June 7, 2013

  • Please Read
    See Friday Edit Below

    **********

    Here's the Way
    One Person
    Views Xanga

    But I sure as hell don't agree.  Yeah, the Xanga numbers may have been overwhelmingly teen-heavy, and angst-heavy, but I still remember the grown-ups, of which I am one.  And we're totally left out of the article linked in the headline.

    Much more, later.

    ******************

    I have a wordpress page now.   Damned if I know what to do with it.  Is there anybody out there that can find me?

    Used to be, you could google "twoberry" and go right to my Xanga page.  Now, though, some company has started up called "Two Berry" something or other and now I'm way down THAT first page, and if the wordpress page ever shows up on google, I'll be surprised.

    And more later.

    Friday Edit

    I'm in a sour mood this morning.  Despite getting tech help from "Rachel" at wordpress -- who helped me establish a "Gravatar" photo, and it does show up at random moments but never when I want it to -- and despite getting help from one of my Xanga buddies -- I'm very very very frustrated.

    HERE'S A PAGE.  Great, now I can show or hide my "widgets" if I want to.  If I knew how, that is.  And if I cared, that is.  What the hell is a widget anyway?

    All I want to do is what I already do so easily and comfortably on Xanga.  Blog when I want to.  Study a Scrabble word list when I want to.  Go to somebody's blog when I want to.  Make a comment when I want to.  Send a message when I want to.  And get comments and get messages -- not as many as I want and sure as hell not as many as I used to get, but thass OK.

    [SUDDEN THOUGHT, AT 6:40 a.m.]  Oh, yes, and NAVIGATE where I want to.  How awesome was it when they added the feature that you could move a post from one date to another, including backdating.  My extensive Scrabble word lists have been continuously organized that way, so that I can create, and revise, at will, and then FIND the damn things. 

    On a more pleasant note -- before I leave for work on my day off; is that an oxymoron or what? -- but I do have to work today; the hospital needs me -- where was I?  Oh, yeah, on a more pleasant note:

    Here are the observations of old friend momofjenmatt.  Enjoy!

    That Reminds Me

    In the Xanga Hall of Fame have to be (and I'll add to this list as the memories come back), in no particular order:

    momofjenmatt
    drakonskyr
    jsolberg
    sororitygirl
    ZSA_MD
    lionne
    thenarrator
    jerjonji
    seedsower
    baldmike2004
    LordPineapple

    (I just found this GREAT ENTRY of jerjonji's.  Go read.)

    ... what I would give for their archives!  Except for thenarrator, lionne and Zakiah (ZSA_MD), the first four sites above -- jsolberg is still active and Laura (momofjenmatt) just posted -- were or are heavy on humor.

    And then of course there was

    LordPineapple

    and his other personae.  A bunch of us kicked up some money to make him a lifetime member posthumously just so Terry Cuthbert could be read for the rest of our lifetimes.

    Xanga, I'm not sure you have the right to deprive us of what we paid for.

    But, on a positive note, thanks for enriching our lives all these years, Xanga.

    It was great while it lasted.

Comments (15)

  • I came because of my kids but stayed after they moved on because of the friends I made.

  • Xanga has been specially important to me in the past. FB is where I am mostly because I can see what my kids are doing. Guess I will have to give Xanga some support. Are there many of us oldtimers left? Some have passed on and some are not physically able to be on here anymore :(

  • @Nanny - A lot of people I think very highly of -- including you and Zsa_MD for two -- are expressing the desire to support the fund-raising effort.  After my first few looks at wordpress, though, I'm very nervous about delaying paying off my creditors in favor of helping out what looks to be a dying franchise.  And as I'm pretty sure you'll agree, Xanga's family has been dwindling for quite some time now.  So I'm still thinking on it.  I can be persuaded either way.  I did get a reasonably prompt answer from a wordpress techie regarding my startup difficulties, but the response wasn't much actual help, so we'll see on that score.

    And yes, I certainly do miss a lot of the old-timers who have moved on.

  • Xanga has been a home for me...I've learned much here, I've gotten much encouragement and had such fun!
    I clicked on your WordPress link and clicked on "follow" on your site there...but I couldn't find a place to leave a comment.
    HUGS!!!

  • I do hope you were able to save your scrabble word lists. It is a time consuming task to prepare but a champion scrabbler has to practice.

    I suppose you have a few oldies but goody blogs that you might want to share before you go off the air with xanga. I will be looking forward for seeing some last gasps of great xangians like yourself.

  • I agree - with everything. And especially WordPress. I also have site there, but I gave it up because I was just writing to myself. Not a community.

    Xanga used to have Rings. (I think that is what they were called.) These were where on person could associate with another of like interests (like poetry) and then that person would be on the ring and you could go to another. This allowed you to visit different people with the same theme. It was a great way of growing your personal community.

    Now, on Xanga, there really isn't a way that I can find a new person that I would enjoy subscribing to. So my subscription list has dwindled through attrition. I have almost no reason to come to Xanga now.

    And I find that with WordPress also. There is no way that someone would learn enough about me to come to my sight, and I haven't learned enough about others to go to their site. Just because there are millions of options, if there isn't a way of managing the selection, the options are worthless.

  • I don't have time to read "The Way One Person Views Xanga." If you disagree with it, that's enough for me. wordpress.com has been mentioned several times. From what you and others have said, it doesn't sound user friendly. I don't have time to deal with something like that. I'm having a hard enough time finding time to blog much anymore. The only value of Xanga to me presently (before whatever changes occur) is that I have access to the true friends I have here, of which you are one. I'm waiting to get more information as to what Xanga will do before I make a final decision as to what I will do; but blogging on another site, especially if it is not very user friendly, I think is not an option for me, time-wise. Xanga fundraising? Sorry, I don't think I can help with that. ~~Blessings 'n Cheers

  • @adamswomanback - I have very much enjoyed meeting you here, and I have considered you a Xanga friends as I do Twoberry and others. I hope we have ways to keep up with each other via e-mail if Xanga changes are such that we no longer can do any way here. I'm not willing to pay for a subscription & I feel as though I should not help with fundraising when I have knowledge of so many pressing needs that are more important for the few dollars I might donate. I have to prioritize. ~~Blessings 'n Cheers

  • I agree, Xanga has been by far the most "user friendly" blog site I've come across. It will be horrible to see it go, and I doubt if I'll try blogging again. Will probably just stick with Facebook.

  • @DonnaLou -  thank you! me, too! HUGS!!!

  • After reading your edit, I know there is definitely no way I'd mess with wordpress. I don't have time to deal with more tech stuff. If I MUST blog (which I doubt), I hope there is a simpler way to do it on some blog site. I don't think wordpress is the only one. I'll just do what I can here, whenever, in whatever time is left before learning Xanga's final plan. ~~Blessings 'n Cheers

  • I have a blogger account. I've had it for years. (At one point I had about 6 different blogging accounts on different platforms- most have disappeared over time as the platforms died). I have a tumblr account- it's new and awkward. I'm not sure about wordpress. I'll check into it in the near future. My point remains... I hate to lose the years of history on this place done by others who aren't here to archive it anymore! I thought xanga would be here forever, and while I will miss it if it goes away, I'm a lot more upset about the loss of people's work like Lord Pineapple, etc. I will probably join in the save xanga campaign. It's worth that much to me, but I'm still a bit mad at them! :)

  • @jerjonji - You've captured my feelings exactly.

  • @twoberry - :)

  • I am thankful for what xanga put together and that we could all join together for this moment in time. I don't blame them. They struggled like many other companies struggled and it was difficult to transform when they had a userbase that probably didn't want them to transform.

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