May 25, 2009

  • Xanga Fixes - Known Issues & Bugs

    All of the site maintenance we've done recently (and some of the subsequent site funkiness) has stemmed from two big efforts that have been keeping us busy over here at Xanga HQ:

    1) We've been massively upgrading the hardware that powers Xanga.

    Some of the hardware was almost six years old - which is Methuselah-old for this type of stuff. The new stuff is faster and more reliable. It's also a lot smaller and more energy efficient - which means it costs Xanga (and the environment ) a lot less to run than the old hardware.

    2) We've been upgrading the software that powers Xanga too

    Along with replacing the hardware, we've also been overhauling the software architecture of Xanga. The ultimate goal, of course, is to help make things more reliable and maintainable. But this type of upgrade brings inevitable hiccups as well...

    Now we're focused on stamping out bugs!

    We know the recent changes have introduced some new bugs. And we know there are some long-standing bugs from the old system. With your help, we'd like to focus on fixing them!

    • Known issues that we're currently working to fix:
      • Anonymous footprints aren't showing the location of the visitor.
      • Some emails aren't being delivered - particularly to yahoo and att.net, which includes bellsouth.net and other domains  (this one is primarily because different ISPs are rate-limiting the amount of email we can send to them). Please let us know if you aren't receiving email.
      • Usertag counts in the feedback log module are stuck at 0.
    • Intermittent issues for which we need more information:
      • We've seen some reports about specific Xanga sites not always rendering properly.  It sounds like the css for the site isn't loading, which causes weird display issues.
      • If you're having a problem like this, please leave a comment.
    • Recently Fixed Issues (woohoo!):
      •  Comment reply emails weren't being sent.
      •  View counts were updating slowly.
      •  Footprint feedback counts were updating slowly.

    Just wanted to let you all know what we're currently doing to fix up the site. If you've been having any other big problems with the site (old or new) please let us know in the comments and we'll add them into this effort.

    Thanks so much.

Comments (136)

  • Thanks for the heads up!

  • thanks for the update!

  • Thanks for your hardwork!

  • Cheers! Thanks for working these out :)

    Happy feelings abound.

  • Thanks for the update (both what you're doing with the site and letting us know)!

  • Yay, thanks.

  • thanks for the update~!

  • Thank you.  I am still having problems with my email notifications.  Sometimes they come through immediately....sometimes about an hour or so later....other times not at all.  I am with hotmail.  Thank you once again for all your hard work.

  • So it's sorta like spring cleaning.

  • Everything on the site seems fine for me, but I wanted to let you guys know that for a while now, the address at the bottom of my subs e-mails has read "ww.xanga.com" rather than "www.xanga.com".

  • This is great!

  • Thanks for trying to improve Xanga.

  • I'm not receiving emails.

  • Thanks for the info. I must be slow, I never see any bugs... or I never seem to experience any. Thanks anyways though! :D

  • Thank You for taking the time to let us know. It's the little things ya know. Real customer service. I love it. Much appreciated.

  • awesome job, xanga team :)

  • The rss feed might need to be looked into.  I'm subscribed to some blog readers and I've only been able to get the feed to work when I use this xanga.com/rss.aspx?.user=username  but the Xanga faqs say to use xanga.com/username/rss but it isn't working for me.    Now the blog readers aren't picking up the feed and sometimes it goes to about:blank.

    This is just a copy/paste of the same comment that I left on Justin's blog.

  • Thank you for letting us know! 

  • Appreciate all your efforts!

    Thanks.

  • I agree with Neeka1.  I'm still not getting e-mail notifications for some things through Hotmail.

  • i'm using windows xp service pack 3 with firefox 3.0.10 and every few days for the past few weeks, the xanga site will display funky, with all liks showing up vertically, and no buttons or graphics from xanga loading.. right now it is fine, but last night it was weird again.

  • Thanks a lot, you guys. You all deserved a nice, long vacation in a 5-star, all-expenses-paid (spa included) resort, but then again, who will look after us kitties??

  • Thanks for the updates

  • Hey, I know an issue!

    Not being able to delete all my friends at once and having to go through them all individually.  x__x

  • thanks for the info

  • As recently as May 22 I wasn't receiving all email (yahoo) informing me of a new comment left on a blog; after I discovered the comment I checked my spam folder but no email was ther either.

    Another thing i've noticed recently is if I try to go to xanga frm a xanga email to read a comment or reply it takes like forever; it's much faster just to go directly to xanga frm my history & read the comment or reply tht way.  Btw..thnx for upgrading; even tho I have a couple others, xanga's my only connection to the social online world that I use

  • hooray!

  • You guys are doing a great job, of not only maintaining the site, but keeping us informed, as well.  Thanks!!!

  • thanks for the updates :]

  • Thanks so much for putting effort into fixing these things; I'm sure everyone appreciates it!

    The only bug that's been plaguing me for months has to do with comment boxes:

    It happens on my site as well as others'. I'll reply to someone in the comment box, but when I post it, the name of the person I replied to AND the first line of my comment are obliterated. It's very odd. And sometimes, I'll reply to multiple people in one comment ... and ALL but one show up perfectly! Usually the last one is the one where the name & first line of text are destroyed, but sometimes it'll just be a random person in the middle of my list of replies.
    Other people have evidently had the same problem when commenting on my Xanga.
    (By the way, my Xanga has a simple format and no extra HTML mumbo jumbo, so I don't think I've unintentionally messed with anything ...)

    The only way I've found to remedy the situation is to hit enter after inserting the person's name in my comment box. For some reason, the extra space usually ensures that their name and the entire reply text will show up. But sometimes, THIS doesn't even help.

    It's tremendously frustrating, and I'd given up until now because I'd received virtually no help before. (I contacted a Xanga support person, and they replied asking for more info, but after I replied back, they never contacted me again.)

    Again, thanks so much for your help. If there's anything I can do to help you figure out this problem, I'll do it! I know you guys work hard to keep this site running smoothly, and I appreciate it.

  • The old 'public view' did not show the private posts. Now it does.

  • Hey, that's wonderful. Great job as always, guys!

  • sometimes a message from a completely unknown, seemingly random thread will appear in the middle of a private message session. this has happened to me twice, during two message sessions, with two separate individuals. it'd almost think it was creepy if i didn't know better than that... 

  •  Thanks for all your hardwork. I really like this site and I am glad you are working hard to upgrade and improve it. :)
    I am having problems viewing the public preview of my blog. When I load up the public preview, instead of showing my blog the way the public see's it, it is showing me the same way I see it... with the private and protected entries.
    I thought the public preview was supposed to afford us the same view of our website that visitors get, so that we can see how it is layed out? Or maybe I am wrong about that.
    Anyways, thanks for your time and consideration.

  • ^^ Oh yeah, I sometimes have problems submitting comments with my Safari browser. My browser gets hung while waiting to submit.

    The last comment was started on Safari and resubmitted on Mozilla.

  • Here's an issue! I noticed two blog entries ago that the formatting of my blog entries doesn't display properly on the comments pages. Namely, Border Colour and Fill Colour. These used to carry over fine. Could you please put this right?

  • Hey guys, I was trying to contact you earlier in the link provided in the Change Username FAQ section, but it's been saying there's a server error everytime I send my message. I was just wondering if you could make the username "dudewheresmycouture" available for me to use, since the blog hasn't been updated since 2005. If you could make this possible that would be great! My e-mail is jeveuxdiamants@aim.com. Thanks for all that you do!

    Stella

  • I would like to tell you guys of the Xanga team that I HATE that every type of blog is shown to the owner for the site whenever on the public tab.
    I liked it back when on PUBLIC blogs were shown, to everyone. I like to make sure what is public is public and what is private is private.
    Making everything visible to me makes my site more confusing.

  • what are the specs of the previous hardware that is being replaced? and the specs of the new hard?

  • Soo glad that you guys are fixing things, I was really upset when my comments did not show up in my e mails!

  • Your support (send an email) page yields a 500 error and developer API app creation yields a 404 .

  • what's with the not being able to permanently delete posts from trash? -- can't even get into that page...

  • Hey I hav trouble uploading videos to Xanga. I wish we had the Quickcapture back. It was so much easier with that tool. Have a nice day.

  • Thanks for all your great work.....BUT (don't you hate buts) - when I go to my subscription page and there is a sub with lots of photos - the photos don't load and it disconnects me from my internet connection.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks   V

  • Oh yeah, can you guys put an option to delete all the messages from a user... instead of deleting each messages individually?

  • Thanks for the update, guys!

  • Good to know the CSS won't stay screwey!  ^^

  • I miss having the ability to insert wav files for dialogues. But I guess not enough people use wav files so I guess I will have to get a mp3 converter.

  • in my photo manager, some of my pics are receiving a msg of "image not found".. >.<"

  • Every once in a while Kaspersky (anti-virus/spam/etc) identifies Xanga e-mail as spam -- could that be why some e-mails are not going through?

  • I haven't had any problems, but thanks so much for working so hard to keep things running smoothly. Xanga is a whole other world for me, and its helped to open up my mind to other environments in different parts of the world, and many different people's opinions on things. So thanks for keeping xanga alive. 

  • Dear XangaTeam,

    I thoroughly appreciate all the updates you've been doing, but whatever happened to a certain blog of mine?

    I haven't updated it in a while, but suddenly it disappeared. Did you guys take it off because it wasn't updated?

    The username: UnsentxWhisperedxLetters

    Please message/email me,

    Sincerely,
    A devoted user

  • This site visited me 10 times:

    weiend.xanga.com
    And when I go there it forward to a linkbucks site with ad on top and a xanga interface.  Can you fix it if it's a scam?  Thanks in advance.

  • sometimes when I refresh my page on "public view" some of my private posts show up. I don't think it shows when others view my site though because I logged out to check and I didn't see anything.

    just letting ya know...

  • thanks for the update on what you're fixing.

    I'm glad you guys are getting better hardware that will cost you less! that's awesome!

  • I've sent an application e-mail for the TRUE badge last week but I've never received any replies until now.

  • why is it that my private blogs can be seen as public?

    or am i just seeing things?

  • When you click "public preview" on the old homepage, it takes you to the public site on the sidebars only.  The entries, however, are still the private entries.  It's not really a public preview if all of my protected and private posts are listed exactly as they are on my homepage!  In order to know what my site looks like to the public, I have to log out and sign in under a different s/n.  It'd be nice if the "public preview" button actually gave me a public preview.

    I hope I explained that effectively, lol

  • :O Emails! Yay! :D

  • may be a 2007/2008 bugs - weblogs/tags deleted, but "deleted tags" still keep in "all tags"

    my example:

    http://racingangels.xanga.com/tags

    The following tags still keep:
    audemarspiguet  cathaypacific  derby  hd  hkbpe  icac  sony  國泰航空

    if click, show - no weblogs tagged with "???????????"…

    Can Xanga Team help to removed these 8 deleted tags? Thanks! :)

  • thanks for the update

  • Emoticons in comments don't work for many people.

  • Thanks for all you do!

  • thx. keep up the good work!

  • I'm so happy that Xanga have do some effort to make correction, which should be good for me and xanga itself. 

  • I am having problems with my modules. They are frozen in the wrong place. They are at the bottom of my page. I can not rearrange them. Delete them or change anything in them. I hope you can help. Thank you for letting us know about what you are doing!

    Sharon 

  • Thanks. How about the slow editor? I spend ages waiting when I would want to change color and size while writing...

  • Thanks

  • I have 2 problems. 1). I can't send any message to xanga help. And the reason I was seeking help was the first problem you acknowledged in the post - 2). Foodprints not showing location of visitors.

  • Thanks ~

  • oh thank you. i was wondering why my footprints werent showing the locations of visitors, it's great to hear this is being fixed :)

  • Iv'e noticed a few problems...Thanks to all of you for working on trying to get this fixed!

    I want to edit the look of my page but it will not load, at all.

    Sometimes I have problems loading my images and it comes up with a message "image not found" or says it loaded it but you can't find it on the select bar...I jsut go a head and load the new post without the pics then go back and edit and whoo-hoo there is the picture that wouldn't show up before!

    And sometimes http://www.betheelou.xanga takes my visitors to the xanga homepage, not my sight.  I have not noticed a problem with http://www.xanga.com/betheelou

    Thanks xanga team!

  • Still can't find my site by searching my username.  I've asked repeatedly to have this fixed, it's been fixed for the "popular" ones, don't know why I'm still waiting.  Also, I can't make any themes of my own.  Whenever I click "start new theme" it just runs on and on saying it's "processing". 

  • Good job, Xanga.

  • ....................................

  • Cheers for your hard work!

    Two petty issues:

    - I'm currently getting only about half of my comment reply notifications in my Gmail account. I haven't seen a pattern to it yet. Some do, some don't.

    - Cut and paste in comments introduces random line breaks unless you use "Edit HTML" mode. (That's been going on for a while now, before and after the upgrade. Not a huge issue, since I know how to edit HTML, but still a bit annoying at times.)

  • Lately I've been getting 4 or 5 or 6 Xanga Subscription reports all at once and then maybe none for a few days, followed by another batch.  I use attglobal.net.

  • I REALLY DONT LIKE SHOW THE PRIVATE POSTS IN THE PUBLICE PAGE WHEN I LOG-IN....!!!

  • I used to receive email notifications of new posts/pulses just fine but now all of a sudden I'm not getting those emails anymore of the new posts/pulses. Instead, I'm getting email notifications of posts/pulses from almost a month ago. O_o It's so weird.

  • I can no longer use emoticons on my comments. 

  • I don't have any complaints; I just want to express my appreciation to you guys. You do a great job, and I couldn't ask for better admins.

  • @skylar_rose - 

  • I would love for the emails that I get from comments and replies to tell me which post they came from.  They used to do this awhile back and something changed.

  • @BenevolentOne - ur welcome

  • @Melissa___Dawn - I am not on the xanga team, but If your theme is not loading you might try using foxfire browser. It works for me. 

  • i can't blog at all, when i go to the page to type out the blog, its cover by a grey surface

  • @SHARONS_PLACE - Thanks, but that's not the problem.  I can alter someone else's theme and it loads just fine - I can't start a new theme, it just keeps running on and on - has been doing that since they instituted the "new" xanga themes a couple years back.  It seems some things around here never get fixed no matter how many times you bring the issue up.

  • I've got something that needs to be fixed...

    I haven't been able to update my Pulse since February. The Submit button never works, just the Cancel button.

  • hey, like when are you guys gonna get the custom css thingy fixed?

  • I'm not getting my subscription emails =[.

    It's a yahoo account.

    I'm sad because I don't login everday and xanga is how I keep up it the world.

  • Thanks for the hardwork.
    However, I am not receiving some emails as well.

  • Is good to know you don't need no more air conditioning down there....

    Good luck with the upgrades and onwardness of ur xanga...

    mitch

    ps

    Over the years, you dudes and gals have done ok........ Don't slip too much...

    mitch

  • I'm having trouble posting. When I click weblog post and then try to enter text in the text box nothing happens. I haven't had this issue previous to tonight. I've always had issues with photos appearing in my entries...

  • I just e-mailed yesterday to Xanga help about this, but will also include it here as well. My links to my reviews no longer work. I would use reviews as a means to group posts together of a particular category and really liked the idea of having a spot w/ those things all together. Will you be fixing this?

  • @titus_bigglesworth - yes, I also just noticed that as well w/ the emoticons...

  • Thanks for all of your hard work!

  • big problem- when someone clicks the "next five" button on my site, they are redirected to one of two other users with similar usernames (sugartits and sugar_tits). help?

  • The display font is tres small (Chrome) and the new editor does not work with Chrome(at all)  and IE 7 (display off).

    . 

  • i think view counts do update slowly, so to speak, but i don't think it's an urgent issue. more “urgent” (if it can be regarded as urgent) is the bizarre way page views are counted. viewing your own pages shouldn't be counted, and sometimes (at random, apparently) your own views may be counted even multiple times. this makes the view counts almost meaningless (unless you don’t read comments to your own posts…).

    (yes, i do have proof that your own views of your own posts get counted. easy – just write a private post; the view count will start at 1 (even if you have not yet viewed it yourself). view it a few times and the view count may go past 1!)

  • This for reporting all problems?

    I have two:

    My message inbox permanently displays one new message and has for six months.

    Many, many of my audio files are only available from audio manager and do not appear on my audio blog. This is despite the fact that I have premium. Also, my audio blog does not display properly. When I click on next page, the same audios that began page one are still displayed at the top of page two, three, etc. Only the bottom of the list changes.

  • I've brought this to your attention several times and you chose to ignore it: every time I search something on this site and try to click on subsequent pages of the search results, it doesn't do anything but refresh the first page with the same results. Please allow us to view subsequent pages of a search and not just the first one, or get rid of the pages as hyperlinks.

  • Public preview link shows private stuff too.

  • I'm having problems with my posting of a weblog. it won't let me type up my entries.

  • i'm having a lot of trouble with the themes. it's not allowing me to make a new one and it also won't allow me to move the modules to the side of the screen, even if i change the layout. they just stay at the botton under the weblog. and when i click help i'm not allowed access to the page.

  • You guys rock; mostly.

  • Comment

  • When are you going to fix the public preview page?  It has been a couple of weeks now, I think. 

    Thanks~

  • I can't read my friend's site! She is maggie70. The last 5 posts show, but when I click for the next (older) posts, it takes me all the way back to June 2005! I'm not that far behind in my Xanga reading!! It also goes back to June 2005 when I try to select a specific date on the calendar. Somehow I got to some in April, but I'd already read them. It's all pretty wonky. Someone who is Member Since: 6/17/2005 TruePremium shouldn't have these problems.

    I just checked my own site and it goes to the next older posts OK, but it has 12 posts on a page. I didn't set it up that way. (I don't know how to do that.) It doesn't bother me, my computer can take it, but I read that you don't want more than 5 on a page.

    buyit's next 5 goes to Feb 2004!

    I didn't try any other subscriptions. I hope this is fixed soon!

    ~Faith
    aka TongFengDeMao

  • btw, while you guys are at bugs.,.

    1. public preview has stopped working for some days. it just gives you everything, including your protected and private posts.

    2. the official way to submit feedback (some box at the bottom of help pages) has stopped working

  • i'm having trouble working with the videos. i can upload the videos onto xanga, but it's taking them a long time to que andd transcode. thank you for the updates!

  • I don't know if it's just me or what, but I'm currently seeing a cut tag ("Read More...") at the bottom of each (uncut) post on everyone's main page (including mine). 

  • A "bug"? The "Currently listening (reading, watching)" Xangazon field doesn't work properly.

    Good luck with all the fixes!

  • Yeah I have a problem (a possible bug?). Xanga has automatically injected a cut-tag at the bottom of my weblog entry without me adding it myself. When I go to delete it from the code it just reappears when I press submit!

  • @Pass_the_Aura - So I'm not the only one!

  • What's with the "read more" link being added to the entry and can't get rid of it through edit? (Especially there's nothing to readmore)

  • Thank you so much xanga team for working out the bugs! My site is now working just fine. Sharon 

  • I think I'm having the same problem with the cut-tags appearing and not disappearing.

  • How has no one mentioned the HUGE issue of xanga pictures showing up as broken links when encoded in simple HTML on pages..

  • I have a problem to report:

    I have reached my maximum of three profile pictures. However, when I attempt to delete one of my three profile pictures to make room for a new one- nothing happens.

  • There seems to be a problem with photos uploaded. I'd uploaded a few photos during the last few days but almost immediately they appear as "image not found". I'd tried reuploading using different browsers but the problem persists! Please help!

  • Also, I'd noticed all my photos before 2006 are no longer there!

  • hey um what credentials do you have to have to view blogrings.

  • I love Xanga. Thanks for what you do.

    However, my photo uploader won't work anymore. It always times out. I can't figure out anything that I did that could have caused this - are you guys having issues? Do you have any suggestions?

  • When I edited my site, it came back together looking odd...and now I have Modules
    that I can't get rid of or edit...My chat board has no background, and no way of getting rid of it either...I waited a few days to complain, but now...it's bugging me. LOL
    Mary

  • I havn't been able to see most of the xanga webpages in the last few weeks. Can't even log in my own xanga. Every time the browser would just say "connection interrupted: The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.", it seems as if there is a problem with the server.

  • <table id="bodyDrftID" class="" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td id="drftMsgContent">Hello                   weahgloria@yahoo.com

    I
    read your profile today it was so good to me. I feel you are the only
    one missing in my entered life so I desired to stop on it and let you
    know that I am interested to be a friend first. I also believe that
    coming to you will be a probability of meeting that very thing that has
    been lacking in my entered life. I am a respect and responsible, I
    respect people also and believe if you contact me, I will give you a
    full introduction of my self-okay. I hope to hear from you soon.
    Remember, all the darkness in the world, can-not put out the light of a
    single candle as long as the light of Friendship shines bright in your heart, and (Remember the distance or color does not matter but Friendship matters alot in life)

    Cares for my future Friendship favor. please contact me with this mail weahgloria@yahoo.com

    Thanks

  • <table id="bodyDrftID" class="" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td id="drftMsgContent">Hello                   weahgloria@yahoo.com

    I
    read your profile today it was so good to me. I feel you are the only
    one missing in my entered life so I desired to stop on it and let you
    know that I am interested to be a friend first. I also believe that
    coming to you will be a probability of meeting that very thing that has
    been lacking in my entered life. I am a respect and responsible, I
    respect people also and believe if you contact me, I will give you a
    full introduction of my self-okay. I hope to hear from you soon.
    Remember, all the darkness in the world, can-not put out the light of a
    single candle as long as the light of Friendship shines bright in your heart, and (Remember the distance or color does not matter but Friendship matters alot in life)

    Cares for my future Friendship favor. please contact me with this mail weahgloria@yahoo.com

    Thanks

  • THX

  • I am not sure what a css is But My friends site(  http://threejoys.xanga.com/ ) Is not working normally. I have been trying to fix it for her but am at a loss. Her first page is to wide. I have done all that you suggest on the subject and it is not working. Her next five posts on her back page look normal, It is just her first page as of June 7th 09. Do you have any suggestions or is a clitch in your system. 

    Thanks, Sharon     

  • It has been a while now since my last comment concerning my missing photos. Some were restored but only to 11th April 2005. All previous photos before that date are still missing. Please help! 

  • if i accidentally click on a xanga site,  trying to remove it, it shows up in my History a bunch of times. Any idea why that would happen?

  • thanks for the info

  • hmmmm.

    regards.

    trulytito.

    (tito dutta)

  • any new updates on anything new you guys are implementing on the GUI side?

  • Will these interesting and cut little silver links of london bracelet draw your attentions? To links of londontell you the truth, gentlemen also have a great interest in delicacy and special little. It’s a good way to express your thanks and love to your father if you buy him Links of London as a lucky gift links of london jewellery which represents healthy and longevous or give. to your boyfriend to make him smile. links of london, the world-famous brand, promotes different kinds of links of london bracelet every season. Inspired by ve links of london salehicles, such as slip board bikes, electronic bikes, taxis, buses and so on, the designs of this season are lifelike, lovely and are unputdownable. And the designs inspired by animals and food are also detailed and different from the original. Sweetie Collection has been well received by the customers as the king card brand, its links of london charms representative work are the hand chains with different pendants as decorations. links of london braceletsWe make more styles of the of Sweetie by adding more different materials. Take freshwater pearl, pink crystal and shells for example, they are not humdrum even with no condoles on bracelets. Unlike the silver links of london bracelets, if we add gold charm bracelets into charm bracelet and links of london sweetie bracelet, they look more beautiful though they are of the same design as the links of london sweetie bracelet. silver links of london braceletYou may choose your favorite silver links of london bracelet from 18K gold and pure silver and others like links of london bracelets, sapphires, pink gem and white crystal stone as decorations. The new watches of charm bracelet are simple but fashion even though they links of londonare bracelets like and as the same design as the hand chains. We guarantee you that if you give the jewelries and watches of links of london to your father or your boyfriend, their unique charm and temperament will fully represent.

  • I know this was an issue you addressed in the blog but it is still giving me problems, over a year later.  Also, I am just curious as to what the problem is.  When the feedback log shows a footprint, but it doesn't show up on the list of locations, does that mean someone actually visited or the number is an error?  For example: the log says 7 footprints but it only displays 5 on the list, does that mean two people looked at my page and they just aren't displaying properly?

    thank you!

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