June 17, 2013

  • Open Letter to the Xanga Team

    Rec this if you agree. . .

    Dear Xanga Team,

    Thanks for everything. Thanks for creating Xanga. Thanks for putting up with the constant complaining from a group of which 90% use for free. Thanks for putting up with the nastiness from the people who paid $25.00 and somehow think they own you for life.

    Thanks for committing to work for free now to keep xanga alive even though people will use this service to criticize you.

    Thanks for listening to the pseudo experts explaining to you how to run a successful social network.

    Even if we don’t come up with the money, thanks for the memories of this place.

Comments (60)

  • THIS

  • *slow clap*

    Totally agree with this.

  • A slow clap here too.

  • i’m sad… does Xanga have to ‘go away’?

  • What more to say?

  • Just saw the other post. Wonder how many people will rec both?

  • Yup. Thanks for the memories and the wonderful friendships and the learning experience. 

  • Good stuff!

  • Dear Dan, Thank you for this. All the anger and negativity around here is getting depressing.

  • Agree!

  • Thanks for putting it this way Dan!
    Xanga will live on in the hearts and spirits and minds of xangans, xangstahs and xangafarians for years to come…

  • Dear Xanga, thanks for the boobs.

  • “Thanks for listening to the pseudo experts explaining to you how to run a successful social network.” 

    Pseudo experts are armchair quarterbacks who’d be paraplegic if tackled once in the NFL. 

  • yes.

  • This is a bitchslap, Dan. Gratefulness only goes so far. I’ve been here for over 8 years, and worked for the sister site Momaroo. I consider myself extremely invested here.
    And some of what was said in the other Open Letter was just plain true.
    It might not come across as grateful. It might not come across as helpful. But what good are touchy-feely words at this point?
    It’s valid to ask where the xanga team members are in this.
    It’s valid to ask for or expect a return commitment.

    I’m disappointed with this post and the fact that you would use your popularity to put down a dissenting opinion.

  • Save Xanga with $1.  Link

  • It’s not that Xanga puts up with us, it’s that they don’t give enough of a fuck to even listen.

  • Win!!!

  • Thanks Xanga!

  • I’m gonna miss you Dan!

  • You’re the Ying, to the Yang. 

    No problem in voicing negative opinions, if there’s room for positive reflection. 
    Thank’u, Dan.
    Thank’u, Xanga. 

  • What you said. I agree.

  • Gotta love those pseudo experts…

  • Two thumbs up!  Five Stars! And a mini …

  • Top blogger till the end!! Keep it up!!

    I thank Xanga for 9 years of investment of time but also feel like @PrincessPowers  that we have the right to ask questions as part of the community.

  • I’m certainly thankful to the Xanga Team for creating Xanga, and I’m one of those people who has never paid for membership… but am I wrong to assume that most other blogging sites don’t charge for membership? At least not a basic membership, which is all I’ve ever needed.

    I think it’s cool that they gave users a chance to redeem the website, but I’m pretty sure they just don’t want to deal with it anymore. Which is kind of understandable since the popularity of this site peaked way back in 2004, right?

  • Dear Dan,

    Last time I was “over” to the Xangaforever group on FB, there were over 1000 members, and the group is quite active. A LOT more active than Xanga. Of course FB is (still) FREE. I notice your FB badge is at the top of your site. (I should move mine, now that I think about it. Nobody will see it among the plethora of links and graphics that is my Xanga)You should promote the Xangaforever group with a badge if FB has a method for that.Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

  • Thanks very much!

    I hv so many valuable memories in xanga.Thanks you for making a chance to let me record how I grow up.

  • @Marica0701 - Love how you put your reply.  Shall I add *standing ovation* as well.  hehehe

  • Here here

  • thanks for the memories

  • Agree!

  • I will miss Xanga!  It’s been the first blogging site I’ve been on and the only one I’ve ever really trusted for 11 years.  I’m glad I was able to archive all my posts.  Too many memories which would have been forgotten if I hadn’t jotted it all down.  

  • I get the sentiment here–let’s be thankful for what we’ve had–but holy hell has the Xanga Team screwed this up. Their interaction with the community at large has been “60K, 45 days, get cracking”. Their investment in this project has been absolutely nothing, whereas the community (including figureheads such as yourself) has been keeping all the momentum forward. I’ve seen bands raise $1,000 for charity with more involvement and zeal than the Xanga Team has put into saving their entire site. You can’t write off everyone with valid points by calling them a “pseudo expert”.

  • as Samuel replied I’m taken by surprise that any body can get paid $6840 in a few weeks on the computer. have you seen this link http://www.mac22.com

  • xanga rules!

  • Yes, what you said. Thanks, xanga.

  • everything that has a beginning has an end.

  • i agree with you, dan, in the main; a part of me, however, can’t help but side with @Celestial_Teapot on this.

  • Good perspective. Criticism doesn’t mean you think the team sucks and consists of shitty people though.
    I am thankful that I had Xanga for the past few years.

  • “Thanks for listening to the pseudo experts explaining to you how to run a successful social network.”

     Like you.

  • Good point

  • I don’t post very often anymore, but I’m thankful to Xanga because I met my husband on this site. One of his posts was featured, I was impressed with it, and the rest is history. We celebrated three yeas of marriage this past February.

  • Dan, Theo, I think the only reason Xanga hasn’t been offended by our criticisms is because they are NOT HERE. Joel, @edlives, like it or lump it has taken the burden upon his own shoulders to carry future Xanga.

    While that’s admirable it’s not very practical. We need to have new spokespersons for Xanga – not just him – but people who are actually and truly involved in the process – so we can see where the money is going, specifically – so they can show us screenshots of the work being done, visually – and they can quell the rising dissension and growing malcontent Xangan users are feeling for this sinking ship and site. ⌂ ≈

  • I’m split between SoulFire’s version and yours.  Yin and Yang, hakuna matata. 

  • Amen!

  • All your looks, brain, and a big ole heart too, Dan.  You do it right. :)

  • Dear Xanga,

    Thank you for being completely absent for over a year and letting trolls and spammers take over the place.  Thank you for not letting us know this place was in trouble sooner when we could’ve had more time to help out.  And most of all, thank you for not giving us any updates after you announced the fundraiser.  It’s nice to know that you only think of us when you’re in a bind.

    Thank you for helping me find a new blogging home.  I will not be back, and I will not miss this place.  I have the contact information for everybody that I care about.  Good luck to you in the future.  Based on what I’ve seen from you so far, you’re going to need it.

  • Yeah, pretty much what she said. See ya!

  • this site has something extraordinary in it…It gives a sense of presence i’ve not seen in any other sites..let’s hope it remains alive for some while to come..and this Cafe makes all the difference…

  • Dear Dan,

    Don’t shit yourself. Xanga was a for-profit company (no problem with that), they weren’t a charity. As such, the only access we had to xanga was according their design, free or otherwise. To speak poorly of those bloggers who used a free site, and who express distaste in that site reveals your ignorance… that’s how xanga set it up, hoping to be profitable.

    There was no altruism involved, and there is no debt owed them by us, gratitude, recompense or other.

    But this post sure was good. Get your popularity fix in while you can… non-paying user.

  • I’ve appreciated having Xanga as a place to get my thoughts out, and I’m not complaining per se. But I’ve always been a “common sense” kind of person….and it doesn’t take much to see the team doesn’t know wtf they’re doing. They’re flying by the seat of their pants in handling this whole ordeal. If their community and their site meant that much to them, they’d come out of hiding and INTERACT with those who still need convincing that the 2.0 site is worth investing a dime towards. They’re basically trying to sell a “product” blindly and it shouldn’t be the responsibility of an average Joe blogger to do the selling for them when I guarantee they themselves have no clue. As a consumer, no thanks. I’ll take my business elsewhere.

  • Regardless of the strong emotions that are flowing through the place, it was a well-said comment. 

  • Ah, the memories!

  • DAN!  give us some credit I think that I paid a somewhat higher price than $1, or $25 for that matter, for a Lifetime membership. Besides WHO set the prices? YOU ?   Oh He who thinks himself most HOLY. (but couldn’t make it anywhere else) Looks like it’s time to close the book on Dan’s Psuedo expertise on everything. I don’t see any Theologians Cafe opening up ANYWHERE else…… must not be as good as he thinks he is.

  • Take out a second mortgage on your house, Dan. You have been the emperor of this place for many years. It’s your gig. You will be remembered as the captain at the helm of this Titianic when it sinks. The “Xanga Team” (John) are but extras floating around somewhere down in the engine room.

  • Thank you for always being a “home” to come back to.

  • I learned about xanga from a gamer at a shop where I used to hang out. It was slow going at first, figuring things out. I had a journalism degree to put to use, and wanted to keep writing. Just stuff, nothing special. Met some interesting people, found a small audience for my poetry, was told to write a book of poems. Moved to South Korea, kept writing, sharing pictures. Same with the move to Thailand. My xanga audience, what there is of it, has been with me for nearly ten years, and has gone with me through six countries, and three capital cities. Some of the people from the early days have been laid to rest, and they are missed. Others disappeared. Its been an interesting ride. I hate for it to end. 

    I got xanga lifetime premium before leaving Korea. Be a drag to lose it. But the bigger drag is that all good things must come to an end.

    “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” – Closing Time – Semisonic

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