June 9, 2011
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New Sign-In Options for Comments
During the recent Xanga blogathon I noticed a lot of footprints from friends on other social networks, but none of these friends left any comments. I got emails from them - and even some phone calls - but not one single comment.
It really drove home the point that not everyone is willing to create a Xanga account just to leave a comment. Even our "guest" ("anonymous") comment feature seems to be too much of a hassle for most people to use - except spammers, ugh.
After digging into the data and asking these friends why they didn't just leave comments, it became clear that making it easier for users of other social networks to sign in for commenting would almost definitely increase comments on Xanga blog posts.
Like many Xangans, I look forward to getting comments on my posts. So even though I personally don't use these other social networks, we built the feature... Now users of Facebook or Twitter can sign in to comment on Xanga sites.
If you're not a fan of these other sites or you just prefer to keep your Xanga site separate from the rest of the world, no worries - please keep the following in mind:- This feature is automatically disabled on locked sites - if your site is locked (signin lock, footprints lock or friends lock), people need to be signed into *Xanga* to visit it - so by default, all your comments will still come from signed-in Xanga users, only
- Specific Facebook and Twitter users can be blocked - if you get a comment from a Facebook or Twitter user and you don't like it, you can block that user. This provides an additional level of blocking support, above and beyond what you can do with "guest" ("anonymous") commenters.
In general, not much should change for Xanga bloggers, except - we hope - that you will get more comments!
Let us know what you think.
Comments (82)
If someone from Facebook comments on my xanga entry, will the url to my blog show up on their page? I wouldn't be okay with that.
Sounds good, although not relevant to me since i'm on sigin lock. But it'll be good for those who want more traffic on their blog and would like to read everyone's opinions, not just xanga users.
Also, next task should be to fix the comment error thing, because it's getting really annoying - I just got an error screen when I tried to comment here.
@LiquidityOfSelf - That is a valid point, I am curious about that as well. I do not want my link on their Facebook site, it will cause way too much unwanted traffic to my site.
Pretty good idea.
@LiquidityOfSelf - @looking_inside_me - it does not create an update in their facebook or twitter accounts... but of course there are plenty of ways for people to share links on facebook - please always bear in mind that if someone can visit your page, they can easily copy/paste or otherwise share anything on it.
@omgroxie - could you please message me with details about the error? thanks!
Incredible! Excellent! LOVE it!
I think this is a good addition. Fantastic job!
Yessssss! I've been wanting this kind of option FOREVER. I have hundreds of reader without Xanga accounts, and I'd much prefer they leave their notes on the blog instead of on my FB links or wherever. Awesome, guys.
YES!!! I love it. Maybe add in a wordpress option as well?
What a brilliant idea! And thank you for keeping it optional! This is why Xanga is 100x better than Facebook
Great addition!!!
I'd rather you fix the damn error that keeps coming up when I try to comment.
@UnconventionalButterfly - Amen!!!
Not particularly opposed to this.
I'd have to agree with the comments about the error when we try and comment on stuff. I'm getting kind of annoying with coping comments. sometimes I won't even try again if my comment doesn't go the first time. ^^;
Sounds like a great idea.
@UnconventionalButterfly - @lonelywanderer2 - @MyFaire - we're digging into it now!
@marc - Thank you c:
@marc - When we try to comment on someone's blog, doesn't matter the user, although it seems to only happen to me within the first 5 minutes of them posting the blog, it comes up with this screen:
http://www.xanga.com/?xm=0&type=site
It's happening to everyone and it's been going on for weeks now, so it'd be great if you guys finally fixed it, because it's frusterating to have to retype every comment. Thanks
@omgroxie - thanks for the details! I think we might have a lead on this bug now... working on it!
Nice!
@marc - Welcome
Very cool!
@marc - A lot of people have been saying that when they comment, they lose their comment and are directed to the same page you see when you're blocked.
@marc - Appreciated!!!
This sounds good. It will be interesting to see how it affects my site.
@marc - I found that after signing out of xanga then signing back in, I could comment on posts that had given me the error message before.
Sorry, not happy about this.
I think this is a good change
That's really cool!
Good feature. I'm not having any comment problems.
Ugh... trolls from other social networks such as WordPress can now troll on Xangans, and Xanga Team won't be able to shut them down because they're not Xangans. Worse, if they're Xangans and they use these other social networks to troll on their fellow Xangans.
I see trouble. Remember explosive? She'll be back.
I don't know if you guys care about your customers problems since I've been trying to get some attention for a while now and gotten no response from the forum or emailing you guys or anything, but I'm going to keep trying because I'm not going to give up on you guys Xanga. That's how much I care about you. Here's the situation. I've been trying to buy premium and I am unable to. Last week, I used my debit card and the site kept saying there was a problem, please try again later and so I would try again. I didn't know it was taking money out of my account. I asked my bank and they said it would be returned to my account in a week. Well I was crippled for an entire week because all of my money in my account was frozen thanks to Xanga and I contacted customer support to ask them to help me by faxing a letter to my bank relinquishing me of the charges and they didn't respond. Well, they responded once to ask for the fax number and then they didn't respond to subsequent emails. I had to borrow money to buy a bus pass to go to work this past week and had to be conservative with the way I use things, because I didn't have any money to pay for anything. I also was behind on a bill, because of this. Despite all of this, I still tried to buy xanga premium again once the money was returned to my account. This time, using paypal. It still didn't work! What is wrong with xanga? Don't you want people to support your service? Please help me to know what I have to do to get Premium. I am trying to get Lifetime.
hopefully this option becomes clear to people visiting from ":abroad"
NICE
@God_sPeace - So sorry for the troubles! We definitely had an issue with our credit card processor last week, but it should be fixed now... Not sure what the new issue might be with PayPal - could you please message me with the details of the error you got?
In the meantime, your account should now be upgraded:
http://edit.xanga.com/editpremium.aspx
Thanks!
agreed with @A_NY_Zone61 -
THIS. IS. BRILLIANT.
Is there a way to turn off anonymous comments?
@omgroxie - Agreed. I get the error frequently.
@NightCometh - yup:
http://edit.xanga.com/editaccountprivacy.aspx
Set "Allow anonymous comments" to "no" (don't forget to save changes!)
Did they do this across the board? It is about time!
Cool.
*Xanga's Batman Out*
Sweet, thanks for that
Awesome news. It's a move in the right direction to integrate with other popular social networking sites. GJ Xanga!
This is a great idea. All the big blog and news sites now incorporate this kind of thing.
Sounds good to me, but how about an option for LiveJournal as well?
This is awesome
Cool.
A good option. I'm currently on sign-in lock but not for any particular reason. I may go off it just to let other people comment from FB. "Liking" my site to get it on my FB feed has been less than satisfactory, so this would be a nice way to sort of cut-out the middle-man. (Everytime I "like" a Xanga page, the picture it links is always totally random and it never gives the username in the FB feed, just "Xanga.com". meh.)
Thanks for the update!
~V
Great work as usual. Thank you, as always, for keeping things like this optional. That's a big part of why I prefer xanga to any other site. You are considerate of your users, unlike, say, facebook.
Speaking of spammers, did you ever receive Macphoto's idea to put a spam button near the comment section, as a means t oge rid of them all?
Sounds good. I just might go off sing-in lock to use this. If non Xangan friends of mine will bother to drop by that is.
Why not also open it up to blogger and wordpress accounts?
@SoullFire - You can't sell out to the competition! We're trying to crush Blogger and WordPress!
Sounds good, though I'm not sure about the implications for spamming and the creation of a whole lot more accounts that will spam. Maybe Xanga should consider something like akismet or something on the comments? The spam on ish posts is ridiculous.
Well then, it looks like I won't have it since I'm on sign in lock ;P That's fine!
@llamalima - Actually, traffic on Blogger and WordPress crushes Xanga. I don't know of any people who have moved from Blogger/Wordpress to Xanga, but have seen plenty move on from Xanga to other sites. Xanga is becoming too much like an enclave, which isn't good when it's far down the line in web traffic rankings.
Those sites make it easier to leave messages by having a universal log in interface that doesn't require you to jump hoops to leave messages.
@SoullFire - Uh huh, yeah, I agree with you. I notice as well, Google does prefer WordPress/Blogger to Xanga now as well. I run the same posts over here on Xanga, then a few months later on wordpress when I am bothered--I get a lot of hits from google searches, while I get very few on Xanga. But I like it here still!
Perhaps something like Disqus would help?
@llamalima - Yeah, Xanga definitely has more of a community feel. The other sites are like living in big cities - lots of folks moving around, but you can still feel isolated with little if any web traffic on one's site. That's the main advantage I think Xanga has over the other sites.
@SoullFire - I think that is the only thing that xanga has going for it unfortunately. I notice that the people on xanga has hit a plateau though on alexa.com. The only way is up! http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/xanga.com
If I want a friend in FB to comment I just tick the box already there before posting my entry.
My problem with xanga it won't let anon guest work for my blog. Most of the time that is.
I like it a lot
Good idea. It won't affect me because I am on sign-in lock.
One suggestion. GET SOME MORE MINIS THAT ARE NEAT OR CUTE. Please.
@LiquidityOfSelf - I am out here and unable to sign into my account at all. Period. Lots of other Xangans are having the same issue, but customer service is apparently non-existent. This sounds like a great idea, IF Xanga is willing to fix the myriads of other glitches going on. I have tried over and over and over again to get ahold of someone at Xanga... What good does it do me to use your service at all?
Of course, I see, just from reading the comments here on this post, there are many, many people experiencing big problems with their Xanga blogs, too.
The BEST way to stay competitive would be to take care of the folks who are with you now, because once they are angry enough with you, they won't EVER come back.
I want answers to my questions and I want control of my blog back. The other blog, the one I created over two years ago and have not been able to sign into for over five - six months is a serious breach of privacy for me. I don't know what the privacy settings may be now!
I have contacted "customer service" over and over and over again with not so much as one single response from you guys.
It is great to hear you are trying to "improve" your service, but if you can't take care of your current group of faithful bloggers, you are not really not accomplishing anything but destroying your base.
This is a great idea, but I signed out (on this page) and tried to sign back in clicking the "sign in with xanga" right above the comment box and it didn't work... maybe it's just my computer! but I wanted to let you know in case it's a bug!
I haven't read the comments yet so sorry if this was already mentioned: What about making it where we can block any anon comments, meaning you can still allow Xanga and facebook users to comment but no anon comments, kind of like a "sign in lock" that requires you to be signed in SOMEWHERE not just xanga.
@PulpFictionFan4ever - I think you responded to the wrong person...I'm not customer service...
@LiquidityOfSelf - You are correct.
That sounds like an awesome idea.
Hi, who do I need to talk to about getting an Android App for Xanga? I've been paying for Xanga for years, I just want to be able to blog on the go....
Have seen this at my friend's LiveJournal, and it's nice... but not half as nice as the option to moderate comments. I'll just sit back here and wait for that one.
This is awesome! Thank you Xanga!
Awesome!
"Like"
They may have a setting on their browser enabled that is making that happen. Also sometimes posting comments does that but they post anyway.
http://livemind.com/artistic-endeavors.aspx?rc=lmr15755
... no... no... and... no...
Make this... a feature which can be disabled for individual sites... I do not want to feel as if I need to lock my site for only Xanga users... I prefer not to... do not force me to... and do not add such ridiculous features without a means of disabling them.
... You've likely just forced a lot of people into sign-in lock who wouldn't otherwise be there... and I personally enjoy having a site which is accessible to people who are not currently logged in... and I do not wish to be commented by... certain... people... who use facebook and know my screen name... extremely... well...
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