June 23, 2013
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I AM Going To Miss Xanga,
But ...I just discovered an excellent Xanga blogger (we_deny_everything) whose name I've seen at jsolberg and perhaps other places, and so what else is new? Here is the first comment I ever offered to him:
Ya know what? I hate to sound a discordant note here, but ya know what? Even if I take the time to learn WordPress and then take the time to read the brilliant FreshlyPressed entries and even if they do turn out to be brilliant and edifying, I already pay $68 a month for the daily New York Times but I don't have time to read every article because I waste so much stupid time looking for good entries on Xanga (such as this one; kudos to you for an enjoyable -- if not brilliant -- and edifying entry and that's partly due to the comment section) -- even if I spend all that time and money, it won't really be worth it. Will it?
Every time I think, "My blogging career is over," my intelligent other self says, "It's about time."
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End of previously published comment
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What I'll miss most, of course, is the Community. And that's not going to exist at WordPress because, hell, it's practically fallen apart even here at Xanga. Oh, there's still plenty of love around here, but not near as much as there used to be.
Like I said to we_deny_everything, the sensible thing for me to do is say, "It's over" and move on. I might still be publishing word lists and commentary at my free WordPress and LiveJournal sites (I'm "twoberry" at WP and I'm "twoberry_bob" at LJ) but I'm pretty darn positive I won't be looking for comments or making any.
I don't want to say goodbye forever to everyone, and I've already exchanged email addresses with some and invite anyone interested in staying in touch with me to write to
twoberry at comcast dot net
and I write the email address that way so that spambots can't pick it up and deluge me with more spam than I already get.
And now for the Sunday New York Times.
Comments (16)
I share your feelings.
I've found that the community at WordPress isn't much different from here. I've already found a lot of the friends I talk to here, and more of them trickle in every day. It just takes time to build up a reader base, same as it does over here. I love that my comments and replies are kept separately from entries. It makes for a much less cluttered feed and people aren't getting lost in the mess they way they do here. I'm pretty happy over there.
Mine is http://oburi.wordpress.com/ , if you'd like to follow me.
The community is the people who comprise it, right? Rather than the place in which they meet to shoot the breeze? If so, then the community that's migrated to WordPress.com is exactly the same, only the paint and curtains have changed.
Ya think?
@HappierHeathen - That would be lovely, but there's no guarantee, in fact there IS a downright probability, that the community that migrates to WordPress will be only a fraction of the community that we have here. We'll see what happens.
So twoberry are you going to invest/donate to xanga 2.0? They have lowered the smallest contribution to $1.00.
Xanga will be here for a while like a wounded mastodon, lurching and staggering its way to extinction. If you enjoy it, stay with it as long as you can by all means.
It is known that we_deny_everything is a dangerous psychopath -- if she actually exists, which has never been clear. You don't need an advanced degree in psychology to know that her (his?) handle is the result of seriously disordered thinking.
When Xanga is gone we will carry on as we always have, bouncing from one discussion board to another.
I'm on WordPress and a number of Xangans have went over already. There is already a community forming over at WordPress. We read each others posts and comment. It's great.
And I've found that a lot of blogging websites have communities, like Open Diary, which feels similar to Xanga to me.
I agree with so much of what you've shared in posts recently.
I have so much to say and I love reading and commenting other people's posts...I have lots of good encouraging things to say to other people...but I'm contemplating giving up blogging and giving up reading blogs. Not sure yet what I'll do for sure. Sigh.
I keep thinking of that saying (that I DON'T like) about how people are only in our lives for a reason or a season...and then they are gone...Maybe that's what needs to be applied to what's going on on Xanga.
For now, I'll hang around here...and check in on my WP site.
HUGE HUGS!!!
I think I was looking for an excuse to give up blogging. Now, considering what is going on with Xanga 2.0, I think I should take the same attitude of "blogging over with" and "it's about time". Blogging on Xanga takes up too much time. It means too much time on computer and I want to spend less time on computer, not more.. Therefore, I will not go somewhere else in order to blog. If it's possible for me to continue to follow the Xangans who decide to stay or if it's possible for me to access you on LiveJournal to read, maybe I'll do. WordPress is not an option for me. So, yeah, "it's about time" ~~Blessings 'n Cheers
Dear Bob,
I've been investigating Adobe Creative Cloud. For roughly the same price as Xanga is offering, ($49.99 a month) I can cancel my $250.00 a year hosting program for http://www.allthingsmike.com (which I stopped updating years ago in favor of just supplying a link to my blog, natch.) I can transfer the entire website to the new servers (of course my allthingsmike URLs will remain the same, so all my pages on search engines stay up.) I can import my blog files pretty easily, host my own blog (and possibly community, although I plan on creating a free Facebook Group for ElectricPoetry anyway.) on my own website.
Now this is what's intriguing and alluring.
Adobe software is available in forever updated versions to subscribers. I won't need image editing. I'll have full access to pro versions of Illustrator and Photoshop. I won't need to upgrade my video editing program. I'll have full access to Premiere and After Effects, which are better than the programs I've been using to create my MikeVideos!
I'll have access to Dreamweaver, which still exists, as an Adobe program. I bought my copy (it's website creation software)for $500.00 back in 2003 and it was just too expensive to upgrade.
Almost every pro version of every software Adobe manufactures, tutorials galore (I spent about four hours watching tutorials Friday night!) web hosting, blog(s), and an online creative community.
I can do a lot with my Hostway site that I don't because I don't understand a lot of the nuts and bolts of being a programmer, and frankly, don't have time to learn.
In the time I'll save not having to learn how to get stuff online, I will be able to create the stuff to go online. A perfect "creative" solution.
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html
(I'm pretty excited.)
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
@baldmike2004 - You said $49.99 a month when I think you meant to say $49.99 a year, is that right? I'm truly happy you've found that Adobe meets your needs.
And please try to stay in touch. It's an honor knowing you.
Yes, Bob. Xanga's offer is annual, not monthly. The Adobe plan is monthly, and would take the place of both my website ($250.00 annually) and blog ($48.00 annually. That's roughly a couple of hundred dollars more a year, but includes not only webhosting but access to all the Adobe programs.
@baldmike2004 - Thanks for the clarification, Mike. Makes sense now.
I know what you are saying Bob. I am an eternal optimist it seems. I should start checking other sites... but I hang on the gossamer hopes of "may be it will survive!"
Facebook doens't completely suck. But I'll most definitely look for your blog, my dear man. I don't suppose you have a link for your blogs do you? I dumped my LJ, so it'll have to be WP. Although, I love my Blogger.com.
@JVRCisMe - Good to hear from you.
My LJ link is:
http://twoberry_bob.livejournal.com/
And my WP link is:
http://twoberry.wordpress.com/
I just tried them and they work. It's still frustrating learning how to navigate those sites. Even just finding my own entries is a headache. I tried to post something privately tother day, and it seemed to work in on place (LJ, I think), and not tother (WP, I think). But I can't find the private entry anywhere. Except at Xanga. Which is going away. Unless I fork over $48 a year, which I'm not going to do. If they paid ME $48 a year, I'd consider it.
The further I dig into this, the surer I am that I'm through with blogging.
Email me at
twoberry at comcast dot net
Comments are closed.