September 12, 2008
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Xanga: A Blogging Community
We’ve gotten some feedback lately that we should feature more updates on the Xanga frontpage… and re-focus Xanga on its roots as a blogging community (good points, Dan!). RaVnR even created this cool logo for us:
It was kinda kismet to read it – that’s actually exactly the direction we’re moving in! We’ve been mocking up some changes to the frontpage, and would love your feedback on some of the potential changes we’re considering:
1. TURNING THE XANGA FRONTPAGE INTO A BLOG
We’re considering turning the whole frontpage into a giant blog… made up of hand-selected posts written by you, our users!
Here’s how the frontpage works now: we currently feature a post or two every day. It’s a surprising amount of work!
- We have to go out and find posts to feature..
- So many sites have Xanga Lock on… we have to ask those users to turn it off (which takes time).
- We often ask permission to feature posts, especially if they are on sensitive topics (which also takes time).
So we’re thinking about changing up the model a bit:
- Rather than go out and find posts, we’ll create a way for you guys to submit your posts to be featured (so we don’t have to ask permission).
- We’ll host the post on our own blog, so we don’t have to coordinate turning off Xanga Locks (oh my, this will save so much time!)
- We won’t have to ask permission, because you’ll submit your own posts to be featured.
As a result of these changes, we’d be able to turn the Xanga frontpage into a group blog… updated maybe 10 times a day or so? Hopefully even more!
How do you like dem apples? Please let us know!
2. EXPANDING THE “FEATURED CONTENT” MODULE ON THE RIGHT
We added an orange module of “Featured Content” on the right side of the page a while ago. It links to the post that have the most comments in the last 24 hours or so. It’s a great way to highlight posts that the community is buzzing over.
We’re thinking about expanding that module, so that we’re driving more traffic directly to people’s Xanga sites. We display 5 posts now… we’re thinking about expanding it to 20/25 posts? Also, we’d like to show the titles of posts as well (we don’t do that now), so people know which ones they’re likely to enjoy?
That way, we could drive a lot more traffic directly to people’s pages!
Of course, sometimes we come across a gem of a post that doesn’t have a lot of comments on it. We could always toss that up on the Xanga Frontpage blog
.What do you think?
3. FOCUS THE FRONTPAGE ON BLOGGING
We have been featuring a number of things on the frontpage, including photos, videos, and pulse. While we love all of our feature, our sense is that Xanga is first and foremost a blogging community. We don’t want that to get lost in the mix.
So while those features are fun, we’d like to refocus the frontpage largely on blogging. We’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but Dan’s post about it really pushed this up on our timeline.
———-
Those are some of our thoughts on a frontpage redesign. In terms of the look of the page, it would look largely the same. It would just have more blogs on it…
Thanks to everyone for all their thoughts on how to make the site better… let us know what you think!
Comments (201)
This is why you are the best Xanga Team Member, evar (shhh don’t tell the other guys). Thanks for letting us hang out here, it’s been a blast! The Xanga Team is my new hero.
p.s. first!!
SECOND! if that counts. dang you’re fast stewie!
looks like you guys read Theo’s blog and are taking action huh?
ah, the digg model. great!
so,
i love the idea of making the xanga frontpage a huge blog where people can have their blogs posted. i think this is a much better idea, and it saves you guys some time and frustration.
i would definitely use these new features you’re thinking of adding to xanga.
sounds like a great idea!! i’m all for it! can’t wait to see how it turns out!
6th!
Sounds like a great change. Do it!
The only thing about making it where we can ask for our posts to be featured is that there are some great bloggers who wouldn’t ask. I know I wouldn’t. I have been featured (twice, I believe), and I loved it, but I would never ask to be featured.
Is there a way that the featured blog could also be something a reader recommends? Just a thought.
I like all the ideas flowing out there though. (And I like the new logo.)
–Kristin
whatever
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>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I LOVE IT ! ! ! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Go go go Xanga! I love Xanga forevar.
Hol’ on a sec here.
Featured content links to posts that have “the most comments over the past 24 hours or so.” And then… drives more viewers to those posts?
The posts that, by definition, are already getting the most views are the ones we want to make sure get some attention paid to them? Is that really what we want Featured Content to be for?
sounds like a fabulous idea.
question: by posting it under your (thexangateam) blog, does that mean we wouldn’t see footprints/traffic on our own site? part of the great thing about going to the actual blog is being able to surf their other entries (a way to boost your subs/meet new people outside of the “featured” blog) and yes, watch your own footprints/traffic increase.
that’s definitely not the reason i blog, but it’s nice to see that people read
@MBL76 - that’s a good point … sometimes the “diamonds in the rough” don’t get enough attention, while the already well-publicized posts get over-exposed.
Awesomesauce!!!
That sounds awesome!
Sounds awesome!! Would you automatically feature the content that’s submitted to be featured, or would you pick from the ones that were submitted? Because otherwise, you could end up featuring some weird stuff.
Love the ideas though =]
yes yes yes!! i love the idea of us being able to submit blogs to be considered. that way if we do write something possibly feature-worthy, even the meekest of us xangites have a chance to be discovered. (of course, our blogs might stink too, in which case we will have to deal with the fact that our writing is not that good and THAT is why we are not featured. heh heh.)
definitely add titles to the featured content. i was on the xanga main page last night trying to find somebody new to read, but without titles it’s just a complete guess. i found one i really enjoyed, one i was lukewarm about, and 2 i’d never be regular readers on. titles would at least give us an idea of where we’re going.
i don’t mind the pulse, pictures, etc. being on the page, but it’d be nice if they were “below the fold” rather than hogging up space on top.
thanks so much for your continued commitment to the xanga-world.
@doraemonxo - Yah Dan posted something similar in March, which was also helpful. We’vebeen experimenting with the frontpages for our other sites, and have learned a lot from that – we’re now incorporating those learnings into Xanga’s frontpage. I should clarify though – the frontpage will bemoderated by a human editor! So it may look a bit like Digg, but it’s human edited…
@Krissy_Cole - Yah we may reach out from time to time to Xangans to ask if we can feature a post! It should hopefully be a minority of posts though. BTW, I don’t mean to suggest that this is our new logo. It was just neat to see a logo that communicated our focus on blogging. The logo used to say “the weblog community”, so we’ve definitely been thinking about returning to that.
@BarelyJen - Yah, that’s the downside to this approach. But we’ll link to the site and give credit where credit is due! Also, this way it will be a ton easier to feature blog posts… so we should feature a lot more sites this way. Oh yah, and we’ll have way more direct links to blog posts on the right side of the page!
@laurenmaureen - Heh, we would def screen what gets published to our frontpage .
I think all of this sounds great. The one suggestion I have is to limit the amount of featured content to a little bit less of what you are considering. If you have too many in the featured content list, it may overwhelm the page and make the page a little less attractive. Otherwise, I like the direction you guys are heading on. You all rock!
Sounds great.
Full of good ideas. =)
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Remodel the frontpage with the blog (thats a really good idea!), but keep similarities to the old page if you can. People like familiarity sometimes
I never thought I’d see the day when Dan’s posts actually influenced Xanga, but then again I’ve see a lot of crazy in my day.
I think that it is a good idea to drive the traffic to the blogs. Yes Xanga is a social-networking site, but it isn’t Facebook or MySpace. It’s about the content. If someone wants to do a photo album, they should get a Flicker account or go to MySpace. Xanga should be about what is written. To me, your competition is not MySpace or Facebook; those tools are built for an ADHD generation. Xanga is about writing and connecting to people via thoughts on issues. Xanga is not a gossip rag or a touchy-feely site. It’s about the issues and hitting them head on. In a way, Xanga is LiveJournal for a younger generation.
I do have a question about the idea of Featured Posts: let’s say that someone does want to feature a post and they submit it. The whole point of featuring a post is to say, “Hey, blogger X had something good to say about subject Y. Here’s what (s)he had to say.” You reward the bold thoughts with traffic. In this way, you give that post much more exposure not only though the front page but also on the search engines since there are now more links to the post.
But you say that people have to submit their posts to circumvent Friends Lock so you can post it to a community blog. I think this is a bad idea and doomed to be an EPIC FAIL as re-posting the content to a community blog will drive traffic away from the original poster’s site as people will click the links on the front page and since those links don’t point back to the original post, they will not see the additional traffic from search engines.
Let me help you with a thought: change the modus operandi.
When someone submits their post to be featured, one of the conditions should be that if they have on Friend Lock or whatever that if their post is featured, for that post and that post only the links on the front page will go directly to the post bypassing the Friend’s Lock. This will mean changing your API a bit and could become a way for someone to hack a person’s account, but it would be a much more elegant solution. When they submitted their post for Featured Content, they would have to check a box indicating that they agree to have the Friend’s Lock circumvented and waive the right for the post that they are submitting.
Of course, you could always have a requirement of being featured as not having Friend’s Lock, but that has negative consequences too. I would also recommend that you also include some explicit content on the front page too. This can be done tastefully, perhaps through the usual means of saying, “Hey, there’s filtered content here, log in and verify if you want to read it.”
I bring this latter point up because I don’t think that it would be fair to not give racier sites a change to have traffic. Now, I’m not suggesting that the Xanga homepage turn into a jump page for p0rN and I can see how there could be legal issues in linking to adult content, but there are always exceptions to the rule.
Consider the movie Requiem for a Dream. It is a very intense, abstract, artistic film. I think that it is a very important film for both those who are members of the industry and it is also a film that has a potent message for the general public. Do I think that it should be shown to eight year olds? NO. But I do think that it would have been ludicrous to slap an NC-17 on the film and keep it from playing in theaters and making the DVD harder for the general public to get their hands on.
Like I said, there would have to be guidelines for featuring mature content, but I think that there is some content that would be above the threshold for the general populous, yet very relevant for some and I would hate to see those authors punished for daring to discuss topics that are edgy.
I also encourage you to highly re-think your idea of a community blog where traffic would not be directed back to the original post. If the whole point of redesigning the front page is to drive traffic to content, you need to actually build the front page in such a way that it accomplishes that goal. If you don’t, I’ll be here to impugn and lambaste and–though it pains me to think it–unite with Dan on this issue.
Thanks for taking the time to ready my two-cents worth.
@john - oops. I should read closer. haha!
This is a wonderful idea! I’ve been trying to get featured for awhile, and although I really enjoy the incentive it gives to write a really great blog, I would like the opportunity to submit my blogs for consideration. Awesome thought!
You guys rock, and I’ve been looking around at other blog sites lately and none of them compares to Xanga. I’ve had four different Xanga sites over the past four years, and I’ve enjoyed all of them. I recently made the move to Premium (as in, this morning), and I love it already.
Thank you for acknowledging that Xanga is a blogging website and caters first and foremost to blogs. Pulses, videos, and photos are great, but blogging is #1. I commend you for bringing the focus back!
Xanga is #2 in my heart (the hubby would be pretty upset if he were to find out, but really, you guys are #1).
Sounds great!
yes!! =) and this is why your website is amazing – because you listen to your users!!
@AirForceVirgin - Til death do us part then?
I definitely agree with refocusing on blogging. I think that’s a great, great, GREAT idea.
But I think once we turn the front page into a giant blog, we lose our Home Page. People lose what we’re about and our central focus, and think it’s just a hodge-podge of thoughts and ideas that most of the time have nothing to do with each other. While I think expanding the featured blogs portion is a great idea, I don’t think expanding it to be more Revelife or Datingish would cut out our “home base” that we sort-of have with our front page.
I also agree with Krissy_Cole, I would hate to ask to be featured… Just a thought…
One more thought, but this is completely a personal opinion, and really shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I think, just to make it easier on you guys, people with friend lock shouldn’t really be considered for featured. If they have friend lock on, I think they’ve really trying to keep their blog to themselves and people of their choosing. But I guess that’s just me.
I love you guys! You work so hard for us! Thanks so much
In business, it seems like in our current model you have to grow that business.
Quarters, years, but in the end days, what grows a business.
This started as a posting board for something.
It grew, at some point the media focus of it’s intial users grew less than something else.
At one point facebook was growing.
Facebook is going to take a fall.
You offer a product, something people will go to and use.
Today, September 12 2008. what do you offer people to do on the internet?
All of them are a little different but they all have something in common.
Why did people go to facebook and why will they leave now?
Depersonalize yourself and look at everything is my advice.
To grow xanga you have to WHAT?
Eventually the people who use xanga for what it offers at it’s core will be here, and that willl be xanga. You have to figure out what people want, and what at the core of this company xanga offers.
And where do people want to click now?
What is the behavior of the average user and what will they want next?
My .02
i didnt read this at all but hey a good idea? video blogging or showcasing something specific instead of entries. the rise and fall of gucci man or something
he hasd fallen right?i seriously hope ppeople arent still buying into that crap
@john - As long as we both shall blog!
I support y’all in everything you do. I sure hope there’s a way to submit someone else’s blog for featured blog, because otherwise more people will be submitting their own every single time they blog. And that’d be REALLY annoying.
Yay!Do it.I love the idea of turning the entire homepage into a blog:]]]]
xanga has a front page? cool! i usually just go directly to my favorite sites after i crank up the browser…
I support the idea of emphasizing Xanga as the site for bloggers. Having the photos, videos, pulses are good but it’s the content of the blogs that will differentiate Xanga from other sites. Follow this up with more tools (e.g. themes) for bloggers and I love the idea of revamping the front page.
I’m not so sure about having us submit our blogs to the community blog (maybe I just didn’t understand it). I do like the fact that Xanga does listen to your users feedback (especially considering how diverse we are).
*applauds* I think you are moving in the right direction! Keep the brain-storming going… I’ll bet you can improve on this idea of putting blogging first!
I really like this idea, I really would like to see which blogs were featured, that’d be cool. Thanks!
ps- I like dem apples
great ideas. looking forward to them all
for number 2, i think it also be a good idea to put the title of the entry along with the username. that way, people could sort of tell what they were clicking their way into.
wonderful ideas!
cool beans! I <3 all of the new ideas!
Sounds really good to me. I was thinking of asking it as a request here. Thanks for thinking ahead of me
I am still waiting to see when Xanga will be Windows Mobile friendly.
The Signature Of A True Human Is The Smile He/She Brings On The Face Of Others.
LonelyPoet
You guys always do great jobs. No complaints from me!
I love the way you accept constructive critism and incorporate it into positive changes.Thanks Xanga Team,I love you all.
I think we should be able to recommend a post we may read for featured content, rather than just having them be submitted. I’d also love to be able to opt a post for a more public view, without making my entire site open to anyone coming by. If we could make individual posts available, on a one by one basis, and have them be recommendable for featured if we’d like, that’d be good.
cool….I have yet to be a ” featured blogger and I am very faithful with my Xanga:o)
Sounds good. Blogging is what it’s all about.
Sounds good! I can’t wait to be featured.
Love the ideas, would be thrilled if you implemented them.
hear hear!
I stopped going to the front page because a lot of the featured blogs were not of interest to me. Ever thought of demographics/categories in your front page… so not a group blog, but groups of blogs that are featured according to demographics/categories.
personally I think updating the front page 10 times a day would be a bit much. I like to keep up with the featured blogs…but 10 a day would just be overwhelming if you don’t spend that much time here
@ProfessorTom - I have to agree, that was my thought exactly about disabling the locks automatically for the submitted post only. I’ve been keeping up with datingish and I really don’t like the fact that all the blogs are only on the one main page. It seems like the whole community is just one blog and that’s such a limited feeling. I never get over to anyone else’s datingish pages to read, or rarely anyway. I hope they definitely rethink reposting; I say post the first paragraph or two (like in datingish) and then when a user clicks through, send them to the original xangan’s post.
@WinsomeONE - I like this idea, too.
rock on, xanga, rock on.
sounds good to me!!
good idea. the more xanga separates itself as a blogging community (and not a popularity center like myspace, or a daily communication center like facebook) the more marketable it becomes. In this case, being ‘just like everyone else’ would actually make xanga less popular.
different is a good thing.
YES.
What I like best about blogging on Xanga is that I know I’m always reasonably certain of getting some intelligent feedback on my writing from other Xangans. I think a front page emphasizing this– saying to Xangans, quality content is celebrated here, and to non-Xangans, join Xanga and you’ll get positive feedback– is an idea that would pull a lot of people in. The Revelife model (Here are some good things our bloggers have written) is cool, but the YouTube model that Dan suggested (click here to see what is popular with our users) is more sound.
Also, what about an arrangement for suggesting someone else’s post to be featured, or to vote on candidates for featuring? Or, for those inclined, to respectfully decline the honor of being “featured”
this is why i love you guys so much. always working to improve things! great job. i cant wait to see the changes!
Finally.
@FlashFosgitt - You crack me up!!! I thought I was supposed to be the blonde one here!!!!
Sounds good!
Nice. I love the featured posts feature so much!
@john - I think these Ideas area great. In regards to the Logo, if you’d like me to tweak it and even add the concept of the logo to the BFN online store – I can (I could touch base with Ravnr for appropriate permissions, etc…). It’s good to know that you guys are pulling lessons learned from the efforts on the other sites, too. It gives a sense of validation that your efforts aren’t going in vain (for you or for us).
Good luck.
Good luck Xanga with all your aims.
Love all of this! I would love to submit featured posts! Great ideas! I wouldn’t be surprised if Dan took all the credit for this, though…
~~Mary~~
Excellent. That’s give other bloggers other than TheTheologiansCafe, etc from hogging the featured contents like they own it.
Awesome idea. I have on occasions written a blog that I felt I had something to say and I would have liked it featured but never knew how to go about getting that done. This sounds like a great plan.
Will people still be able to comment on that “featured post” – give stars and recommend as well?
Is there a way that we can keep track of footprints if our blog gets featured?
thanks V
A group blog whose content is available on other sites? Wow. That totally screams awesome, especially for those sites whose content is on the group blog, since no one would be visiting them anymore.
It’s okay to make mistakes. I’m sure you guys have a way to figure things out. I have faith in you.
I’m down with all of this. Great ideas.
Now, if only you could get revelife to take a hike. Revelife = most annoying Xanga thing EVER.
good idea. make the change.
re: the FC module, please include the post titles there.
awesome
why thank you for the welcome comment, xanga people. way back in the day on here, only the coolest people got welcome comments from xanga. now everyone does, so its not as special. but still. gracias.
Brilliant. Keep it simple and full of blogs please guys!
I was so drunk last night, I typed a lot, but I didn’t say anything.
In order to grow xanga you have to predict the next innovation in social networking websites. I do not know what that innovation will be.
Branding is also a problem.
Neither of these two things have anything to do with blogging. There was a backlash against setting xanga up like a social networking website, a lot of people didn’t like the new private page. For myself, I am a blogger, so I use the old private page. But the new private page ties together all of the features that I think blew up facebook, the pulse, photo and video uploads, xanga has all the tools to be used as a means of communication between people that know each other that wish to share media they created, get-togethers, photos, videos, the status update (pulse)
To grow xanga you would have to catch the wave of backlash that is going to take place from the new facebook.
I have to point out I don’t dislike the new private page, I use it sometimes when I run out of things to do on the old private page. The old private page has all the tools the blogger needs.
In the end, your core group will remain, and the masses are fickle, things come and go. One reason someone may or may not switch social networking sites is because “all my pictures/friends/videos are on…. insert site”
I do not think the front page will affect catching the wave of the next innovation, but it will reward the purists, the bloggers, and that is good.
Who do you have thinking about the next innovation that would attract and draw people to your site? I do not have time to speculate. Uploading videos and photos from a phone directly maybe, with a minimal clean tool to do it. To catch the social networking waves, you have to create a tool that makes it incredibly easy to share media and push it to social networking connections from a phone, that is one idea I think people would like.
Should engineering be working on a xanga.mobile iphone app that kicks ass???
Absolutely.
OMG I got a mention, and a link, on theXangaTeam… my life is complete!! ^__^
My thoughts on the matter are that if one has it on Xanga lock etc, then they likely are not wanting to be featured (not saying in all cases though). My concern is that if you host the post on your site then would it increase traffic to the blogger’s site as well? Maybe I am not understanding how it would work. Personally, if someone comments on my post, I would prefer the comment to be on my own site and not someone elses. Again, maybe I am misunderstanding here. Aside from that, my only other contention is that a system run ENTIRELY by the bloggers will tend to favor people who are more popular rather than give smaller bloggers a fighting chance. I could be wrong on this though. I defer to those who have more knowledge about this stuff than I do.
@BarelyJen - @MBL76 - I understand but it seems that the Xanga team wants to get more attention to several other sites that normally won’t be featured. I think that the new system of letting people submit their posts for being featured is a way to avoid only those posts getting the most buzz from ever being noticed. On the other hand, Xanga still wants to keep promoting those posts that are getting the most attention so that people may be more inclined to join Xanga as a blogger.
The proposed change just balances out the attention Xanga focuses on between those bloggers who write about the kind of things that intrigue lots of people as well as those bloggers who write about the kind of things that may go unnoticed.
I think all of these ideas are great. The idea that bloggers can select their specific blogs for being featured is a great way to make bloggers feel more involved in the Xanga community. Thanks!
Go go go Xanga! I love Xanga forevar.
For Gods’ sakes, take the ever present (Christian) Revelife ads out of xanga emails and don’t just only feature either Christian or atheist/agnostic blogs on xanga’s Front Page, thus mirroring popular religious false dilemmas in America (it’s my understanding that the xangan community of blogs is international?) that drag in heavily politicized political baggage now entangled with the financialization (corporatism gone wild) of America. That may make xanga funding zing/easier but risks sabotaging healthy rounded out voices of pluralism and where should that exist if not on a blogging community?
SECOND!
I like it! And can we remove the RevelLife feature as well? Not really interested in that limited point of view.
Having dealt with people submitting blogs for exposure when I ran ZangaZine, I can say that I think you’ll find the best writers won’t submit, and the prop mongers will. The best content is often the most neglected. As for the idea as a whole, I’m all for taking away the “MySpace/Facebook” feel that’s come over Xanga in recent years and getting back to the basics of writing. I still don’t use the new private homepage because I come here for my blogs first, and the social connections second, not the other way around. I’d like to see Xanga feel the same way.
I’m all for anything that focuses on the writing.
@ProfessorTom - Really well thought out, you bring up some great points.
I still think featured posts should be chosen using the recommend feature. Even though someone comments a specific post, they don’t usually recommend it. You usually get really great posts through recommendations. I don’t know if the number of recommended posts is high enough to throw them out onto the front page and update 10 times a day, but I’ve always felt that since people always complain about how bad the featured posts are, why don’t they choose the content themselves?
You should also bring back the “Why I Xanga” bit. Or at least in someway highlight a specific blogger. I know that kind of brings it a step back to social network, but it’s almost like getting to know the author of your favorite book, or an up and coming author.
Either way, you guys haven’t lead us in the wrong direction yet, so I’m excited about what’s to come.
Oh yeah, how about some new mini’s? I’m still waiting on my “hombre wearing a sombrero” mini.
i KNEW the MEologian was running this show
This all sounds good, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with the frontpage as it is right now.
That would be much better for us Xangaholics!
i like this idea! 8D
Yay! Bringin’ Xanga back! ^.^
It’s a good move to mostly feature only posts that have been submitted for featuring. You’ll probably get a giant wave of submissions that way, but I’ve been concerned about the number of people who are featured when they didn’t want to be- while those who DO want to be featured get increasingly angry and feel ignored. Not everyone can get on the front page, but it’s good to feature only those who want it.
But I agree that hosting a post on the Xanga Team’s site could run counter to what some of us want- namely, traffic. To be honest… I don’t believe that someone who locks up their site should expect public fame. It makes little sense. They want to lock out everyone they’re not friended to, but still desire everyone around to read their stuff? not terribly fair, it really isn’t.
But thank you for listening to us xangans! ^.^
I agree completely!!!!! ^_^ ^_^ Great idea! Bringing the original xanga stuff back. Keep the good old stuff and make way for the new people coming in to make it more popular again
I am very interesting to see how this all works out.
Sounds great to me. I’m all for it.
i can’t agree w/point #3 enough. the front page really should be about blogging
I am looking forward to seeing how you put it together.
Oh, wonderful.
Seriously an awesome change.
The more I think about it, the more I like it.
I agree with it all. It sounds great!
people want to be featured and I think a lot of people want to know the criteria? thanks for caring about us.
I like the idea, it will end up looking a lot like the other Xanga powered sites. My only objection is that on those other xanga powered sites they seem to feature only about 5 bloggers, which greatly under-represents the entire blogging community. How do you guys go about preventing it from becoming a popularity/favored few type of contest??
@Krissy_Cole - I agree with this. I wouldn’t feel right asking for my post to be featured cuz I don’t want to appear braging because Lord knows I’m not a good writer. There are some times that I will write something even though I don’t say it well, that I wish people could hear. I would think the recommend feature would be a help on helping you with finding interesting posts. I know I only recommend posts that are either funny,some awesome picks or most importantly, get me to thinking. I doubt that I would ask for any of my posts to be recommended, but it doesn’t mean I don’t want to be featured. All yall do is good with me though. I like Xanga much better than Facebook and My Space doesn’t even compare to Xanga . Thats my opinion anyway.Thanks for all yall do
I’m a big fan of the “random goodie”. I have been tired of seeing the same few people on the front page, because I wonder who was looked over in the picking process. This proposed method will focus on content not on popularity, and that’s a step in the right direction.
YAY Finally something to look forward to =)
I like the idea of refocusing xanga on blogging, and strengthening the sense of community.
However, I like the hand selected featured posts the way they are right now. previous obscure writers and bloggers that put a lot of effort into creating good content are rewarded with exposure, traffic, and new subscribers.
If you’re going to work on anything, work on some digg, rss, and offline blogging software integration to turn this into a REAL blogging site that can rival blogspot and wordpress.
Also, an iPhone app would be nice.
passing by
i must admit dan’s suggestions are well thought-out and quite convincing. i’m glad you guys decided to hear him out and follow his recommendations. and i’m surprised to find out that the xanga team actually has a weblog!
Sounds good
Could you please also work on the Search feature being more effective? Thanks 
yes yes good good
UHHHMMMAAAAZZZZINNNNGGG!!!!
Even the XangaTeam read Dan’s posts?!
That’s marvellous.
Here here!
Awesome! Thanks for the update and the fair warning. Not like pesky facebook changing EVERYTHING all at once. I like xanga more! Yay!
you are intending to direct the traddic of featured post directly to our feedback logs, right?
Support Xanga!
Wonderful just wonderful! I’ve been on xanga for about… 6 years ( I have other accounts I don’t use anymore) and I always enjoy the changes that are made. They are always so positive! Keep up the great work guys!
I like the idea of refocusing xanga on blogging. like someone said before, the old private homepage is perfect for people who just want to blog and nothing else.
however, I’m not sure how a blog front page would look. if the blog page would look like your sister sites’ front pages, then I’m not a fan. it’s really hard to find other users besides the ones featured on the main page. could we get a screen shot when you guys start figuring it out what the front page will look like?
I also think 25 featured blogs is a little much. 10 seems like a much more manageable number. Updating once or twice a day is more than enough, especially for those xangans who have schools/jobs that don’t allow us to check xanga all day (it’s a travesty, I know!).
I like people being able to nominate themselves to be featured, but it should be done in moderation. Maybe only one post every 72 hours (or more!) per blog. that way bloggers actually have to think about which posts are worth the effort to be featured.
on a side note, I think people should stop putting down those who have friends or sign-in lock. many have them for very personal and respectable reasons. just because someone doesn’t want everyone reading all of their posts doesn’t mean that they don’t want to have one post featured.
I think that it all of the ideas are great.
Definitely a great idea. I don’t think I pay attention to any of the featured photos or videos. I know they’re there, but most of the time I see a blog I want to read and completely forget about it. ^.^ Hope this happens soon!
I have a feeling it’s gonna get wild.
Good job, I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!
PS Should there be a limit to how many of your own blogs you can suggest per week/month or something like that? I have seen some people suggest up to ten of their own posts in one week, and if most suggestions get featured then the really good ones may be left out.
I am not sure I like or dislike the idea. I do like the featured photos on the front page even if they are at the bottom. I actually find those more interesting than most of the featured blogs. But I won’t make a fuss if the photos are removed. I probably wouldn’t make an effort to read the front page as much, though.
The one thing I do not like about the home page is that box with the continually changing featured blog. It just seems annoying.
Someone brought up the Blogrings. Yeah, they do not really seem to work. I find it funny that people join them and yet have their Friend Lock on. Sigh…
About the Xanga Lock. Much of that has to do with wanting to know who visits your site, not locking everyone out. All a person has to do is be signed in. I think it should be fine if they are featured.
I think it’d be great to submit something to be featured. I mean, there are a lot of posts out there, so it’d probably narrow the field so you know what you’re looking at.
I like the ideas of people submitting posts to be featured (as long as there is still a filter on which ones actually get featured) and showing more featured content WITH the titles. One issue I have with the frontpage is the box that does a slide show of 12 different posts. Frequently those 12 posts are part of the featured weblogs, so it becomes repetitious to see the same thing featured in more than one place. Also, when I try to click the title of the post it almost always takes me to the next blog because it switches while I’m in the process of clicking. Slowing the slideshow down would help, but I would rather it be part of a list so I can see all of them at once.
I think focusing on Xanga’s blogging community is a great idea. I’m looking forward to see the changes take place.
I think the traffic should go to the person’s site, not some community blog. It seems like that misses the point. I do like the idea of expanding the featured content section and including titles.
I have been on xanga for three years and have NEVER clicked on photos, pulses, or videos. That seems like a waste of space imo.
That is why I keep Xanga is because of the focus of writing/blogging over other sites. I enjoy being around people who like to write and read. Yes, at times, life gets busy so my time on Xanga is limited. Yet, it is something I do enjoy doing when things slow down or I make time for it. You all in charge do a lot of wonderful work. When I’m gone for a few weeks, there seems to be something new! That is another reason, I keep coming back even if life is busy due to I’m just so curious what you all are up to next! It is wonderful to see how far Xanga has come and exciting to see where it goes!
I don’t think you sould lose the featured photos or videos. While they are not the main focus, they are still a part of Xanga and can add flair to a person’s site. Sometimes, a picture or video really DOES say more than a text blog ever could. Keep them where they are on the homepage. Update it if it could help the featured photo/video be better, but don’t lose it.
Here’s a GREAT idea (or so I think). Create some sort of “add on” from within the site (like, “click this link to accept…”) which will basically notify you, the Xanga Team, of individual posts that would like be considered for the Featured Section. It doesn’t mean that that post WILL be featured, but at least then you don’t have to worry about getting people’s permission, and it allows people who would like to get their posts on the feature section but are not “popular” enough to get that kind of traffic. It’s like raising your hand in class. No guarentee the teacher will call on you, but at least the teacher knows you have something you want to share.
I’m not sure how to further make that better or more reasonable an idea. But do you see what I’m getting at? I guess the idea involves two things
1) You don’t have to go searching for people with great posts who WANT to get their stuff featured
2) It allows people who don’t get the kind of traffic the other Xanga celebs tend to get (almost by default because they’ve been featured before) to get a foot in the perverbial door by submitting their entries for “consideration”. Think of it like a bulleting board. A mass-grouping of notices that people want you to see. Unlike a regular ad, there’s not as much chance it’ll get noticed, but it’s out there saying, “Hey, check me out. Give me a chance.”
Another idea related to this “bulletin board” idea. For those who want to submit their posts for a better chance to be noticed via the Featured Content, rather than just letting ANYONE post on the bulleting board, a sort of “form” should be filled out giving a general description of what it’s about. Like “check here if it’s about sports or here if about politics”…”check here if your post is longer than 500 words…” And so on. That way people looking for a certain specification of potential posts can find what they’re after and it makes it a little easier to “filter” out people who would try to submit something that would NOT normally make the featured post list. Theoretically.
Also, there is a box that cycles through 12 of the recent Featured Posts, and due to the size of the pictures, that box sometimes changes shape, pushing the content below the box down or pulling it up. PLEASE FIX THAT!!! It is so annoying and I sometimes click on a link I didn’t want to because of the split-second shift. AND! The pause button should keep the cycling of the 12 posts from cycling even after pushing the advance or previous arrow buttons on either side.
interesting idea.
the hong kong version of xanga is exactly like that.
the frontpage consists of posts by xanga users.
i think featured content/comminity blog posts, whatev is cool. i agree with Krissy_Cole on the “featured blog could also be something a reader recommends” idea. honestly, i rarely spend much time on the frontpage, so i don’t think i have much of a say as to what happens there.
and just me sayin, i would probably prefer not to have mature content featured. but i know i am in the minority…
I’m excited to see the new features! I think it’s a great idea to focus more on blogging and get the bloggers with good content out in the open so more people are able to read what they’re writing.
wouldn’t it be better if you founddddd the featured blogs? It’s more rewarding!
kudos! what a great idea!
when can xanga themes support javascript??
Thanks you as always for listening to us Xanga.
Here is another suggestion, an innovation that might draw people to your site. What if you could send mms messages to your pulse? Not only could you pulse from a cell phone but you could also upload photos and videos from your phone using a text message as well. Is such a thing possible? And again, the xanga-mobile app for the iphone, similar concept but for formatting entries as well.
I think you have some good deas there and I will be happy to see how this all pans out.
“Updated 10 times a day? Hopefully even more?” The front page is busy enough as it is!
I think it’s well and good for xanga to refocus on the fact that it’s primarily a blogging community – in fact, I welcome that. But 10 updates on the front page a day? I would bypass the front page altogether rather than sift through all that. (I often already bypass the front page, sadly - what with the featured posts and the new xanga subcommunities, I usually feel overstimulated.)
I like these ideas with the exception of them being posted on the main blog – linked yes, posted no – maybe the option of posting a portion of the blog on the main page, then have a link to read the rest on the bloggers actual page. you can still have people submit their posts for featured, but have the restriction that their xanga lock has to be turned off if they submit a post. reasons being:
1. driving ACTUAL traffic to a bloggers site. it’s unfair that our content simply increases xanga’s main page traffic, whilst we get a fraction of traffic because we are only linked. that is actually downplaying the role of the blogger & the community.
2. comment control. out of the hundreds of comments I recvd on my featured posts I only had to delete a dozen or so, but I want to have that power. if someone is vulgar or vitriolic for the purpose of attracting attention, I am swift to delete those comments.
3. footprints, subs, friend requests: this would decrease and in the case of footprints, be nil. again, detracting from the community aspect.
I really love these new ideas and I think they can be implemented while maintaining the traffic driven to the bloggers site. thanks for listening. I love xanga and I’ve been blogging here for 6 years – I wouldn’t dream of changing.
All PHENOMENAL ideas. I’m with it. Although I think featured blogs should be updated less than ten times, maybe 7 times a day, so that those who can’t constantly stay on Xanga throughout the day get to see those that are featured, and so that those who are featured and can’t be on Xanga all day, have a better chance of seeing it as well.
Xanga’s gotten a little too complex over the past few years. I like focusing on weblogs. I actually don’t like the videos feature that much, but that’s because I don’t use it and see it as unnecessary.
1. I do like dem apples. I like ‘em a lot! As long as there was a link or something to the person’s actual site, so we continue to get “our own” traffic.
2. This sounds great. More opportunity to be “featured” too (?)
3. Sorry for the “push” but we’ve been feeling a little disenchanted and neglected.
We still love you!!!!
PS — A lot of Xangans I know like to chat together, but right now we have to use AIM to do this. It’d be nice if Xanga had something like this (besides individual chat boards and messages) … just a thought. Don’t know how practicable that is.
hmm sounds very interesting! from what i gather, i am very excited to see this giant blog on the front page & the refocusing of xanga on blogging!
thanks guys so much for you do to make Xanga-land wonderful! =)
I like the ideas – do them and let us all give ‘em a test drive!
I think I have finally written a post worthy of being featured, hey, you never know right? give it a chance! (it is my latest blog btw… nudge nudge…)
I like the ideas, I really do! It would be cool to be able to read a little more than just a line of the blog before going to the actual page!
many props guys! thanks for the hard work!
I second both Benjimau5′s idea about sending mulitmedia pulses, and RaVnR’s idea about XangaChat.
From a Christian’s point of view should a husband and wife enjoy erotic dimension of their relationship? Songs of Songs-Songs of Solomon celebrates the glory of wedded bliss possible for human beings, despite the many obstacles to true love. This book tells how strong and wonderful romantic love is. “Mighty waters cannot extinguish love; rivers cannot sweep it away. I f a man were to give all of his riches away for love, it would be utterly scorned” Song of Songs (8:7) This book tells us to savor the bliss of married love while we look forward to the consummation of God’s redemptive purposes in eternity. True love is so strong that it overcomes all obstacles (5: 6-8), yet it should not be awakened until due season (2:7; 3:5; 8:4). This means until you are married. lizzytizzed51
These are all great ideas and it’s good to see Xanga go back to its roots.
can you also add the BLOG ARCHIVE feature similar to Blogspot’s? as in our xanga would show how many blogs we’ve written in each month of the year. It’s a nice summary and gives us easier access to older posts.
Could you add the BLOG ARCHIVE feature to xanga similar to Blogspot’s? As in we would be able to see (on our xangas) how many blogs we’ve written in each month of the year. It would be good to have a summary of our bloggings, which leads to easier and quicker access to older posts.
i’m glad y’all listened to dan. here are my opinions:
right now, as far as layout, y’all need to move the banner to the top, where the “sponsored” spot is now, then featured weblogs, and the rest. the scrolling box should go on the right hand side, and the orange box stuff right now just looks like filler….without titles, it’s useless. sure if i see one of my friends, i’ll go check it out, but as it is it wouldn’t draw me in. i think a giant scroll box that held multiple weblogs with a snapshot would be a better arangement. oh yeah, and y’all have to fit the ads in somewhere, i know you have bills to pay. but are y’all tired of coming behind -cough- myspace, -cough- facebook, and even cough-cough- friendster? well, ya gotta atract them to the farm in the first place, or they aint gonna buy the milk at all. just drive right on down the country road past this wholesome, family owned organic word farm to some major mass produced industrial agri-blog combine…
sometimes i write blogs that i would like to share with a larger audience, sure, but sometimes i just want to enjoy the comunity of this wonderful, social litterary experiment. and sometimes i just blog for the sheer blogginess of it all.
If I read a blog entry from a fellow Xangan I think should be featured, is there a place to recommend a blog entry be featured? Thanks! ~ L
@annieplease - check http://www.xanga.com/annieplease/archives – everyone already has a set of archives ready for perusal.
I definitely think submitting blogs would ease your workload and allow some people who really feel small show that they are quality writers. I can understand removing the photos and such from front page, maybe you could just create a tab at the top like you have for pulse.
I am also interested in seeing some promotion of blogrings. I really feel that this is an underused feature of xanga. Maybe you could feature a blogring weekly or something. Even if you just do this at the top of the blogring search page.
keep up the good work!
Is there anyway Xanga can make being featured an option when we submit blogs. Like how it asks if this is public, private or protected. Maybe there could be the option of OK to feature or NOT OK so you don’t have to get their permission later. I really like reading some of the featured blogs and would never be able to find them on my own. I think if we relied on people to have to submit their blogs, we might miss out on some really good ones. Just a suggestion, I know it’s a pain to have to find featured content. It doesn’t go unappreciated!
bravo… keep up the great work.. It would be great if this generates more featured posts..
Good (re)focus. Anything to keep Xanga from turning into another Myspace/Facebook.
You know how there is that pop-up after the first time you visit someone’s site, asking if you want to subscribe or be friends? Maybe the same type of thing for starring should be put in place, just as a reminder.
So is like the past few days have honestly been kicking my ass. I’ve had a difficult week, I would love to have a great day tomarrow.
isn’t the blogging thing like what you guys are doing with HKBLOG?
I’m thinking that something should be done to keep posts from getting stale so quickly. Perhaps we can all start recommending old (“classic”) posts.
請大家多多支持這個xanga!
help please
I’m not sure where to post this but I really need help. For some reason, all of my site’s content has dissapeared; when you open it, its just a blank screen. I removed all my codes and my posts are just little paragraphs so I know they’re not slowing down my site and it still wont work. can you please send me a message and help me fix my site? thank you SO much.
I don’t see the need to do it, but I don’t think it would hurt to try it. If everyone hates it then you could just fix back. I say go for it.
I LOVE THE GROUP BLOG IDEA!!!! DO IT NOW!!!!
Or soonish, any way! 
I think all these changes are cool, as long as you guys still support Audio, Video and Photo blogs. I’m more into Photo and Audio blogging and Xanga does a great job at that. I just wish the audio blog was fully integrated into Xanga – with ability to reply to comments, recommend and star audio entries, and also the inclusion of an audio module. I know that Audio Xanga hasn’t caught on much here, but I also know that my audio gets a lot of feedback and traffic, so there are people here who enjoy it.
thanx – Pete
xanga should acknowledge their premium user on their birthday..give something..free 1000 credits, e-bday card,anything..
it looks like we’ve been forgotten on our bday ;(
hey xanga team, i’m currently using the old layout for xanga, not the themes and i would like to have a pulse module also. is there a way that i can get that?
COMMENTS~~
We need a means of connecting better with other Xangan’s who share a specific topic.
- I thinkof an alert when somebody tags an entry with a particular key word
- Allowing friends to subscribe to see only entries with a particular key word.
- Limiting my entries so that they can only be seen py people I would like them to see based on various friends list.
These will help more with blogging than changing the website.
I think refocusing the Xanga frontpage on blogging is a great idea. However, I’d like to see more content from Xanga bloggers on the Xanga frontpage than from momaroo, datingish, or revelife entries. I understand that you want to promote those blog sites as well, but they are receiving a large chunk of the frontpage right now:
- The blue box above the featured weblogs has only 3/12 entries right now from Xanga bloggers (the other 9 are from momaroo, datingish, and revelife)
- 1/5 of the featured weblogs right now is from momaroo
While I understand that there is some really good content on the spinoff sites, I think the Xanga frontpage should focus more on entries from Xanga bloggers.
Just got to tell you, I got sucked into the Facebook world with it’s sound bites of up date…but Xanga is still the best for true journal/ blogging and meeting amazing people/strangers that become friends.
AND as a photographer, I love the way Xanga looks for showcasing my pictures!
THANK YOU!
second or third would be nice
@annieplease - Do you mean this page?
http://weblog.xanga.com/annieplease/archives
@jessie623 - Yup, similar to that.
I like the fact that this approach allows those of us who like to blog quietly in the shadows the ability to write undisturbed, and only gives the spotlight to those who wish to be in it. I’d rather not have any of my blog posts featured, regardless of how interesting or profound they might be, and I’m sure some folks have the opposite perspective and would rather have as many people as possible read their blog posts. This way, both groups have an easy way to do as they prefer to do. The extroverts are happy, the introverts are happy, and y’all don’t have to do all the legwork.
@dan - yeahh that page, but have that same archive displayed ON the front page of our xanga rather than the calendar view.
this is what makes Xanga unique – the two way feedback.
Yay you!
The ideas sound great, cannot wait to see how it turns out
do it!!
I actually like the current Featured page. I like the editorial effort being put in. I think the front page as a blog would be a bit cluttered. I don’t know if I’d read all of it. The Xanga sites which feature this, I don’t always read the entries, and you’ve got to do a lot of scrolling to find entries you want to comment on, etc. I think I like the current set up better, but moving the featured question, etc., would be a good idea.
-ex squeakysoul
Ooo! The first part I really like and if featured content became the product of submissions rather than “comments” I might even consider putting up a featured content module on my site. Sad to say, I’m not usually too impressed with the content that is currently featured, including the featured questions (which is why I’ve been “stealing” questions from the featured question chatbox and featuring them on my own site every Monday). I don’t suppose you’d consider handing off the featured question site to me entirely, and I’d select the better questions instead of the ho-hum, one-sentence answer ones…?
<tries to look cute, charming, and responsible>
Cool! Way to go! I love Xanga!
-0-”
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@StewieIsMyHero - @ProfessorTom - @ProfessorTom - @Krissy_Cole -
yo!
@StewieIsMyHero -
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@wingchi0225 - are you having issues? These replies are blank…