September 20, 2013

  • I'm Still Here

    My apologies for the lack of updates...

     

    This past month has been incredibly hectic.

    Not just in Xanga's transition, but also with what's going on in the rest of my life.   I won't bore you with the details, this time. :)

     

    It's all good, don't get me wrong, but I will say that it has pulled me away from blogging in a considerable way.

     

    -------------------

    Here's a few updates:

    I have been able to catch up, for the most part, with getting answers and information for Xangans who are needing it through Xanga's facebook page.   There's still a lot more that needs to be done, I admit, but rest assured that the team, and myself, are getting through some major hurdles.

    During the transition, however, my xanga/autisable e-mail went down.   This oddity has caused quite the challenge in our usual procedures.  I mean, how in the world can a gmail based e-mail account go down.... right?    In any event, the team had to fix that - and we're waiting for things to sync up again.   I do have other accounts that we're using to get things back on track - but I wanted to share some of the strange hurdles even I've had during this transition.

    There have been several Xangans who have stepped up to the plate, providing help and practical tips on using this very basic version of Xanga 2.0.

    I'll be talking with a few folks who have stepped up on the Xanga FB page soon - seeing if they can help moderate and answer questions.   This will help spread out the work load some more so we can help even more Xangans get back on track sooner.  A couple of Xangans have already shown a serious interest. :)

    Still - other Xangans have posted tips on how to navigate the upgrade and to set up your account a bit better - here's one that Michael posted on a Xanga FB group page - and if you haven't read them - please do so:

    --------------------------

    NEW XANGA POINTERS (quick tutorials)

    (I posted this on another Xangacentric group. Perhaps it might be appreciated here as well for anyone who's interested.)

    Has anyone noticed that the "cheerleaders" and "naysayers" seem to have disappeared , and have been replaced by a bunch of confused Xangans who are just (either calmly or frantically) trying to figure out what's going on?

    Here's some things I've found out, (thanks to various Xangans who I read and who read me. NO help from the Xanga Team)

    1. Turn you username into a link. Go to edit avatar, and insert your URL (address: yourname.xanga.com) into the box marked "website"
    2. Sub list. Dashboard/reading gives you the old list of new entries to sites you subscribed to on Old Xanga. If you want to reconnect to a new Xangan, click "follow" under their avatar (profile pic)
    3. Not being able to "see" your images in the entry editor. If you keep clicking "visual" but see nothing, Go to Profile (your name in the upper right hand side of the blue taskbar) and make sure the little box which says "disable the visual editor when writing" is unchecked.
    4. Your photos. I just found this right now. Dashboard/Xanga Photos. They're arranged chronologically. The last few entries you posted prior to the changeover will have "image not found". You'll have to go back to your entries and manually reinsert them.
    5. Moderate comments. You'll have to "approve" someone on your friends list or who subs to you only the first time they visit and comment.
    6. The comment screen. ALL comments on the history of your blog are archived here. You can easily spot spam and delete it (en masse per page, which I love). You can click on the little series of numbers under a user and get a screen of the comments they've left you (which I've asked for for years, but you only get comments on "new Xanga" I DON"T like the fact that this is in fact the user"s IP address and it shows the email address too. I hope I find a way to turn this 'off' and I'll let you know.
    7. Pin a post. If you'd like a post to constantly appear at the top of your blog, without having to "update the timestamp" (I'm doing this since my HTML header disappeared) go to the right side of the screen when in the ADD NEW POST or EDIT POST click "visibility and check "stick this post to the front page."

    Hope this little tutorial helps. I will post more as I find out more. I've already got a little coterie of "readers". I was never a "Xangacelebrity" anyway, but I've been on the service for a decade and like blogging on Xanga. 

    Michael F.Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

     

    --------------------------------

    Now, suffice it to say that we have to remember that Xanga is - and will be - COMMUNITY driven.    As we all move forward, our input in the development of this site will be necessary to it's improvement.

    This was the goal that John and the team shared earlier this year.

    We're still in the transition phase of moving Xanga 2.0.   A lot of our fellow Xangans are still playing catch up to what is going on.

    There's up to 2 million accounts and account holders/members that the team has to make sure are taken care of in some way.     There's still a lot of work to be done, and this has been a major change for all of us.

    A comment on a previous post of mine by  @notforprofit reads:

    "You are a guileless apologist for xanga’s incompetence. You aren’t even participating in answering the thousands of appeals for Help where exiled xangans are so hurting because this has become a cash-f***up. thank you Pontius Pilate for washing your hands."

    I have responded:

    "Real life has interrupted my regular responses. However, I have been in constant contact with numerous Xangans seeking help, and working with the Xanga Team on getting folks the help they need.

    I have not gone anywhere, except have been rather pulled away from what people usually see. Most of my responses as of late have been private and through e-mail.

    You and I may disagree on Xanga’s level of compentence, but please don’t mistake my lack of open answers for washing my hands of this transition. I’m still here for the long haul.

    I do thank you for your blunt honesty, as it serves as a reminder to me that I do need to provide some quality updates that will help folks."

    -----------

    This has been a very hectic year, all around.   I thank everyone for your encouragement - and in the case of  @notforprofit - blunt honesty.

    If we are to move forward together - we'll need all the creative insight on how to improve and help one another we can get.

    Some folks are waiting on the Xanga team to 'fix things'.   They are working as hard as they can to get everyone up to speed on 2.0.   Until then, and by all means, please help each other as Michael did.   Provide posts, tips, ideas.    Do what we can NOW amongst ourselves, until the team is ready for the next phase.

    Things will change rapidly as the team gets everyone up to speed.   So any tips are very helpful.

    Stay tuned!  I'll have some more updates as well.

Comments (58)

  • How is it not counterintuitive to continue to promote facebook as the means for XANGA help? Which platform are you promoting, facebook or Xanga?

    That is a real question, Ed.

    • It's the XANGA FB page. We're just reaching people where they are at. Utilizing the Xanga FB page to promote Xanga - to build ongoing relationships.

  • And why would you feature facebook help and not help found here, on Xanga? I'm just curious. Because you could have linked help pages here as easily as you quoted facebook help.

    But that would have built community, to link Xangans together IN Xanga.

    If you and John want helpers, how about you pick from Xanga and not Facebook? Real question.

    • Xanga team is focusing on the xanga help pages. When some people have issues, they've also been asking through the facebook page - either as a comment or a private message. Myself and a few other xangans have been moderating the page - therefore I've been sharing what I've been up to through the outlets I have control over.

      Also, not everyone is up to speed on what is going on with Xanga. There are still people surprised that Xanga's gone through a major upgrade (6 months after the initial announcement!)

      I can only pull from people who've been helping through channels that I have some level of authority over - such as the facebook page. John and the rest of the team will be seeking help in areas where they feel it's necessary soon enough. However, if you see a place where you can help - just let me know - we can always ask and get you involved even more. (this goes for anyone, not just you - PrincessPowers)

      Xanga just isn't what is ON Xanga.com, Inc. Xanga is whomever is on Xanga and where they are at as well. In order for the site to grow, we also have to think outside of the original .com scenario. There's more to Xanga than just the site/platform. It's the people... and people are beyond the site itself - and we have to reach them where they are at.

      Building a community is more than just the site - it's regularly building relationships.

  • I look forward to having an easy way to find new sites to sub to and follow.. I guess i miss the xanga front page.

    Thanks for all the hard work! :-)

    • The xanga front page is going to be updated eventually - but with a lot of our input in layout/design. I look forward to what you're sharing as well. :)

  • Thank you for sticking around! :) Life's been kind of busy at my place too.

  • "Busy" is no excuse for a business, though. And we are investors. This is only ok with you because you don't have to face us in a board room.

    • Well, I am a volunteer - not paid for this work.
      The only compensation I receive is for the work I do on Autisable.

      Real life took precedence, my friend. Got sick for two days - had to catch up on the honey do list (to make the wife happy)... along with making sure my son is good to go in his new school year... not to mention my regular job that has a lot more added to it.

      I could go in front of a board meeting - no problem. :)

  • Help #5 isn't entirely correct, unless you never change your default settings. But I'm guessing you don't actually use Xanga to know that.

    • Those notations were from Michael. I just passed them along AS IS. Thanks for the extra insight, though.

  • Ed, you've put yourself in the position of middleman between us and John. If you don't want the heat from that, then bring John to us. You say all the time that you have this access to him, so where is he? Let us have this conversation with him, if you are just going to shrug it off.

    • It may appear that I've placed myself in this 'middleman' position - but the reality anyone can feel free to contact John.... Or even Eugenia or Marc. I can take the heat - no worries. Most of my connection on the team - as I've shared before - is with Marc and Eugenia - not always with John. Most of the information I get from John is the same information he's shared on the Xanga Team posts. Sometimes I need clarification as well, so i talk with Marc and Eugenia to get it if needed.

      I do know that John and the team are working hard on making sure everyone is up to speed - and that the platform is up to par with what we really expect. And that's a lot of work by itself.

      Figure that of over 20,000 people on Xanga facebook page - I glean through at least 100 comments and messages per week. The team glean's through 1,000's of messages a week - and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

      Think of it this way - the team has migrated over 2 million blogs. That's almost 2 million people being affected by this move. Most of these folks have questions - and the team is working hard on answering as many as possible - and finding quality solutions to address the top issues.

      No matter how this transition would have happened - this is a huge undertaking.

      If I were to 'shrug off' the conversation - I wouldn't have responded... I would've just ignored it. Rather, I'm addressing each question and concern to the best of my abilities.

  • Thanks Joel...hope your sons school year goes great and I appreciate you making the wife happy...you know what they say =) Have you had any dealings with the hyperbaric chambers?

    • No, but our son's doctor has a child on the spectrum and used them. From our understanding it worked to some degree for him. But, to be honest, I haven't really looked any further into them.

  • You can say that the community is more than just the site, but without a working site, and people invested IN the site itself, then what do you have exactly? And when the help here, on Xanga itself goes largely unanswered, what then? Then people are investing their time on other platforms, not here. And THAT is a recipe for community failure. Because in order for a community for thrive, people have to actually BE THERE.

    As for the help you seem to think I'm not giving, I did give it. You just failed to see it, since you aren't invested in this community, Ed.

    http://princesspowers.xanga.com/2013/09/12/2-0-help-with-pics/

    Help with the comment moderation, as I indicated earlier in this comment feed:

    Step one: Hover as indicated in this pic (link) http://princesspowers.xanga.com/?attachment_id=294

    Step two: If you don't want to have to moderate all comments from your friends, uncheck this box (link) http://princesspowers.xanga.com/?attachment_id=359

    • Very good points. But to be honest here, I'm only one person - and am helping where i know I can. I know you've been helping as well.

      Thanks for the extra tips as well!

      I do think if we have more posts like those on Xanga sites - that would be GREAT! Then we can share them with folks through all channels we have!

      There are people wanting to use their xanga site more - and they ask questions via the facebook page. I'd love to use the facebook page to direct people to Xanga and Xangan pages... where the traffic and community really needs to be.

      Again, thanks for all you do.

  • Really appreciate your great help via email the last few days ~ solved my worst problem. May I know what is the name of Xanga Facebook page?

  • I've been here and helping all along, Ed. Because I've been invested.

    • I know you have, it's you've been a great help to several I've come across as well. We're just not through the biggest hurdle yet.

  • Yes, we can feel free to contact them through the email you just said was no longer working. Stellar.

  • Nobody get me wrong, I love Xanga, I'm probably one of, if not THE biggest cheerleader. I just want them to step UP and communicate or help. I'm doing my part. I've been doing my part. But man, guys, they have to stop with the "behind the scenes" crap and show their faces. Or we will no longer believe them.

    • I do concur. Until they peek out from the heavy work load - let's do what we can to help each other. After all, many of us have that vested interest in its success now.

  • "Heavy workload." That is an excuse. We aren't buying it any more.

  • Well, when I said thanks for your great help, I meant the help I received through THEIR email address ~ I stated that unclearly ~ maybe I still am, but whatever, I am grateful for the help ~

    • Either way - glad you got the help. Things are a bit crazy and everyone is trying to help everyone. Just glad the help was received. :)

  • Joel, thank you for this update. Have you heard anything more about the emails/IP addresses issue? I'm still willing to help with simple tutorials/user manual as needed (some of my early 2.0 posts were an attempt at such help).

    • My xanga/autisable e-mail is now working again.

      I will be talking with Marc again soon, and that is one thing that I'll be bringing up during our next conversation. It's an issue for many people, so I'm sure it's something that they already have tabled to update on 2.0.

      Thanks for posting some tutorials. I will be creating some posts and sharing posts that deal with how to navigate 2.0 over the next week or so.

      Once I get more information, I will pass it along as fast as I can.

  • Joel, those email/IP addresses are also a concern of mine ~ I really wish there was a way to shut those off ~ thanks for listening ~

  • Can we get a front page and subscription?

  • Good to know the team is working tirelessly and you too. My biggest issues are no forward/back buttons at the top of the page and no navigation at the bottom. Makes it difficult. This place is very different but I'm happy my old theme transferred over.

  • thanks for the pointers, guy!!!!!

  • The never answered yet always relevant question is why is XangaCorp not assigning an employee to be an official spokesperson of the company? THAT should be the person giving out periodic updates on the status of the SW and sharing issues and solutions sent to them.

    You've made it clear you are a volunteer and not a Xanga employee, but when you say that in defense of not being here to update, it only makes XangaCorp look that much worse.

    You should have been teamed with a Xanga employee from the very behinning, not left to be the sole spokesman where your activities on behalf of Xanga are based on your free time available rather than a company directive obligation or commitment.

    It goes beyond logic that no one steps in to handle day to day info as a focal point just because you're unavailable. So folks are left struggling in a vacuum with only other struggling users as guides.

    Before the changeover, both you and John assured folks that "Xanga WP" would be better than "free WP", but the current reality has "Xanga WP" running a very poor second to "free WP"- with ZERO updates from XangaCorp on how long people have to deal with this situation.

    Net traffic is dropping daily and every day of operating at this level more folks just write Xanga off and move on.

    It would be one thing if the site were free, but XangaCorp is charging people to blog on a site that is currently sub par by far to its free counterpart, and yet STILL thinks it's okay to just "do their thing", not give out updates, and keep users in the dark for weeks.

    In what reality would these actions be called acceptable?

    • Interesting perspective, but we have to continue to move forward. John and the Team want Xanga to be community driven. This has been the goal from the beginning. They want US XANGANS to take ownership of the site.

      Rather than focus on what is wrong, we are now getting the tools we need to do what we want to do with the site.

      Just because the team doesn't update as often as we do doesn't mean they aren't working. Each time I log in, I see a new feature - I see more Xangans coming on board... and I see more people getting acclimated to the new site.

      I've dealt with transitions before. There's always a valley of despair before things seriously improve.

      We're still in that transition.

  • Xanga 2.0 just ain't working out. Time to let it go. Everybody's gone so I get 1-2 posts a week in my reader. There's also no longer a front page or any ability to rec something (sorry @ShimmerBodyCream, I really wanted to rec or at least "Like", your tits but system limitations did not permit me to give them the recognition they deserve). It's basically a limited version of a free WordPress blog but they charge you for it.

    • Working great for me and many others. We're still in phase 2-3 of a four phase transition.

  • I agree with Soullfire. Now that they took money from people, they are on the hook to either produce results, or at least respect their paying customers enough to be transparent as opposed to "working 'hard' behind the scenes." This excuse has been played out for months, and quite frankly, nobody buys it anymore.

  • Dear Joel,

    I've been using my (so far) favorite page on "The New Xanga" : The "comments" page from Dashboard, to reconnect with a lot of confused, wary, yet brave Xangans who still post to and network on this service.

    A few of them have "stepped up" over the past difficult month, and have given the rest of us confused, wary Xangans some pointers on how to get around, how to maneuver, and how to connect with other Xangans. We, "the community" seem to have to do this. Xanga "Gods" don't seem to be willing or able to do so.

    Thank you for supplying the text to my Xangaforever post. I will repost this as a Xanga blog article,when I can find some more pointers.

    The main problem I, and a lot of Xangans have, is how to alert people that we've "replied" to a comment. This never used to be a big thing for me, but now that I can't do it, or figure out how to do it, and let people know, is bothering me terribly.

    We can "reply" to a comment from the "comment screen" (although not from the entry itself). When replying to a comment, this used to trigger either a notice to the Xangan's email or Xanga email account. I have to remember all the sites I've visited, because nothing "reminds" me someone has posted something as a comment which mentions me or replies to one of my comments.

    I'm sure this is something to do with 'trackback/pingback' but so far I've only been able to use this to supply a link to an entry telling that I've linked to that entry from another, not that I've replied to a comment.

    Xanga had a feature wherein one could type an "at" symbol from the keyboard in front of anyone's username and they would get notification that they had been "pinged". I can't find a similar feature in the New Xanga.

    Of course if I knew the WP platform (which I don't albeit it's been around for some time on the internet, you'll have to forgive me, I was blogging on Xanga at the time.) I'd possibly know more about how to manipulate the program.

    I'd like to thank fellow Xangans Slmret and Adamswomanslost for giving me some of the "pointers" I supplied in my "tutorial."

    And, just to mention, since you "apologized" at least once on the Xangaforever group when I wrote about the "cheerleaders" disappearing. I wasn't "singling" you out. I was just making a point about how some of us are merely trying to make sense of a platform we are not sure of, cannot make sense of, and don't know why some things which we think of as "standard equipment' we can't find or don't know where to look. I find this a great disappointment, and I'm sure others do as well.

    Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

    (and decade old Xangan)

    • Thank you, Michael for all of your encouragement and for sharing any information you can pass along.

      In order for Xanga to improve as we all move forward, it will take those who 'step-up' to make it happen.

      Thanks for documenting some other concerns as well - this is all good information we need to make sure the Xanga team receives so they know we expect these as part of this platform.

  • Dear Joel,
    About #5. I got a comment from another Xangan on the Xangaforever group which indicated that one can "turn off" the moderation announcement about approving comments.

    Advanced (on the left toolbar)
    Discussion Settings
    "Before a comment appears" <-- unselect the "an administrator must always approve a comment"

    MFN/ppf

  • go away...I mean...how do I unsub from your weird self? HA!

    Sail on... sail on!!!

  • "John and the Team want Xanga to be community driven. This has been the goal from the beginning. They want US XANGANS to take ownership of the site."

    Uh, I'm sure you realize that it's one thing to take ownership of a site that is at least functioning at an acceptable level versus prototype or alpha-test state. Are you saying that Xanga's idea of "Taking ownership" means just making due with whatever is "dished out" , whether it's working or not and not complaining to them about it? Expecting XangaCorp to update the status and issues on at least a WEEKLY BASIS (should be higher freq) is asking too much?

    Let me ask you this - where do you think Xanga's responsibilities end and the community (what's left of it) begins?

    How can "The Community" be expected to band together when users have no front page or common meeting ground area other than submitting "help" questions that is already overflowing? You mentioned going to "facebook" in another reply, but doesn't the need to do that represent a big fail on Xanga to need to use ANOTHER SYSTEM to communicate?

    "Just because the team doesn’t update as often as we do doesn’t mean they aren’t working."

    I believe you're missing the point. The main issue most have isn't with whether XangaCorp is working behind the scenes or not, but the unacceptable level of updates they get- leaving them to basically fend for themselves in the dark. You understand this isn't a "free" service anymore right? People have paid, and as such, they DESERVE to be treated as paying customers rather than "It's free so just accept what you get" philosophy- that is unless your goal is to drive customers away.

    "Each time I log in, I see a new feature – I see more Xangans coming on board… and I see more people getting acclimated to the new site."

    Seriously? No offense, but what is the color of the sky on your planet? I suppose if you log in once every 5 days to a week or so, you "might" see some discernible updates but to to suggest a more rapid pace of improvements is off the rails.

    As for seeing more people come on board and getting acclimated, are you looking at net traffic measurements- because it paints a completely opposite picture. Traffic is dropping daily and is now reaching less than 300 people a day visiting the site- from a high of 1800+ when the site just reopened. Compare that to 80K+ for Xanga 1.0

    You don't really need to look at net stats to understand the low traffic problem- peoples "sub/follow" lists offer the same result with a slow drip of comments that get fewer and fewer updates as people use the system less and less.

    Is it too much to ask that folks get a check list of where the SW stands and what the resolution status is on a periodic time frame of a week or less? How about a bulletin of what works and what doesn't with workarounds?

    If yours and Xanga's stance to those questions are it's up to "the community" to figure these things out ala passing the buck and taking NO ACCOUNTABILITY to satisfy COMMUNITY NEEDS as is currently indicated, the writing of the future of this site is clearly on the wall.

    After a certain time frame of diminishing returns a "we're in transition" statement no longer cuts the mustard.

  • Hi Joel,

    It is good to see you here after some absence. I hope things are settling down in your personal life. Thank you for your post. I am so happy that all my archives are transferred along with my pictures. Yay. I think I am doing well here, with just a few questions. IE:
    1. will we be able to rec a post?
    2. Will we be ale to 'reply' on our Xanga site to the comments we receive instead of through the dashboard?
    3. I have sponsored an old xangan friend to be able to post and be part of the Xanga 2.0 group. He had not paid for it initially, but since I had pledged for some others earlier, I told John to kindly include him (jsolburg)if possible. Will that be possible. I am asking you this question because John hasn't replied to me.

    Thank you for all that you are doing. Appreciate the help. It would be so good to be able to post an entry and be completely free of worries like we used to before.

  • Thanks for providing a place to ask questions and even some pointers. I am also missing the ways in which people used to connect- front page, search, blogrings, recs, tags and pulse was good too. I deleted my old site and now I am a bit lost. A lot of people simply left. I suppose I am still hopeful that Xanga will get better in time.

    • Transitions are always tough, especially one like this that involves so many people and their specific accounts.

      Glad to help where I can.

  • Btw, using iphone5 I can't even read most people's sites because it just says the date and title of their post. The rest of the internet works fine though. Hopefully they're aware of this as it prohibits a lot of traffic from viewing the site.

  • I am a critter of habit but I will get use to this new habit

  • I was going to ask some questions I had about Xanga but with no way of knowing you replied to my comment it's not worth it.

  • I'm really trying my best to be patient, positive, helpful, and hopeful about 2.0... but this total lack of communication direct from the Team isn't really helping much.

  • Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against
    hackers? I'm kinda paranoid about losing everything I've worked hard on.
    Any recommendations?

    • We're good about dealing with hackers. However, it's encouraged to create and download your archives on a regular basis as a back up of your content.

      Of course, the team is always open if anyone has any suggestions regarding plugins or anything associated with the safety and security of the site and it's content.

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