Over the years, we've gotten a lot of requests to show online
status - a little icon that displays when you're signed onto Xanga.  We've
never been able to figure out how to do it though - from a tech perspective, it's tough stuff!

But we've been investing a lot in software to speed
up the site, and recently Mikey had a brainstorm: we could use some of this
same software to show online status!  It'd be easy for us to do,
and we could do it in such a way that building this feature wouldn't take much
time at all, which was perfect because we've gotten so many
requests for it over the years. 

But first, of course, we want to bounce the concept
off of you guys and provide a pre-emptive opt-out:

• http://edit.xanga.com/editaccountprivacy.aspx 

Essentially, a
little icon will appear next to your username if you've been signed onto Xanga
recently.  We'd start off showing if you've been on the site in the last
five minutes...and maybe increase that depending on feedback.  Any
thoughts on what a good amount of time would be?

Edit: To clarify, here are a few more details . . .

• The icon is based on your last active time on the site.
• If you have been active in the last 5 minutes (read: you've loaded another Xanga page), you are considered online. If you're just reading posts on one page and not moving around the site, it won't think you are online and the icon will not show up.
• This will go into effect on Monday.
• You can opt out at any time!

Would also love to hear your thoughts in general -
thanks!

-John

UPDATE: This is live! If you'd like to opt out and haven't already, you can do so here:

• http://edit.xanga.com/editaccountprivacy.aspx

*Update*

Thanks to everyone that emailed us and signed up to help! We have enough users to help us out, so over the course of the next week you'll see more themes being tagged daily.

Much thanks to users o_Dirty_Blonde_o, rccalyn, and newbie2005 for their help tagging almost 1000 themes this past weekend!!! You guys rock!!

Hey guys - we've been slowly adding tags to all the
themes in the directory! It's
taking some time because we have to go back and tag all the old
themes. We've done about 700 of them, and it's probably gonna take
another 2 months for us to finish going through them. So we thought we'd
reach out and see if anyone has time to help us out!

Please email me
at eugenia-help@xanga.com if you have some time to help out! We'll be giving out 20
credits to every tagged Theme .

Also, we noticed some questions about themes. Check out our themes forum for answers to commonly asked questions.

Thanks!

Now you can reply to comments on your photos! Just click the "reply" link after comments; it works the same as on weblogs. Replying has been a really popular feature on the site and a lot of you have asked for it to be added to other pages. Personally, I can't wait for it to be added to pulse!

While we were at it, we added themes support to the photo comments page. I gotta say, it's pretty cool to see your photo pages have the same theme as your main Xanga page. You can check out what we mean by looking at this awesome postcard that DMo224 sent to our offices:

* http://photo.xanga.com/TheXangaTeam/5fb69175673645/photo.html

I commented on that photo - feel free to reply to it

Many thanks to Joe for making this happen!

- Marc

So now that you can change your
username
many folks have been asking about the availability of inactive usernames or usernames that have been shut down. When Xanga first went public lots of people
rushed to take up the vanity names (for example- Danny, Angie, Tyler) and ended up never using their sites.

If we could make inactive or
shutdown usernames available to you what names would you want? (Don't worry, we would only even consider accounts that haven't been used in a few years, and we'd contact them first.)

We think it be cool if names like
Speedracer, McSteamy/McDreamy, Elizabeth, McLovin, RacerX, NYC, twinkletoes,
NapoleonDynamite…the list goes on and on…were available to users that really
wanted them.

So leave us a comment and let us
know if there is a name you’re dying to have and we’ll see what we can do.

Thanks!

Wow, it's already Thursday! This week is flying by!

meganalissa left a comment on last week's Themes Thursday post that matched our sentiments exactly: "With all these great themes I'm tempted to change my site every week."

With the new themes directory, we hope the hunt for cool new themes will easier and that you change your themes as often as you like. Don't forget, if you come across a theme you like but don't want to commit to just then, you can save that theme and use it at a later time. The themes are saved in "your themes" in the edit themes menu.

This week's featured designer, jdncl2, was discovered when we were tagging themes for the directory. We kept coming across her fun designs and were impressed with each new one we found. Here are a few of our favorites below. For more, check them out here

.

Here's one for St. Patrick's Day

X: How long have you been a Xanga user and how did
you find xanga?

I have been a Xangan since 2006. My best friend used it, and when my husband
pipelined and we traveled a lot, it was the easiest way for us to keep in
touch.

X: Do you have a design background or any previous experience in making layouts?

I started making xanga themes because I was bored. After I got the hang of it,
I really had fun doing it, but prior to that day, I had no real experience
making backgrounds or themes.

X: How do you come up with your themes? What’s your inspiration?

I think of upcoming events, and look for ideas that are theme friendly. I put
the two together, use my imagination, and wala! New themes =) I've asked around
to my xanga friends, and used what they've told me they would like to make
themes also.

X: What’s your favorite theme, out of the ones you made so far?

I love all of my themes, and as long as I've thought of it, I can't decide my
favorite. I never share a theme until it's perfect in my eyes, so I end up
loving them all!

X: What do you like most about themes?

I like that u can customize themes differently. You can use the same
background 20 times and have a unique theme each time.

X: What’s your favorite xanga feature?

My favorite xanga feature would have to be that you can check only your
friends profiles that have posted new info. I love that you can see everyone or
just one person, and the different blogrings are awesome!

X: What do you like most about xanga?
I love how easy xanga is to use. Learning themes was difficult at first, but
very simple after only a little practice.

X: What do you like to do in your spare time- hobbies? interests?
I love scrap booking and crafts. I love to crochet blankets and pillow covers.
I play with my 2 puppies a lot, and I love babysitting!

Thanks so much to jdncl2 for being our featured themes designer of the week! Keep the great designs coming!

Thanks to Hellationships for today's post . . .

"Xanga is my mind in a neat and tidy collection.

"I Xanga because there's no one else you can pour your soul out to at 4 in the morning and hope to still be friends with afterward."

submit your own (we need new ones!)

See you at Office Hours tomorrow (5-6 p.m. EST)!

Whenever I visit a small town, I'm always amazed at how friendly folks are. If a new person walks into town, everyone goes out of their way to wave and say "Hello!"

We thought we'd try something similar here at Xanga: we're calling it the Welcome Wagon. When new members join (or old members return), we add them to the Welcome Wagon until they get a few comments from friendly Xangans.

You can see a link to it from the new private page - or you can click here:

* http://www.xanga.com/Private/WelcomeWagon.aspx

To sweeten the pot, we've added a little credit bonus to comments from the Welcome Wagon.  But actually, it's a ton of fun just to leave comments... we've been having a blast here saying hello to our new members and welcoming back some of our older users.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

- Marc

We've received more postcards for the office and wanted to share them with you all.

The 2nd postcard from the ladies of tendervoid

bentbrokenandtorn from Cali

Alicia from France

Jen also from Cali

dmo224 from West Virginia

Susan from Toronto

From donkey_guy_miss_smarty_pants

From IamDonnaC

From danlang

From broncomom

From nightshadegloom

Thanks to the users that sent them in!

If you'd like to send a postcard for the office wall, please send them to us:

Xanga.com
P.O. Box 500
Midtown Station
NY, NY 10018

Hope to hear from you soon!

This week's featured themes designer is something_within_me. The earthy elements and clean lines of Anna's themes really bring attention to the content on the page.

Here are a sample of her themes; if you'd like to see more of her themes, please go here.

X: How long have you been a Xanga user and how didyou find xanga?

I’ve been using Xanga for quite sometime. I had a different account before mycurrent one, so all in all, I think it’s been around 6 years. My friends inhigh school introduced me to the site.

X: Do you have a design background or any previous experience in making layouts?

Not really, but I have taken a fair amount of art classes.

X: How do you come up with your themes? What’s your inspiration?

For me, the best inspiration to create anything comes from nature and emotion.It could be from a good song or book, a deep conversation with a friend, or themoss growing on a tree.

X: What do you like most about themes?

I like how it gives anyone and everyone the opportunity to easily and activelycreate, share, and tweak a layout which fits them.

X: What’s your favorite xanga feature?

Well, I obviously like the theme feature, haha. But I also enjoy being able toshare what book/movie/music I’m currently reading/watching/listening to.

X: What do you like most about xanga?

I just like the overall feel of xanga, more so than other blogger communities.I just really like this concept of being able to express and share a littlepart of yourself with other people.

X: What do you like to do in your spare time- hobbies? interests?

I think a lot, probably too much, haha...but I love reading, writing, learning,volunteering, hanging out with friends, spending time in nature, petting cats,and jogging.

Thanks so much to Anna for being our featured designer of the week! We love your work and look forward to seeing more! =)

Also, a big high-five goes out to Eugy and Patrick for categorizing hundreds of themes to the theme directory! Right now,the top 500 saved themes of all time are tagged for easy searching, sofrom flowers or retro styled themes, your search will be faster andmore productive. Check them out here - theme tags are listed on the right-hand side.

Here's OHMYLIKEcookies' reason why she's a Xangan . . .

submit your own