@edlives:

You are clearly changing your policy as you have never stated all comments will be held for review/response before posting. And actually you are still allowing comments to be posted before you respond, just not the one I submitted. So yes, you are censoring my comments and also discriminating against me as you are singling out which comments to hide "for later review at your discretion".

For two years, the condition of Xanga has remained largely the same. As progress and updates failed to happen - I voiced concerns, which you regard as complaints. So are you saying that one shouldn't keep noting problems when nothing changes in the way of major progress or even the simplest continual update as to what is going on?

You do a good job at blaming the victim. Cool Monkey, Skanlyn, myself and anyone else who rightfully voices concerns, are just castigated as "troublemakers/whiners". Meanwhile, very little if anything changes.

You claim you've reached out to me to offer to help to make things better, and that I've refused. What does that even mean? Again, the software is dysfunctional and needs updating. John or some Xanga employee needs to update people here on a regular basis as to what the status and schedule is. What can anyone do to improve things outside of Xanga employees?

It's like we're in Bizarro world where everything is reversed. When you take your car to the shop for repairs and never get any status on progress despite a long time passing- do you just sit idly by for as long as it takes and say nothing, or do you ask for an update? What if no updates come after that- do you remain silent then, or do you ask again? I think you will continue to ask until you get some answers right?

Now they ask you why do you keep asking the same question over and over, and what are YOU doing to help. Does that make sense to you? Putting the burden on people who are complaining about the state of the software and no updates is equally absurd.

Why should we not remain critical when we don't even get the courtesy of simple periodic updates of the schedule and status?

I level criticism at you as well, because you are NOT acting as a liaison, but a defender of their actions. Rather than remain neutral and just pass on information, or state none is available, you justify their actions by saying they are personal issues to attend, or some other reason as to why we get no response month after month after month.

What does "compassion" or "understanding" have to do with not getting any kind of response to updates for over 6 months that shortly followed a previous blackout that lasted over a YEAR? Yet, you're labeling me as the bad person in this.

No one can win with you- if they remain silent- nothing happens. If they complain periodically because nothing is happening they get branded as non team players not willing to help- although how they could help is anyone's guess.

How many more YEARS do we wait before we are allowed to post additional concerns? Meanwhile - better keep that $48/yr coming if you want to continue blogging- no allowances for delays on that...

@edlives: As you have repeated, you don't work at Xanga, and are waiting for one of the Xanga employees to respond.

What would be the point taking this offline when the person when it's Xanga we need to hear from?

I am only voicing the concern of most folks here who have been waiting patiently. As such wouldn't the response be better suited here rather than offline?

Now if you wish to set up a meeting with one of the Xanga employees, I'd be more than happy to hear them out offline.

@edlives: Thanks for posting and responding to my initial comment.

I understand the situation you are in- as someone who is working with Xanga on another project (Autisable), you have to moderate between complaints/concerns coming from users without being able to join in with raising any pitchforks.

Like I said, I've been in similar positions so I can commiserate with the balancing act needed and the difficulty that goes with it.

Since I also work in systems and software, and have operate in all the stages of SW design and release, with that comes expectations of what information we should be receiving from Xanga during this time.

I admit my comments have been increasing in directness, but that is in response to the continued lack of company feedback. I've had customers respond mush worse over relative minor delays. Considering the length of delays we are experiencing, I rate my responses as fairly tame.

I'm looking at the timeline of activities, and from a business standpoint, Xanga continues to shoot itself which reduces any hope of reclaiming the old community. It didn't appear anyone was all that concerned with the time dragging out which added to my frustration.

I understand problems can arise with SW or personnel that can lead to delays, but transparency is key in maintaining good relations.

If they were still a free service, they would have every right to run it as they see fit, but when they had a pledge drive and started charging for services, they became a true professional business and along with that have new responsibilities.

My blogs have centered on economics and business injustice, so Xanga's lack of adequate updates after holding a pledge drive easily got my attention.

So what do you do when you believe you are witnessing someone destroy something everyone thought was special and no one seems all that concerned? The follow up response tends to get increasingly loud and sharp, which is what I and some others have done.

To be honest, I never dreamed we would be in a situation of virtual abandonment where the company is absent save for a few updates to someone that doesn't directly work for them. It seems surreal that a company that created such a prior good product, shared its concerns with the group with a request for donations, would not understand the need to keep everyone in the loop as to the schedule timeline and status, with the current SW in such a bad state. It's been said it feels like a betrayal, and I would have to agree. I mean, no updates for an entire year? It's unreal!

So when I feel you are defending their actions, you become them by proxy and my critique on what I consider indefensible actions may catch you in the crossfire.

Without getting an update, clearly we can all assume they've run into unanticipated issues which is causing these delays.

I expect no more from you or Xanga that I would of myself if I were in a similar situation - just tell it like it is. My ire is raised when I feel we the customer are being disrespected with a refusal to honor promised commitments and whenever complaints are voiced- you appear to represent Xanga's interests way more than those of the customers. I apologize if I seem overly harsh, but I feel it's important to make clear that the customers were sold on new features and services that have so far not materialized. I know you were just repeating what you were told by Xanga, but I'm sure you can understand the frustration when we were sold on a luxury building, only to get a leaky fixer upper for an extended time, and neither you nor Xanga seemed willing to address the disconnect of where we are relative to what was promised.

I realize you have agreed with most of my critiques, but until Xanga responds as they said they would, its a broken feedback loop.

IMO, they would have been far better off keeping the old software and charging for that instead....just make some type of premium sub mandatory. Then have the fundraiser to pay for the renewal of the lease area where the servers were held, which is what prompted the action in the first place.