July 8, 2013
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Xanga Survival Speculation Update #1: New Deadline Date of July 31
Thanks to the eagle eyes of @cagey, I was alerted to the fact that the Xanga Crowdhoster Pledge Drive Page has been updated-
It no longer has an “end date” of July 15th, the new date has been moved to July 31.
This was close to my speculated scenario #1 – Xanga extending the pledge drive deadline.
So while that’s promising news that things are still happening behind the scenes, it clearly shows a lack of coordination from the business side of things.
One would expect an announcement/update to be made BEFORE the dates were changed, not the other way around.
Comments (15)
………..pushing the deadline now???…
I find it interesting they airbrushed out 7/15 like it never happened.
@rxglasshalffull - Looks like it…@coolmonkey - Even more interesting is they haven’t said anything about it- no new news updates. Just a “casual” unannounced date change on the last week of the pledge drive…
@SoullFire - I can’t help re-iterating that The Xanga Team delivered their original message poorly, 2 months ago. What I want to know is why so many of the original Xangans left the site? Do they honestly think Xanga 2.0 is going to bring back most of the original Xangans? According to what I’ve been told by a few veterans, most left Xanga years ago. The moment The Xanga Team uttered “Xanga’s shutting down July 15th,” that’s when more of us jumped ship. They really delivered the news badly.
It’s just the way I’ve seen other sites do it too, like giving a bone to a dying dog. Well, I’m happy for it I guess bc I haven’t jumped ship yet, and we all have our known contacts here already. I haven’t made any plans to go anywhere in particular after this. Might take a blogging hiatus. Though I know it’s going to be quieter the next few weeks here, I say “blog on” to those that remain. Don’t let this become a ghost town. If we all enjoyed Xanga, we still can for the time that we have left.I soullfire is right though in her assessment; If many older Xangans left years ago, and found new blogging homes, why would they return for 2.0? and why did they leave in the first place? (I think it was the drama, and trolls, though those can be found nearly anywhere, and now they will migrate too, if they haven’t already, especially when people announce where they are going to, it lets their personal stalkers/trolls know where to find them.)
@RealistMe - The majority of folks left to other sites because the site became dated and obsolete in many ways. The broader question is why did they take so long to decide to do an upgrade? An upgrade would definitely attract more users if they can retain their community features- that is, if it were still offering free blogging. That’s an issue I think they will be forced to address once they see how poorly it’s likely to work. I’m setting up shop somewhere else since I don’t wish to pay to blog, but I’d definitely consider relocating if I had all the upgrades of WordPress with Xanga’s community feel and features – especially if WordPress users and Xanga users could easily follow/friend each other. Blogster would be in trouble with a new “free” Xanga because you’d now have a superior service with similar/advanced features. @Crystalinne - I think you’d see a return of people for they same reasons they’ve returned time and time again- most other blogging sites are pretty much dead when it comes to social interaction. I’ve seen blogs where people write their hearts out on other sites and they garner zero comments time and time again. That gets old fast. I think Xanga has potential to grow once they realize they need to include free blogging. I’m hoping they get “Xanga 2.0″ out the door so at least they’ll have an opportunity to make the right corrections that are needed for it to be successful.
@Crystalinne - That’s very true about having stalker trolls following them to another blogging site. Luckily, I don’t think I’ve had any major trolls on my end. I’ve had spammer though. Luckily for those of us on Blogster, their spam guard is really strict. Too strict for some users, from what I’ve been told. LOL! Spammers is 1 thing I won’t miss about Xanga. I WILL miss my friends, subscribers, and themes the most.
@SoullFire - The upgrade will attract old and new users. However, like we’ve been saying, the mandatory pay won’t. Money is the biggest problem right now because we’ve been fighting over it. It’s great that The Xanga Team is fundraising. At the same time, they’re pressuring us to all donate money and to convert to mandatory pay for Xanga 2.0. I think they forget, that the economy is terrible, right now. People are losing their jobs daily and have to secure their money for necessities.
I don’t think the Xanga hamsters have any idea what they are doing.All they know is the wheel.
Even though I am not thrilled about the whole paying to blog (for xanga 2.0) I do want xanga to survive. This is by far the greatest blogging community that I have been on so I would rather like to see xanga not shut down!As for thexangateam not updating, I think they did recently about why the change of date….
I have returned to more active blogging here precisely because Xanga is going to go away: do not go gently into that goodnight!I was here at the beginning of it all. I have returned for the end. Like a set of parens ( ) , with Xanga unable to trespass into eternity.
@notforprophet - I did a blog about one of your contemporaries, the original Soulfire! a few weeks back. It’d be cool to see more early users come back as Xanga “free blogging” comes to an end. Do you keep in contact with any of those early members?
@notforprophet – I have noticed that with quite a few subs, although many have already disappeared entirely. It’s nice to see you again. I wish everyone I’ve known here would post at least once more.
@SoullFire - there are still many early members around and blogging. But Xanga doesn’t promote them anymore so they are hard to spot. It is almost as if there is an “early members” black list on Top Blogs and Most Rec’d blogs. Over the last 5 or 6 years I have had some (not many, but some) popular posts that should have definitely but never made it into either of those lists. Or maybe it is just me on their blacklist.
I also noticed the date change before the announcement came out. On one hand it is nice that the fundraising got extended, but many people have already left before finding out.