw. Just popping in
@RealistMe - I don’t think they realize how “empty” the place will become with a 100% pay wall, and I believe that will motivate them to restore some forms of free blogging to maintain a critical mass of active bloggers. The the eventuality I see happening down the road, but folks who wish to continue to blog free now will have to relocate.Controversy always attracts more people. Since you’re relatively new, it makes sense that controversial topics would be the leading source of your views- once you build up a good amount of friends and subs, you’ll get a good amount of views with non controversial blogs as well. I should know – I write about things economic – usually far in the spectrum away from controversy, haha. @beowulf222 - Yeah, I think just having the user/sub resources up would be a good benefit to hold on to. Once 2.0 is released we’ll see if it sells itself on the annual fee.
@SoullFire - I think that’s the biggest problem The Xanga Team doesn’t understand. I’m completely aware that they are a business and need money, which is why they’re doing all this fundraising. However, by them turning this Xanga “relaunch” into being paid users only, they will eventually lose more Xangans than gain. The main reason why facebook has so many users is because it’s free. I’m willing to bet if facebook ever pulled a Xanga move and said it would be a paid users only site, facebook would vanish. LOL! Those of us, who are free users, already have our cyber bags packed and belong to another blogging/social networking site or more. 2/5 my Xangans friends, who I tagged in my current blog are in shock by this current Xanga situation. They haven’t been on here in the last 2-3 months. They’re already reeling and some more free users will really be reeling, once they discover they’re no longer allowed to blog on Xanga, unless they pay. Some have already returned and they’re saying “What the fuck?!”
This is the first I’ve heard of this, even though it’s been supposedly going on since May or so? Tonight was the first time I saw “Help Relaunch Xanga” on my homepage. Boy, I would’ve been abso-fucking-lutely TOASTED if I’d come back and discovered that my blog was gone! Just because I haven’t blogged in a while, doesn’t mean I didn’t want to know about this!I joined Xanga solely because of the footprints feature. No one else was giving out stats like that back then. (I think this is my third Xanga blog…I had to toss the last one because of a stalker.) That’s okay…I guess it’s simply time to make use of the WP account I got when I was hosting my site through them.
@IsianPriestess - They never sent out a mass message via private messaging or a big splash page message that would have alerted everyone- I have no idea why. As a result, a ton of folks still have no idea of the situation or the planned changes. They have run this campaign very poorly and it shows in the big drop of current users.
@SoullFire - That’s insane. I’m glad for your clarification on whether it’s going pay-only. I’m getting out now. *hugs*